Withered Fruit - Twice Dead

Greg

To be converted is to enter through the door of salvation, but one must continue to follow Christ and not fall away to be saved in the end. Though some teach that one moment of intellectual assent toward Christ, or even one genuine moment of submission to Christ, is all that is needed to guarantee eternal life at the resurrection, no matter how one lives after that one moment in time, I believe the scriptures clearly teaches otherwise. Consider the parable of the soils in Luke 8:4-15 (NRSV):

When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.’

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.”

This parable addresses different responses to the gospel and the different paths that people take after first submitting to Christ. Only the first soil is described as not producing faith when the seed falls upon it. These hear the word, but they do not believe and thus are not saved.  Belief is clearly connected to salvation.

The second group receives the word with joy, and for a while they believe, but in time of temptation, they fall away. The same word that is clearly connected to salvation is used here – they believe. No distinction is made in the meaning of belief, only that those in the first group do not believe, and those in the second group do believe. However, after believing, these fall away in times of difficulty. The Christian life is filled with tribulations, temptations, and trials. Many fall away because the road becomes too difficult, and they find it easier to go along with the ways of the world around them. The point here is, they believe, and their belief has them on the narrow way that leads to life, but later they fall away.

The third group hears the word, and they go forth. They go forth, but they become choked with the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life and their fruit does not mature. Fruit is present before it reaches maturity. The Lord did not say these people produce no fruit; he said their fruit does not mature.  According to the KJV, their fruit does not reach perfection. They start living as a believer, which results in the beginnings of fruit, but they do not reach the stage of maturity.  They do not perfect holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1), which is required for them to see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him (Colossians 1:21-22 NRSV).

This is the purpose and goal in walking on the narrow path: for us to be holy and unblameable and irreproachable, or unreproveable, in his sight. Salvation has a beginning with a specific end in mind, just as a plant goes from seed to the beginnings of fruit and for that fruit to come to maturation, or perfection, until the time of harvest. When a person first believes, he is saved, because he is on the narrow path that leads to life. Walking on the narrow path leads to the beginnings of fruit, then the maturation of the fruit, then to ultimate salvation if one continues to the end. But a person can abandon the narrow path before his fruit is brought to perfection. If a man is lost in the ocean during a storm, and a ship, representing the way to eternal life, comes along and throws him a lifesaving raft, when the man grabs the raft, he is “saved.” But he is not yet in the ship and he must continue in the raft. As the raft is being pulled toward the ship, the man can let go before he gets to safety. After Paul wrote the above to the Colossians, notice the condition he sets forth:

“…provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel (Colossians 1:23 NRSV).

The King James Version translators rendered it this way:  

If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister (Colossians 1:21). 

You must continue in the faith to perfect holiness, to be unblameable and unreproveable, to be conformed to the image of Christ.  You may have grabbed the lifesaving raft one day, but you must keep yourself in the raft, you cannot let go because you want to stop along the way for other reasons. For those who claim we do not “keep ourselves” safe, or "that we do not hang on to him he hangs on to us" only God does the keeping, I offer you the scriptures against this opinion. Jude wrote:

…keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life (Jude 1:21 NRSV). 

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (Jude 1:21 KJV).

Most certainly, God's grace accompanies us as we walk the life of faith, but we can become proud and God will resist us (James 4:6) and we can separate ourselves from him (Galatians 5:4).  As we follow Christ, no one or anything can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39), but we can forsake Christ, we can cease to abide in him (John 15:6) and be cut off (Romans 11:22).

The final group receives the word and with honest and good hearts they keep it, and they bring forth fruit with patience. These are the believers that endure the tribulations, temptations, and trials that line the path of Christ’s followers as they walk in enemy territory, and they bring fruit to perfection, some in different amounts than others.  But I must ask the question: does bringing fruit to perfection guarantee final salvation? Or can we bring forth fruit to perfection and then fall away?

In the Book of Jude, Jude reminds his readers of the following:

Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe (Jude 1:5 NRSV).

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not (Jude 1:5 KJV).

Escaping Egypt through believing did not guarantee that they would continue to follow God, and God afterward destroyed those that believed not. Jude mentioned those “that separate themselves” (vs. 19, KJV) but encouraged his readers to “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

Speaking of the ungodly, Jude said:

These are blemishes on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted (Jude 1:12 NRSV).

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots (Jude 1:12 KJV).

If fruit is the evidence of salvation, does bearing fruit mean that a person is unconditionally eternally secure? Here we encounter the word "wither" that the Lord used as recorded in John 15:6.

Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned (John 15:6 NRSV).

If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned (John 15:6 KJV).   
 
Jude speaks of those whose fruit withers.  They had fruit, the evidence of salvation, but the fruit withered, resulting in them having no fruit, and to emphasize the meaning, Jude calls them twice dead.  How can living people be twice dead?

They were dead in trespasses in sin, then they became followers of Christ, then they died the death of apostasy and are separated from God again, this time turned over to a reprobate mind and cut off.  They wither.  Eternal destruction is their destiny. 

Some have been taught that a follower of Jesus can’t be cut off from him, ever, for any reason.  How would they interpret these scriptures? Might the believer whose fruit withered be the one who started in the faith but fell away from Christ before reaching maturity? Can one reach this point of perfecting holiness in the fear of God and then fall away?  Either way, fruit was produced but it withered.  That should get our attention.

We must press forward in the name of Christ.  We must not rest on a religious experience we had in the past.  Yesterday is over, what matters is today.  If we have erred, we must repent.  He will forgive us if we confess and forsake our sin.  We must come to an end of ourselves and follow him, today.