"By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit."

• One could readily think that faith alone is important to the Lord and that one need not look to one's works (lifestyle).
• The other extreme is also possible and that one may believe that faith is not that important as long as your lifestyle (works) is of a high quality.

• The correct position consists of a blend of a living faith and good deeds.
• Your faith must spontaneously be demonstrated in your good deeds.
• The one cannot be without the other, and the one cannot be severed from the other.

• The answer is NO.
• It is true that through the blood of Christ we were redeemed and liberated.
• But it is also true that by the Spirit of God we were renewed to His image.

• Jesus' good works were all directed at the glory of God and the redemption of the faithful.
• If you have been renewed to the image of Christ it means that you are not indifferent to the redemption and that you will realise your responsibility towards your Redeemer.
• It means that you will follow the Lord Jesus also in doing good works.

• The good tree refers to the true believer and his good fruits are the good works flowing spontaneously from his faith in the Lord.
• Observe the image again because something is put very clearly - the good tree bears good fruit.
• The good fruit is produced because the tree is good.
• It is not that the tree is bad and bears good fruit so that it may become good.
• It is not that the tree wants to earn something.
• Its fruit are a reflection of what it is.  In John 15:8 Jesus puts it clearly that God the Father is glorified by the fact that we bear fruit.

"This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:8 n.i.v.)

• If Christ then with His life and His death - excepting the fact that He liberated us from our sins - glorified the Lord, then we must do the same, because it is through the good works of Christ that we are made able to do so.

• Firstly, we do them to the glory of God.
• Secondly, we do them for the salvation of our neighbour.

• The certainty of our belief is demonstrated in our good works.
• If you are in your heart convinced of your faith it will show spontaneously in your lifestyle.
• The Cathechism says that a desire is aroused in you to obey the Commandments.
• You then experience a definite willingness to practise God's justice.
• This spontaneous desire to do what pleases the Lord is nothing but obedience.
• This honest lifestyle is then used by the Holy Spirit to renew other people and to lead them to repentance.
• Our lives then become guides for a crooked and misguided generation. Consider the words of Philippians 2:15:
  "So that you may become blameless and pure, Children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." (Philippians 2:15 N.I.V.)
•  That is why we believe that our good works can also be evangelical because they can draw our neighbour to repentance.

• It is because these people with their lifestyle show that the true image of God is lacking in them.
• Their life as a thanksgiving to God shows a total lack of gratitude - in fact their lives show sin and rebellion.
• In Biblical language:
• they lack sanctification;
• their lives show that they have broken with God.

• Therefore every believer should in examining himself ask the question: Do I truly believe?
• And if the answer is yes, then his life must prove it.  Then his faith must be supported by his works.

• The Holy Spirit makes us realise that we are imperfect and that we greatly need a Redeemer.
• Every sermon made under the guidance of the Holy Spirit confirms the grace in this issue, namely that Christ in his atoning sacrifice atoned our sins with the wrath of God.  We have complete forgiveness of all the mistakes we make.

• He confirms always that He will guide us and rule over us so that we may continuously be renewed into the image of Christ.
• He confirms that we shall live a life of repentance in which we break with those sins we still have.
• He confirms that we shall persevere in good works with which we glorify and thank the Lord for His salvation.

"But someone will say: "you have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." (James 2:18 N.I.V.)