Repentance-a Living Experience

Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don't start saying to yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father," for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones.! Luke 2:8

John was preaching a gospel of repentance to a group of people who believed that having Abraham as their father was enough. It is like saying, for example: "the American people have 'in God we trust on our money therefore we are safe.' Or a church goer saying, "I am safe because I turn up to church every week". When living a life of faith in Christ is required in all cases.

It is not even sufficient to say, "I invited Christ into my life at 16", and not live as a Christian.

We cannot excuse ourselves from the need for repentance. I need to repent daily, I need to carry an awareness of God that causes me to repent and want His way of doing things.

Salvation is a living, vital, on-going experience and it bears fruit. John went on to give examples to the crowd of the fruit of repentance: not ignoring the poor; not taking more than we should; being satisfied with our wages, we could add more, those examples that Christ gave: forgiving those who sinned against us 70 x 7; not harbouring anger in our heats; not lusting after another man or woman; honouring our mother and father.