Introduction

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 15 very beautifully contain all the subject material of my speech. In the text there is the living union of the elect child of God to Jesus Christ; and as a result of that union, there is a bringing forth of much fruit. Apart from the believer’s union with Christ, the believer can do nothing. Further, if a man is not united to Christ, then he will bear no fruit and will be gathered and cast into the fire and burned. The elect sinner is engrafted into the vine, Jesus Christ, from whom flows all salvation and blessedness. In him is our redemption, the forgiveness of sins, the adoption unto children, eternal and perfect righteousness, the knowledge and wisdom of God, freedom from the dominion and pollution of sin, eternal life, and joy. All the blessings of our salvation are not only merited by Christ, but they are also exclusively in him. Outside Christ there is no blessing, salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, sanctification, or eternal life but only death, destruction, and hell.

This idea of union with Christ is not foreign to the scriptures and the confessions. Lord’s Day 7 calls this union an engrafting into Christ.

Q. 20. Are all men then, as they perished in Adam, saved by Christ?

A. No, only those who are ingrafted into Him, and receive all His benefits by a true faith. (Confessions and Church Order, 90)

Lord’s Day 24 calls this union an implanting. Answer 70 of Lord’s Day 26 says that we are “sanctified to be members of Christ.” Lord’s Day 28, in explaining what it means to eat and drink Christ in the Lord’s supper, teaches that it is to “become more and more united to His sacred body by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both in Christ and in us.” Belgic Confession article 22 states, “Faith is an instrument that keeps us in communion with Him in all His benefits, which, when become ours, are more than sufficient to acquit us of our sins” (Confessions and Church Order, 107, 109, 113, 50). And Christ speaks of this union in John 15:5 when he says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.”

Jesus Christ draws a picture for us to explain this union. He says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” The figure is that of a twig or branch engrafted into a tree or vine. The engrafted branch becomes one organism with the tree to which it is engrafted and from which the branch receives all its life-sap. The branches receive all the life of the vine, and the result is that there is fruit. The grapevine lives, and the life of the vine produces clusters of grapes through the branches. Such is the illustration of Jesus Christ in John 15. He compares the relationship between himself and believers to that of the vine and the branches.

The issue is that we are not natural branches of the vine, Jesus Christ, nor can we join ourselves to Christ. In Adam, as our legal and organic head, the entire human race died when Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God judged man with death as surely as he had said in the garden. All men, including us by nature, belong to the dead tree of Adam, in which there is no life or possibility of life. An engrafting must take place. We must be taken out of the dead tree of Adam and placed into abiding communion with the living tree, Jesus Christ. As long as we are in Adam, we are dead in trespasses and sins. And we cannot, will not, and cannot will to join ourselves to Christ. Man cannot engraft himself into the true vine.

The branches need to be grafted. One cannot take a dead twig, stick it in the ground, and hope that it will show life and sprout leaves and bring forth fruit. It will not. A child playing in the yard can take a stick and put it in the dirt, but it will never become alive. The dead twig needs to be bonded to a vine that is alive and has a root system to bring in water and nutrients to the twig. Neither can the dead branch engraft itself into the living tree. The whole work of engrafting is an act of God. The sinner is entirely passive in this work. That is true in nature. A dead stick needs someone to join that branch to a living tree. The farmer must cut the branch out, trim it, prepare the site, place the branch, wrap it, and tend to it.

The wonder of grace of joining us to Christ is the gift of faith. Faith is the means or instrument whereby we are united with Christ and made one body, plant, and organism; and by faith we live out of Christ, draw everything from him, and receive all our salvation in him alone. That union with Christ is faith. Faith is an engrafting into Jesus Christ. A graft is a bond. The dead branch must be bonded and placed into abiding communion with the living tree. That union and communion is the essence of our salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:30: “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” Christ is become that unto us because we are in him.

Jesus Christ speaks about that union to himself: “He that abideth in me, and I in him.” Jesus Christ is in the believer, and the believer is in Jesus Christ. We are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. We are one flesh with him. He is the head, and his elect people are his body. He is in us, and we are in him by the Holy Spirit, who is the author of our faith. Faith is the Holy Spirit’s book. He is the author of that book. He conceived of that book, wrote it, and puts his stamp on that book, to which no man can add his own words.

Election stands as the source of this union. Christ speaks of that in John 15:16: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” God appointed, chose, and ordained a people in Jesus Christ. That is election. In election God united you to the true vine. Election stands as the root, fountain, and ground of every saving benefit, including your union to the mediator, Jesus Christ. Election demands the calling of God by his living and powerful voice, which gives faith. Because of that election, God graciously bestowed the gift of faith on his people before they ever did one good deed.

By faith we appropriate all the merits, satisfaction, and righteousness of God in the flesh. By means of faith, we are imputed the righteousness of Jesus Christ apart from our works. Christ lives in us, and living in us the same brings forth much fruit. Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Inevitable Fruit

Fruit is not a term that man made, dreamed, or conjured up, but the term fruit is theologically precise, scriptural, and confessional. Fruit is a word to explain the life of gratitude of the believer who is joined to Christ. The phrase in the way of is not a precise term. In fact it has become a loaded term to sow confusion about a simple topic in the whole scheme of Reformed doctrine. You do not need the phrase in the way of to explain the truth of the life of thanksgiving. Using the phrase in the way of, one can drive a whole truckload of false doctrine into the heart of the gospel, justification by faith alone. But the term fruit properly explains the role of good works and the relationship of good works to salvation and the covenant. Belgic Confession article 24 speaks of the fruit of faith and that it is impossible that this holy faith be unfruitful in man. In John 15 fruit is the inevitable, divine result of union with Christ.

This fruit is the believer’s life of good works performed in gratitude to God—namely, repentance, prayer as the chief expression of thankfulness, and obedience to God’s law. Good works are those that proceed from a true faith and are performed according to the law of God and to God’s glory. Good works and the life of gratitude are the fruits of faith or the fruits of our union with Christ. Christ’s life flows through the branches, and fruit is produced.

That the believer brings forth fruit is inevitable. It is impossible that the believer does not produce fruit. This is confessional. Defending the doctrine of justification by faith alone, Lord’s Day 24 asks,

Q. 64. But doth not this doctrine make men careless and profane?

A. By no means; for it is impossible that those who are implanted into [united to] Christ by a true faith should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness. (Confessions and Church Order, 107)

And Lord’s Day 32 asks,

Q. 86. Since then we are delivered from our misery merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works?

A. Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit after His own image; that so we may testify by the whole of our conduct our gratitude to God for His blessings. (Confessions and Church Order, 120, emphasis added)

It is impossible that we do not bring forth fruit. It is inevitable and automatic that fruit springs forth out of faith.

And the fruit that each branch brings forth is according to the nature of the branch. Christ is the living vine, and the fruits produced through the branches are according to the time, place, circumstance, and person that God has eternally determined for each individual believer. The good works ordained and prepared for me will be different than the good works prepared for my wife. If a farmer grafts an avocado branch into an orange tree, the branch does not bring forth oranges, but it produces avocados. And keep in mind the massive diversity of the body of Christ. God did not make us all lookalikes in gifts and abilities, but the unity of the church of all ages consists in her remarkable, astoundingly rich diversity. No two members have the same gifts, abilities, personalities, and temperaments. As such, God has prepared fruit for each member of Christ that each should walk in that fruit.

We are filled with fruit. Philippians 1:11 states: “Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” We receive these good works through the mediator, Jesus Christ. He fills us with fruits of righteousness. To be filled is passive. God fills up his people through Christ, the mediator. Christ had to earn those good works for us to do. Jesus Christ strikes the same note in John 15:5: “For without me ye can do nothing.” Our good works are Jesus Christ’s good works. Without the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no fruit. It is only by the power of the Spirit and through faith that we receive all the good works that we will ever and can ever do. Christ works in us and through us, and the fruit that is produced must all be ascribed to God.

One might challenge that and say, “Are you not making man a stock and a block if you say that our good works are Jesus’ good works?” The opponent continues, “If they are Jesus Christ’s works, if he works them by his Spirit, if he gives them, and if you say that you are only an instrument, then that denies that you do them. You actually must do those good works!”

Canons 3–4.12 answers the opponent,

Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active. Wherefore also, man is himself rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of that grace received. (Confessions and Church Order, 169)

The answer is that God works in his rational, moral creatures according to their natures. If God wanted to move a block from one side of a room to the other, he would simply push it. The block’s nature is such that to push it is the way for it to be moved. If God wanted to move a marionette to the other side of a room, God would use his hands to manipulate the strings of the puppet. But man’s nature is such that he is a rational, moral, volitional creature. God works according to that nature as he created man. God does not push us like a block. He does not manipulate us like a string puppet. But God works by his grace out of the principle of regeneration upon the will and mind of man so that the will becomes active. We perform these good works, but only because God works on us by his grace according to who we are as rational, moral, volitional creatures.

Yet these good works are never meritorious, the way unto anything, the ground or reason for a blessing, or necessary unto salvation in any sense, whether objectively or subjectively in the hearts and lives of God’s people. Works are fruits of thankfulness. Thankfulness and merit are antithetical opposites. Thanksgiving is not paying someone back. Thanksgiving is not doing something in return. What shall I render unto Jehovah for all his benefits toward me? What can you give to God that he does not give to you? God in his sovereign grace gave you salvation in your Lord Jesus Christ. God in love and strict justice sent Christ to die for his enemies. Uniting you to Christ, God justifies an ungodly sinner and makes you to live. And he gives to you even your life of good works, the inevitable fruit that he has prepared for you. You must thank him even for your life of thanksgiving.

The believer’s life of gratitude and good works is his part in the covenant. That God gives each of us a part is an awesome privilege. We do not always live in the consciousness that it is a glorious privilege to do good works. We are reminded of this part in the third doctrinal section of the Form for the Administration of Baptism, which says, “Whereas in all covenants there are contained two parts, therefore are we by God, through baptism, admonished of and obliged unto new obedience.” The baptism form explains this new obedience, “namely, that we cleave to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that we trust in Him, and love Him with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our mind, and with all our strength; that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a new and holy life” (Confessions and Church Order, 258). God gives fruit not that we now take that fruit and stand alongside him as a party, but he gives each of us a part in the one party of the living God. Our parts are our lives of thanksgiving in loving God and the neighbor, living antithetically over against God’s enemies, repenting and crucifying our old natures, and walking before God as his friends in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

That fruit is the “whole of our conduct” of Lord’s Day 32, by which we show our gratitude to God for his blessings and which includes our speech, actions, and relationships to one another and relationships to others outside the church. We live before the face of God always, never able to section off a part of our lives as members of the covenant, dwelling in his tabernacle and praising, worshiping, and glorifying him now and forevermore. Christ has in mind the covenant when he says, “Ye are my friends” (John 15:14). God is our friend-sovereign, and we are his friend-servants. Good works are his gifts to us. They are determined by him, come from him, are worked by him in his grace, and are given to us to walk in them.

Function and Place of Good Works

Good works have a distinct function and place. First, good works are the purpose of our salvation. The purpose of God’s saving us is that we do good works. Consider the spiritual picture Christ draws for us in John 15. Why does the vigneron plant a vineyard? Why does the farmer plant all those orange trees? Why does he tend to them? Why does he cut off the dead branches and graft those branches on living trees? The purpose is the fruit of the vine. Jesus Christ redeemed a people and consecrated a people unto himself, zealous of good works. The believer loves good works! He eagerly and excitedly delights to perform them. He does them out of burning love for God and his glory. Good works are God’s purpose in uniting you to Christ.

Second, God eternally determined to glorify himself through us as his instruments. That is all the believer is in the hand of his covenant God. God is pleased to display his handiwork before the whole world. His purpose is that fruit is brought forth, and in that God receives all the glory. Ephesians 2:10: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (emphasis added). God has created us unto good works, that we might walk in them. We are elected in Christ from all eternity, along with all the works that we will ever do, for the purpose of glorifying God. That is the sole purpose of good works. It is not simply a purpose or the chief purpose, but the only purpose of good works is to glorify and praise God.

Third, good works are the demonstrations of our faith. There is the provocative statement in James that we are “justified by works.”

21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

24. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? (James 2:21, 24–25)

This justification by works is not the verdict of the living God that we are righteous before him by faith alone in Christ. That verdict is perfect, once, and complete, and not a single good work can add to it; neither can one evil work take away from it. But “justified” in James 2 means demonstration. Your faith is demonstrated by good works and fruit. This is the same sense in which Christ speaks in John 15:10, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” You say that you have faith. I say that I have faith. Show me your faith. I will show you my faith. True faith, union with Christ, always produces good fruit. There is no such thing as true faith that does not produce fruit. A branch that produces no fruit reveals itself as reprobate and one that must and will be cut away and cast into the fire. The reason that faith produces fruit is because faith’s object is the living Christ who reigns by his Word and Spirit. And that living Lord operates by his Spirit. Therefore, there will be fruit.

Fourth, God will judge men according to works, whether evil fruit or good fruit. Belgic Confession article 37 testifies, “Then the books (that is to say, the consciences) shall be opened, and the dead judged according to what they shall have done in this world, whether it be good or evil” (Confessions and Church Order, 77). There will be a great day of judgment when God will declare himself as God before the entire rational, moral world. You will not come into the judgment and bring up your fruit. God will. God will take a terrible sinner to heaven on the ground of Christ’s righteousness alone. God will demonstrate that sinner’s faith before the whole world. It will be a judgment according to works. There God will bring up those works that are in harmony with the judge’s verdict of righteousness. God will be justified. He will show himself to be perfectly righteous in his salvation of his elect and perfectly righteous in the damnation of the reprobate. In that God’s name alone will be praised and glorified.

Fifth, good works are a necessary fruit. That is the force of the “must” in Lord’s Day 32. Good works are necessary as a result of the redemption and deliverance of the elect sinner and his renewal in the image of God. Good works are as necessary as the light being called into existence. When God said, “Let there be light,” the light was. It is inconceivable—rather, blasphemous—to suggest that the light could withstand the voice of the almighty God. So also the believer, as God determined in his grace to redeem and renew him, will bring forth good works and a life of gratitude. We must, will, can, and may do good works. The “must” of Lord’s Day 32 is not about you. The “must” is about God and what he works in his grace. The “must” is a divine must, rooted in God’s eternal decree of election.

When we say that good works are necessary, we do not mean that good works can merit or earn a thing. You cannot hinge some benefit of salvation on those good works. It is not in the way of your law-keeping and good works that you gain the experience of salvation, enjoyment of covenant fellowship, or deeper assurance. You cannot hinge any blessing of God on your fruit for the reason, as the prophet Isaiah states, that even your righteousnesses are as dirty, menstrual rags. The best works that the believer performs are all dirty as soon as they touch the believer’s totally depraved nature, which is corrupt, wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness.

You must confess that good works cannot merit, or you are left with the idea that God rewards man’s imperfect obedience. That is true of repentance too; you cannot hang the forgiveness of sins or assurance of justification on repentance for the simple reason that you do not repent perfectly. Who can say that he has repented perfectly? The repentance of the believer is sincere. Repentance springs from the perfect principle of the new life within the believer. But how often does not the believer hold back something from God and keep a little sin for himself? And into that sin again he will fall, only to be turned again to God to confess that sin in sincere, heartfelt repentance. Only the proudest Pharisee would dare to hang a thing on his repentance. Repentance can only be a fruit of faith, as it is a part of the life of gratitude given by God to the believer (LD 33).

The confession of salvation by grace alone in Christ does not set aside the law as the rule and guide of our thankful lives. Nor does that confession deny the necessity of good works and the commands of God’s law. The church that holds good works in their proper place and function upholds and establishes the law, according to Romans 3:30–31, which states:

30. Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

31. Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

The church preaches the law strictly, not as the way unto salvation or for a blessing of salvation, but that we might more and more know our sinful natures and thus become more and more earnest in seeking the remission of sins and righteousness in Christ. The believer smites himself for sin that was previously done in ignorance (Rom. 7:7). He sides with God over against himself and sin. You do not make a holy people and a holy church by preaching the law. Preaching the law never made a single person holy, and it never will. The gospel preaching of free forgiveness and perfect righteousness in the blood and merits of Christ is the only way by which God consecrates a holy people unto himself. The gospel alone is the motivation of the believer to be zealous of good works.

Sixth, good works have one singular place. They always must be kept in that proper place. The place they hold is indicated by the word fruit. Fruit is only ever fruit. Fruit never becomes something more than that. The fruit never becomes the graft that unites the believer to Christ. The graft is faith and union with Christ. Neither is the fruit the life of the vine. The vine draws no benefit from the fruit. The fruit does not give anything back to the vine. The vine is Christ. The wild branches grafted in are God’s elect. The graft itself is faith. The fruits are good works. Fruit must always remain in the place that God determined for it. Fruit has a glorious place, but it always must remain in its proper place as fruit.

A False Charge

The Reformed Protestant Churches are charged by the Protestant Reformed Churches as being law-hating, rebellious antinomians. That is patently false. We will be perfectly clear. What we deny is that good works in any way obtain some blessing of salvation in man’s experience. We confess the truth of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. The doctrine of justification by faith alone does not make men careless and profane. If there is a careless and profane man, the problem is not with the doctrine, but the problem is with the man. The redeemed and renewed elect believer will inevitably do good works. He will bring forth fruit.

It matters a great deal who makes the charge of antinomianism. If the charge comes from one who truly confesses the truth of justification by faith alone, then the charge holds some weight. If the charge comes from one who believes in justification by faith and works, then that charge comes as a badge of honor that we will wear proudly.

Those who have departed from the Reformed Protestant Churches for Remnant Reformed Church must charge us as antinomians for our stance on singing in worship, in that we do not uphold the law of exclusive psalmody according to the second commandment. However, along with teaching a man-made law, Remnant teaches that this law is necessary for having fellowship with Christ: sing the psalms and obey the law of the second commandment, and Christ sings with you. Do not sing the psalms and disobey the second commandment, and Christ does not sing with you. Remnant church should come out with it and call us antinomians; and when and if Remnant does, then we will wear that badge over against those who have grown bored with the gospel, corrupted it, and conjured up a novel invention for the church to have Christ.

The union and fellowship that we enjoy in the covenant are not because of works, by means of works, or in the way of good works. Good works are the fruits of faith, by which faith alone we have covenant fellowship. By the Spirit we are united to Christ. By the Spirit and in his power, works are performed by the believer. We have fellowship and union with the living God in Jesus Christ. And we enjoy that communion and fellowship now in our hearts and lives by the Spirit’s working in the gospel. The believer has that entirely apart from the inevitable fruit that God gives and in which the believer lives. The believer has that fellowship solely by faith alone.

We conclude then with this: our heritage as a denomination is the truth of the unconditional covenant in man’s experience. How does the believer experience salvation in the covenant? How does the believer experience union and communion with Christ? For the Protestant Reformed Churches and Remnant Reformed Church, one has that by obedience to the law. Good works simply have no role or function whatsoever to that end. As for the Reformed Protestant Churches, our heritage as a denomination includes the place of good works as the inevitable fruit that is the divine result of union with the mediator in the covenant of grace, Jesus Christ. The Reformed confessions, especially the Heidelberg Catechism in its experiential, subjective approach to doctrine, stand with us against all our enemies that would seek to make fruit something more than fruit. Fruit is the divine, inevitable, automatic result of union with Jesus Christ. In that God is pleased to use us as instruments to glorify himself.