Fruit

Luke 19:8-10 "Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”  9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. 10  For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” 

Jesus said "salvation has come to this house today", the fruit of salvation is repentance. How do you know when a person has been born again and truly been saved? They turn from their sins and begin to do what pleases God. Zacchaeus said, "I will give to the poor and anyone I have cheated I will repay four times as much". Salvation produces a transformation in the heart and life of a person.

Not everyone that professes Christ, possesses Christ. The fruit of salvation is repentance, the word repent can be broken down into two parts. The first part re means to return, the second part pent means a high place. That is why the penthouse is always on the top floor. So to repent means to return the high place, the place that pleases God. In means to come out of the valley of darkness/sin and return to the light of Gods presence.

So what about you? Is there fruit of salvation in your life? Have you repented, have you come out of your old ways of sin? Are you living a life that pleases God? Please understand I'm not talking about a perfect life but I am talking about an on purpose life. Something changed in Zacchaeus's life and on purpose he began to stop doing things that he had once done that were wrong and he began to do the things that pleased God.

So what about you? Has there been a heart change, can others look at you and see the difference in how you live your life? I've heard it said, that "a difference that makes no difference is really no difference at all" if your salvation experience did not make a visible difference in how you live your life, then you did not have a salvation experience. True salvation produces the fruit of repentance.