From Matthew 3:7-10 / Family Ties – When John tells the Pharisees and Sadducees who had come out to see his baptism to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” – what is he after? As we’ve seen already, those who were being baptized were confessing their sins at the same time. But what of the Pharisees? These were the most meticulous Jews of all when it came to regulating every aspect of their lives according to the Mosaic law. What “fruit” would John be referring to here specifically? vs. 9 answers it: Not outward acts, but an inward alteration which places no confidence in being heirs of Abraham, i.e. their external “spiritual” heritage. To renounce trust in being Jews and possessors and practitioners of the Law. That, was a big deal. That was tantamount to treason, apostacy and heresy all in one. Turn your back on everything you have trusted in in terms of having a right relationship with God. This was no light matter indeed. So the question remains for us: Is this what we have done? Have we forsaken trust in our church affiliation? Our doctrinal precision? Our righteous works? The fact that we had parents or grandparents who served and walked with God – hoping that somehow attachment to them implied spiritual status before God for us? Or do we still depend upon one or more of those in some way to define our relationship to Him and to comfort our hearts and minds in terms of that relationship? John puts the last nail in that coffin here. The only righteousness which puts is in right standing with God, is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. The One who calls each to put their trust solely in His atoning work and intercession. The One – and the only who one whom Scripture can say: John 1:9-13 “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”