The Axe Is Laid to the Root

Background Scripture: Luke 3:1-23; 20:1-19
Lesson Scripture: Luke 3:1-14

Introduction

The roots of a plant are unseen, lying below the surface. Yet they are an essential part of a living plant. A plant will die without its roots because the root provides the nutrition and moisture that keeps the plant alive. If we remove the plant that is above the ground but leave the root, in time that plant will manifest itself again. It regenerates from the root. But if the root is removed, the plant withers and dies and will not regrow.

Key Verse

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death (2 Cor. 7:10).

Lesson Scripture

Studying the Lesson

Luke wrote the gospel that we are studying, as well as the Acts of the Apostles. He was evidently a gentile. He is referred to as a “beloved physician” (Col. 4:14) and was a companion to Paul on some of his missionary journeys and in his imprisonment at Rome.

Luke was a very capable historian. He wrote at a time when different societies had their own method of counting years. Luke wanted his writings to reach across all cultures throughout the Roman Empire wherever Christians were living. So instead of using a number to establish a certain year, he used notable personages that people would recognize and could thus calculate when the events occurred. Tiberius Caesar was one of the emperors of the Roman Empire, and in the fifteenth year of his reign, John the Baptist began to preach.

John the Baptist is a unique individual in the Scripture. Luke says, “The word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” This expression is familiar to the calling of prophets in the Old Testament. So, John was a prophet who spoke the words of God, and the common people regarded him as such. Jesus acknowledged John to be a prophet, and much more than a prophet. Jesus gave John this testimony: “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28)—high praise indeed from the Son of God. Today’s text likewise introduces him to us as a prophet.

John was specially chosen to be the forerunner of the Redeemer; he was to prepare the way for the Lord. He was not chosen for this role because of his own merits. Rather, he was ordained for this work before he was born and was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb.

Luke quotes the prophecy from the Old Testament book of Isaiah that foretells about John’s work (Isa. 40:3-4). This prophecy foreshadows the simplicity of the gospel, speaking of a crooked path made straight and the rough way made smooth. It also depicts the equality that all people enjoy in the gospel by the valleys being filled and the mountains brought low.

John addressed the multitude as a “generation of vipers.” This could also be rendered as “offspring of vipers.” Surely John’s intent was not to insult. Rather, this could refer to the garden of Eden, where the original human family was attacked through the medium of a serpent. There humanity was infected with the venom of pride and rebellion. People then and people today carry the effects of that deadly venom.

The people asked John, “What shall we do then?” His answer pointed them away from selfishness and toward charity. John’s suggestions addressed the way we treat other people. Though a viper will bite and attack, those who want to be saved will rather be supplicants who bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.

Practical Truths for Today

John prepared the way of the Lord by preaching repentance, which is the door of mercy. John preached true repentance; repentance that is more than talk or good intentions. True repentance produces fruit that is a practical testimony to what has occurred in the heart. To accomplish this, the axe must be laid to the root.

The prophet John taught us that a godly heritage does not produce a godly individual. Being children of Abraham will not secure salvation. Though we were raised in a Christian home, receiving all the spiritual advantage that such a heritage affords us, that does not make us a Christian. We might be a Christian in name, appearance, and way of life, but that does not make us a Christian. However valuable we consider our heritage or however good we think our lifestyle is, these are not an adequate foundation for being a Christian. The only way to become a Christian is to have a change of heart. To become a Christian from the heart, the axe must be laid to the root of the tree.

Many Christians began their walk with the Lord at a young age; their new-birth experiences were simple. They realized they were sinful, they were sorry about it, and they asked the Lord to forgive them. When the Lord graciously granted forgiveness, they knew that their hearts were at peace. They manifested a childlike, nonresistant spirit and wanted to follow wherever the Lord would lead. They had brought forth fruit worthy of repentance.

As we mature, we experience new dimensions of spirituality. We are severely tempted; we are engaged in the fight and may not always be victorious. Perhaps we harbor an unholy attitude in our heart, thinking no one will know. We may be fooled for a while, but the Holy Spirit soon points us to the truth that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9). The voice of the prophet comes to us, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.” We may seek and desire an experience like our first one when we simply said, “I did such-and-such, and I found peace.”

It may not happen just that way. Our brethren may want to see more evidence of godly sorrow, an evident change of heart, and an amended life that shows that the axe of God cut all the way to the root. Instead of “I found peace,” the language of our heart might be that of the prodigal son: “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants” (Luke 15:18-19). God always accepts repentant sinners.

Jesus died so that we could be spared the just punishment for our sins. But He did not die so that we could continue committing sin. There is an incomparable difference between an active, willful sinner and a sorrowful, repentant one.

God always asks for our heart, “for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). And when we have surrendered our hearts to Him, we have given Him all. When the axe severs any evil root hidden in the heart, the evil fruits in our lives produced by this root will begin to wither and die. Fruits worthy of repentance will be brought forth as we submit to the Husbandman and his axe.

Illustration

“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Luke 3:9). In a broad sense, we could say that Christians are like the trees in God’s orchard; we are God’s husbandry (1 Cor. 3:9). God is in great earnestness about his children, calling them and sanctifying them. We are to be trees bearing the “first fruits”; God will not accept the “seconds” from his orchard. He will not accept the casual, the lukewarm, or the half-hearted. Those trees will eventually be rooted up and removed from his kingdom.

We can also consider that verse in a personal sense. We can try to pick off some of the uncomely growth in our life. We may try to deal with the expressions of our criticalness, lusts, anger, materialism, or our vain, outward adornment. However, if we submit to God from our heart, the axe is laid to the root of our personal sinfulness. God wants to deal with our hearts. The husbandman of the vineyard is the One laying the axe to our motives to sin. True repentance takes us deeper than dealing with what we see and what we have done. God’s axe penetrates to the inner motives of our lust, pride, selfishness, covetousness, and vanity. Then we begin to see ourselves as God sees us.

In the discipline work of the church, we do our brethren a disservice if we do not help them come to the place of dealing with their heart.

Questions

1. Discuss the two kinds of sorrow mentioned in the key verse.
2. Is sorrow essential to true repentance?
3. What part of repentance is something I do, and what part does God do within me?
4. What does the phrase “the axe is laid to the root” mean to us?
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).