But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. Romans 6:22
Over the ruins of an old house at the bottom of our orchard hovered a hulking old apple tree. My mother called it an Ashpit tree because the hollow that used to be the basement of the old house was used as a pit to dispose of the ashes from our stoves. The Ashpit tree was just beyond the Red Astrachans, our favourite apple trees. The Red Astrachans ripened early and tasted wonderful, so when we came to the ashpit tree, we were disappointed. Its apples were big, hard, yellow, and unpleasant in flavour. We learned not to bother with them. So I was surprised when, after a sharp frost in October, my mother sent me to pick a basket of apples from the Ashpit tree. She cut up those apples and put them into a big pot to cook. When they were cooked, she dumped the mush into her jelly bag and drained all of the juice. Amazingly, the cooked juice was pink, not yellow. With the juice, Mom made a wonderful batch of jelly, lovely of colour and delicious of flavour. In the right hands, a useless fruit had become a treasure.
That’s what God has done for you and me. Clearing us of our sin and uselessness, God through His salvation has transformed us into His profitable servants. Just as the juice extracted from the Ashpits was transformed from yellow to pink, God has wrought an incredible transformation. Instead of the shameful fruits of sin in our former life, we are generating fruits unto holiness. Like the old Ashpit tree, we produced nothing of value to anyone… until we were transformed.
Many of the apples from the Ashpit tree never made it to the jelly bag… they fell to the ground and became bruised and wormy, fit only for feeding to the cows, who didn’t seem to enjoy them much, either. They were nothing but waste. How miraculous that we were reached by the Gospel and drawn to the Saviour before it was too late! Instead of worms and bruises, and cattle fodder, we can now produce works of righteousness, and generate fruit unto holiness. Our hands can now minister to the Lord’s people, and our feet can walk in a way pleasing to our Master. Our voices can now praise the Lord, and our hearts can appreciate and thank Him.
What a lovely expression – fruit unto holiness! What a wonderful privilege and opportunity! What a shame if we miss out! -Jim MacIntosh