Simply By Grace Podcast

In this podcast Charlie speaks about the  parable of the soils which is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In this episode the focus is on Luke. The purpose of this parable is to see how people respond to God's truth and it also talks about fruitfulness as a disciple of Christ. But many use these passages to claim that only a true Christian produces fruit and that if you don't, you must not be a true believer or that a person should question whether their faith was genuine to begin with. 

The problem with doing this, or requiring "fruit" (by this definition we mean good works) to prove ones salvation, is that it necessarily adds works to salvation. It's even worse than that because it does so more deceptively than people who add works before salvation. Adding works to salvation before is more obvious to most, but adding works after salvation is less obvious. The result is the same though and can cause a believer to take their focus off of Christ and place it on themselves.

Beyond  that, what measuring stick should a believer use for "fruit"? For further reading, Charlie's discussed this in his GraceNotes Can Good Works Prove Salvation?

So listen and find out the nature of the soils and how each relates to believers.