John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

In his Systematic Theology, Charles Ryrie writes concerning this verse, “Believers have been chosen to bear fruit, not to do so would be contrary to God’s purposes.” Ryrie considers fruitlessness a sin. This is an important point to understand. While Ryrie points out the negative aspect of fruitlessness, namely that is it sinful, Jesus states the truth in the positive, namely that the Christian life was designed by Him to be fruitful. He states that we are chosen that we “should go bear fruit.” The Christian life was meant to be fruitful. Or stated another way, a life of faith is expressed as fruitfulness for Christ.

This is an important distinction, and Ryrie makes an astute observation, namely that fruitlessness is sinful. The consequence is that the Christian life is not defined by one’s statement of faith. A person can claim belief, but the measure of that claim is seen in the fruit produced for Christ. Notice Jesus says, “I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.” The word ‘appointed’ (ἔθηκα), can mean to ordain, but also carries the idea of ‘put’, as in he put an object in a certain place for a reason. Believers, by virtue of their faith, are ordained to produce fruit for Christ. Or, Christ has placed faithful believers where they are for the purpose of producing kingdom fruit.

There are many today who claim to have faith and believe they are on the road to heaven. However, for many their faith is only a verbal profession, or claim to belief, but not matched by fruitfulness. This raises an important question, can a person who claims faith but who produces no fruit be truly saved? One can point to the thief on the cross next to Christ and argue he was saved without ever producing fruit. However, upon closer inspection, one can discern that he did produce at least one important fruit that salvation produces. He produced fruit of repentance.

We are told that Jesus was crucified between two thieves’, and in the beginning of their ordeal, they both mocked and reviled Christ (Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32). We also know that they accompanied Jesus to the place of execution (Luke 23:33–43). In other words, they were with Jesus for a period of time, beginning before the crucifixion. Further, we know that Jesus was on the cross for six hours before He died. This means the thief who was saved had ample time to consider his circumstances and change his mind—which he did. We don’t know what caused the change of heart, but one can surmise that being with Jesus and witnessing His reaction to His tormentors had an impact on the thief (cf. Luke 23:34). In the span of a few hours, then, he went from mocking Jesus with everyone else to realizing that Jesus was innocent and did not deserve to be there (cf. Luke 23:41). Somewhere faith was born in the thief’s heart; and that faith produced the important fruit of repentance, which was evidenced when he said, “And we indeed (are condemned) justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.”

It can and should be argued that the first visible fruit of saving faith is repentance (cf. Matt. 3:8). Indeed, it is the first word of the gospel (cf. Mark 1:15). All the other fruit salvation produces in one’s life must come through that door. Without repentance, there can be no fruitfulness. But when repentance occurs, all the others can and should follow. But that leads us back to where we began, salvation is not evidenced by an empty verbal claim to belief; it is evidence by at least the fruit of repentance, as seen in the thief on the cross.

Or to simplify as Jesus taught, salvation always produces fruit. We were appointed (ordained) that we should bear fruit. While it first appears that the thief produced little fruit, it was substantial enough to be recorded in scripture and has since produced an effective witness for the power of salvation that Christ earned on the cross. Therefore, repentance produced in the now saved thief a verbal witness to the entire world in keeping with the Great Commission (cf. Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15). And that witness has spoken to the world for almost two-thousand years, producing substantial fruit over the centuries.