True or False Religion

By rev. W. Arnot

“Make the tree good, and His fruit good.” (Matthew 12: 33)

There are two kinds of religion in the world; and perhaps we would not greatly err, if we
should say, there are two only.
They stand over against each other, not only different but opposite in their essential
characteristics; and the manifold varieties that have sprung up in diverse periods and
diverse regions, may be classed under the one or the other of these two great normal
types.

One kind of religion teaches that men are not so holy as they should be, but that by a little
attention they may be improved; the other kind of religion confesses that men are all and
only evil, and must be made new creatures ere they can be pleasing to God or fit for His
presence. The first starts with the assumption of something good to begin with, and
busies itself in making good better; the second starts with the assumption that all is evil,
and seeks from God the grace to change the evil into good; the one mends, the other
makes.

The one looks up to heaven and says, “I am not as other men; I fast, I pray, I give alms:”
the other looks down to the earth and cries, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. The one
builds his home upon the sand, which, while the weather is fair, seems to his eyes firm
enough; the other refuses to build at all until he gets down to the living rock.

Both confess failing; both seek help; and both seek help from Christ. In outward aspect
they are like each other; so closely do they resemble each other, that in some aspects they
are distinguished only by one little word. One says, Christ and I ; the other says, Christ
not I. the one says, I need Christ with me in my life: the other says, I live; nevertheless
not I, but Christ lives in me. The Lord and my righteousness, says this man: the Lord is
my righteousness, says the other.

Of these two that seem so similar, the one is falsehood, the other truth; the one is
darkness, the other light.

The great Teacher Himself took pains with His pupils on this point. At one time he
allowed a self-righteous man to try his own method, that by the fall which it entailed he
might be crushed out of his error. “Good master,” said a promising scholar once, “Good
master, what shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?” “Keep the commandments.” “I
have kept them; what more?” “Go sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come
follow me.” Under this pressure the good resolution broke down; he went away
sorrowful. On another occasion the Lord taught the same lesson in a gentler form to a
more gentle inquierer; “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
It behoves us to know well this human error that undermines the spiritual life. It springs
within, and circulates secretly but mightily like the blood in the veins. By making light of
the disease, it makes light also of the cure provided. By failing to estimate aright the fall,
it forms a false judgment regarding the unspeakable gift of God.

It is not written in the creed that mankind are holy in nature and in life; but the habit of
the heart’s thoughts, flowing strong and steady like a river, counts the man in the main
good, and seeks in religion not the new creation of the lost, but the gradual improvement
of the defective.

This system takes the works of Christ and turns it upside down. Christ says, Make the
tree good, and his fruit good; but it says, Make the fruit good in the first place, and the
tree will improve of its own accord. Leaving the tree as it grows, this system directs all its
energies to the task of making the fruit good, or at least seem good. It is weary work of
dropping buckets into empty wells and growing old in bringing nothing up. It is the
labour of a life-time to gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles.

The tree has grown from seed. For a while in its infancy it bears no fruit, and it is not
expected to bear any. Before its nature is developed, it neither does good nor evil, in a
tangible or practical form. Its nature and tendencies are fixed, but they are not known.
People who look on the tender plant putting forth its leaves, expect that when it comes to
maturity its fruit will be good. At length, while the tree is yet young, it begins to bear
fruit, there is not much at first. The quantity is diminutive, but the quality is well defined.
There is no mistake here. The fruit is bitter – is bad. But it is young. What could you
expect? Wait for wisdom. They wait, they fence, they water; but the fruit is still bitter.
In the case of the tree, as long as you look only on its fruit, you may be deceived in your
judgment. The fruit may be thoroughly evil, and yet in colour and shape it may be like
good fruit. It is only by tasting it that you can certainly determine its character.

The outward appearance of a gift, for example, may have all the lineaments of charity;
yet to Him who looks on the heart, it may be a nauseous outgrowth of selfishness or
pride. We must be purged from dead works as well as from bad works before we can
acceptably serve the living God. Dead works though in form they may be the fulfillment
of His law, are not sweet to His taste. That is a dreadful sentence which the risen Saviour
pronounced on the fruit of the bitter tree: “I will spue thee out of my mouth”.

Taken from an old magazine – Issue April 1970.

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