“Sir,” the man replied, “leave it (the fig tree) alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it,”Luke 13:8 (NIV).

When I read the parable of the fig tree, it speaks to me about the possibility of second chances. In the case of the fig tree the master desired fruit but none was there. Therefore the tree deserved being cut down.

The owner of the garden came for three years seeking fruit on the tree, but none was found. So He said, “Cut it down, why should it take up space in the ground?” The man that took care of the garden (The gardener) said, “Leave it alone for one more year.”

In this parable the owner is God The Father and the gardener (The Dresser) is Jesus Christ. It is a beautiful picture of Christ intervening for the lost person and the unproductive person. Giving them a second chance.

Christ says to the Father, allow the tree another year and He (Christ) will dig and fertilize it. Christ will work to prepare the condition for the fig tree to be fruitful and produce fruit. If it bears fruit next year fine. If not, cut it down.

If you are wondering why you are having so many problems? Perhaps Christ is digging around the roots of your life preparing your soil to be productive to God. Productive to produce fruit for God.

The fruit of salvation comes first. Then the fruit of love, joy, peace longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance (self-control) are all heavenly qualities that will be produced regularly if you let it. Are you producing these fruits?

Yes, all of these fruits can only be produced by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the fertilizer that will empower you as the fig tree to produce fruit. When the fig tree allows the power of the fertilizer to be absorbed into its roots then it will be productive. The Holy Spirit is also desiring to empower your life to be fruitful.

Once you have been saved the Holy Spirit is in you never to leave you. Like a man was overheard as he was leaving his companion at the entrance to the Internal Revenue office. “As your tax consultant, I said in case of an audit I would accompany you to the I.R.S. I never said anything about going in with you.” Thank God He never does us this way and leaves us.

Remember God will only be patient for so long. So when He comes the second time in your life please yield to Him because He does not have to give you a second chance. Repentance is the only response when God comes to give us a second chance.

To the repentant prophet Jonah, “the word of the Lord came…. the second time,” Jonah 3:1. When the pot made of clay was marred in the potter’s hand, he remade it another vessel as it pleased the potter to make, Jer. 18:4.

God restored to David the joy of his salvation and washed him clean again. God gave him a second chance and renewed a right spirit within him, Psalms 51:1-10. Evidence that his heart got right with God is seen in the attitude in which he received and reacted to the divine discipline.

The digging around of his soil was helpful to make him fruitful. The digging around of the soil of your life will also make you fruitful if you let it. How is your response to God’s call of a second chance? Have you been forgiven of your sin? Have you accepted God’s provision of a second chance? Well that provision is the work of Jesus Christ’s death , burial, and resurrection.

Do you believe in Christ’s substitutionary work for your sin? Until you deal with your sin against God you have not accepted God’s provision of a second chance. Evidence of a new heart are the first thing needed to show acceptance of a second chance.

The habitual regularly displayed fruits will happen. All these fruits display love to God and their fellow man. When a person understands they are forgiven of their sin then they will respond in thankfulness to God by showing Love.

Have you received the grace of God’s second chance? There is no sin so bad that it is impossible for the you to be cleansed from the inside rebellion that would stop intimacy with God.

Until the fig tree’s root gets thirsty enough for water and nourishment it will not produce fruit. It is only the humble that Christ will come, not to the exalted. God only comes to the lowly and humble not to the arrogant and the proud.

Jesus came in humility to die for us. Until you or I realize this and come to Him thirsty desiring his thirst quenching provision alone, there will be no fruit in our life. Isaiah 53:2, “For he shall grow up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground;….”

To be fruitful you must be like a root in thirsty ground. Desiring Christ’s healing and nourishment to your life is the only way to be productive for God. Christ is who bears our sins and heals our stripes.

The picture of a root of a plant is a picture showing humbleness. We are to show humility in much of the same way a root is illustrated. A root of a plant is low under the ground. We are to be low and under the grace of Christ. A root is unseen. Submission to Christ is unseen by the world. A root is dependent on the soil. We are dependent on Christ through the Holy Spirit.

John the Baptist said it best in Luke 3:9, “Now also the ax 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.” All trees that do not bear good fruit get the ax.

Note where the ax is laid? It is laid at the root. Killing the root will instantly kill any plant of any kind. Then after that they are burned. God is saying all unfruitful people will be judged.

Is the wrath of God’s ax laid at the root of yuor life? Examine yourself to see where you are in your relationship with God. Are you receiving a Second Chance from God?