conversion.

2 Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

When a person is born anew and experiences repentance, his attitude about Jesus changes. Jesus himself becomes the central focus and supreme value of life. Before the new birth happens and repentance occures, a hundred other things seem more important and more attractive: health, family, job, friends..." "But when God gives the radical change of new birth and repentance, Jesus himself becomes our supreme treasure."


-John Piper, What Jesus Demands From The World

If I would have read this two years ago, I would have simply agreed and said "Yeah, of course." It wasn't until God regenerated my heart to submit to Christ as master that I truely understood what this verse meant, and therefore, the words that Piper writes hit home. The self-made fake/plastic/wax fruits have now been replaced by Holy Spirit wrought genuine/juice-filled/ripe fruits that are alien to my own exertion.