"Produce fruit in keeping with your repentance. And do not
begin to say to yourselves ' We have Abraham as our father'.
For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up
children for Abraham"
John is telling the crowds that they shouldn't trust in their status as God's chosen people for their salvation. They couldn't say "oh we are people of the covenant", continue sinning and rebelling against God, and expect salvation at the end.
Now many of us aren't Jewish, but we have been grafted into God's kingdom by the death and resurrection of Christ. Nevertheless, John's warning applies to us too. We can't rely on our own self righteousness, and deeds of piety and devotion for God's favour. We may say with our lips: "Oh, I trust fully on Jesus for my salvation, he is my righteousness". Yes this is true, and we may believe this with our heads, but do we live it and breath repentance all day long? How many of us could be caught guilty of secretly saying to ourselves "Yes! I had a really good quiet time this morning, God must love me a little more!", or "I did well evangelizing to those people at the bar or in the street, God must have given me some credit".
This is true, god is pleased when we serve and obey him, and we should be striving to do his will more earnestly every day, but don't let your works be your functional salvation! It's by Christ's blood that we are saved, not by our deeds! So although we do deeds, the are "in keeping with your repentance", not "for your salvation". This is difficult to live by, because we naturally want to earn things for ourselves, but it is much more liberating, assuring and comforting to know that I am freely saved, and free to serve
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