John the Baptist and Jesus

Luke 3:1-6, 15-17, 21, 22

GOLDEN TEXT: “Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.”—Luke 3:22

OF John the Baptist it is written that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. But we must not misunderstand this to mean that he was begotten of the Holy Spirit, in the sense that Christians are begotten, for he lived before the time of Spirit begettal—in the Jewish age, not in the Gospel or Christian age. Thus our Lord said of him that, although there had not arisen a greater prophet than John, nevertheless, the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he—the least one in the house of sons is on a higher plane than the greatest one in the house of servants.—Matt. 11:11; Heb. 3:5,6

The apostle again explains that “the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:39) In harmony with this we must understand that John was filled with the Holy Spirit, holy power or influence from God from the first, after the same manner that the other prophets throughout the Jewish age had been under that Holy Spirit.

Of John’s life from infancy to manhood we know nothing except the bare record, “The child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his showing unto Israel.” (Luke 1:80) The term “desert” probably refers not to a sandy desert, but more probably to the wild, uncultivated regions, perhaps in the “hill country” where his parents resided at the time of his birth. Possibly a part of the Lord’s providence in respect to John’s training for his work was in the ordering of the affairs of his parents, so that they were forced by circumstances to reside in such a wilderness home, where they had comparatively little intercourse with others, and where John, perhaps as a forester, would have experiences which the Lord saw were best fitted for the work intended.

We are not to fall into the common error of supposing from the record that John preached to the people that repentance and baptism would work for them a remission of their sins. But this view would contradict the testimony of all the Scriptures, which is to the effect that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. To the contrary, we are to understand this verse to mean that John preached a baptism signifying repentance unto, or preparation for, a remission of sins.

If repentance and immersion in water would bring the forgiveness of sins, “a Savior and a great one,” whom God had promised to Israel for so long, would have been wholly unnecessary. But when we view John’s work and preaching as merely a preliminary one, to make ready a repentant people, desiring to have their sins forgiven, desiring full at-one-ment with God, and expecting a Savior to accomplish all this—then all is harmony.

And this thought, that the remission of sins was a work future from John’s day, a work to be accomplished by Christ, is fully borne out by the succeeding context, a quotation from Isaiah the prophet, which has not even yet been fulfilled, but includes the entire work of the Millennial age. That age will be one for remission of sins and blotting out of sins, and the full reconciliation of as many as will accept God’s grace in Christ under the New Covenant. (Compare Acts 3:19-21.) In that time, under those favorable conditions, and not before, will the statement be fulfilled, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

Verses 15 and 16 indicate that the Bible students of that day believed that the time for the coming of their Messiah was near at hand, and thought perhaps John the Baptist was He. In answering their query, he states that he is not the Christ, but that the Messiah would be far greater than he. In his reply he foretold the work and effect of the Jewish harvest, saying of Messiah: “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner: but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable.”

Here the baptism of the Holy Spirit coming upon the “Israelites indeed” at Pentecost, is referred to, and the fire of trouble which came upon all others, during the 37 years following their rejection of Jesus. In that trouble Israel as a nation was destroyed, but not as individuals. The Revelator tells of the harvesting of this age with the sharp sickle of truth, because the time to reap has come, and shows the double work, part of which relates to the vine of the earth, as distinguished from the true vine of the Father’s planting, Christ Jesus and His members, or branches.—Revelation 14; John 15:1-6

The harvest of this age is said to be of wheat and tares (Matt. 15:24-30,36-39); that of the Jewish age was called one of wheat and chaff. And as the chaff predominated largely there, the analogy in parallelism so marked in every other feature implies that the tares will be much more abundant than the wheat in this harvest. The Jewish harvest began with our Lord’s ministry and ended with nominal Israel’s rejection and overthrow and the destruction of their city. And the harvest of this age began with the presence of our Lord, and ends with the overthrow of Gentile power, during the establishment of His Kingdom.

QUESTIONS:

In what sense will John the Baptist be less that the least of those in the Kingdom of heaven, as stated by Jesus in Matthew 11:11?

Did John the Baptist’s message of repentance and baptism imply that anyone could have their sins blotted out without the necessity of the shed blood of Christ?

What did John the Baptist mean by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire?

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