SECTION V

JESUS SUBMITS HIMSELF TO THE BAPTISM OF JOHN, AND IS BY HIM ACKNOWLEDGED AS MESSIAH, AND GLORIFIED AS THE SON BY THE
FATHER IN HEAVEN.

(Matt. iii)

WHEN the time had come that Jesus should openly appear before the people as Messiah, care was taken that He should, in so appearing, be accredited and introduced in a theocratically legitimate manner. This was done by His forerunner, John the Baptist. John appeared in the wilderness of Judea as a peachier of repentance. He preached repentance to the people, proclaiming to them. The kingdom of heaven is at hand — the Messiah is on the point of appearing. He came forth as the Messiah's forerunner, baptizing the people unto repentance and the coming Messiah. This baptism was a great and holy washing, which he performed in the sense of the Levitical laws of purification, as a prophet, according to the zealot-right; an act by which he declared the whole people to be unclean in God's sight, and demanded of them true repentance and reformation, to be signified and sealed by the same act. He sought to form a new and pure community which should be capable of receiving the Messiah. He confirmed his baptism by his whole appearance. He came forward as a strict ascetic: his raiment was of camel's hair, his girdle of leather, his only meat locusts and wild honey. Thus, according to the saying of the Evangelist and his own declaration, he represented that voice which the prophet Isaiah heard in spirit, with a definite prophetic prospect of the time of Israel's restoration by the Messiah: 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.' His whole utterance and bearing was a voice, an earnest preaching of the coming Christ.

The Jewish people rejoiced at the announcement of the Messiah, felt the spiritual power of the Baptist's reproof, and acknowledged him. All came to his baptism — all Jerusalem, all Judea, and especially all the region round about Jordan. That there was a decided acknowledgment of him for a short time, is proved by the circumstance, that many of the Pharisees and Sadducees also came to his baptism, and still more, that they submitted to bear the strongest rebukes from him: '0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.' In this lofty position did John stand towards the heads of the Jewish people, like a thunder-cloud of God. But how small did he represent himself in comparison with the Messiah! 'I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.'

Thus the Baptist was acknowledged by the Jewish people, and he acknowledged, in the person of Jesus, the Messiah whom he had placed so high above himself; and this consequently formed the theocratically legitimate introduction of Jesus to His people.

Jesus also came from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, 'I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? 'So strong a sense had the Baptist of the purity and grandeur of Jesus, he felt himself as one unclean before Him. Yet he did not now give testimony to Him, but waited until the Messianic dignity and divine glory of Christ should be confirmed to Him by a miracle. We see here the distinction between human certainty and divine certainty. (See vol. i. p. 356.) Jesus insisted on the necessity of His being baptized by John, saying, 'Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.' Then he suffered Him.

There has been much discussion regarding the question. How could Christ submit Himself to the baptism unto repentance? The principle of the Israelite laws of purification, as more deeply and sharply defined in Haggai ii. 13, contains the answer (see above, vol. i. p. 352). According to this principle, he who stood in outward contact with the unclean was levitically unclean. Now, as John had by divine commission declared the whole people to be levitically unclean, as he had, so to say, excommunicated them all, this sentence had, without his being aware of it, included the Messiah. When Jesus stood before him, he became alarmed at this awful consequence. Jesus knew well the humiliating element in this justification-baptism. But He acknowledged its divine justice; before God He was clean, but the burden of His people was laid upon Him. The principle of His historical connection with Israel, with man kind, made Him already appear in the similitude of a sinner, and ultimately brought Him to the death of the cross. Oar Lord knew that His baptism foretokened this; it was His consecration unto death for the salvation of mankind.

But the fulness of this humiliation in faithful love and obedience was turned by the Father into an exaltation for Him. When He came out of the water, the heavens were opened unto Him; the place of the refuge and glorification which awaited Him after His death on the cross appeared there opened to Him. John now received the seal of theocratic certainty concerning the dignity of Jesus. He saw the Holy Ghost descending in the form of a dove, and lighting upon Him. In this fairest and clearest of signs he saw the spirit of measureless labour and perfect sacrifice in which Jesus devoted His life in the spirit to the Father, and with which the Holy Spirit, who had fashioned His life, who supported and filled it, was now in the definite form of the Holy Ghost in the most peculiar sense — the Spirit of complete world-renunciation and world-transformation— received by Him into His consciousness as abiding definiteness of that Spirit. The procession of the Spirit from the Father, which as the Spirit of conscious divine peace filled Him, appeared to the Baptist in the form of a dove, the form of innocence, simplicity, and gentleness.¹ Thus this lofty event, the oblation of Christ and the blessing of the Father, assumes the character of the utmost mildness and most engaging serenity. And this visible sign was accompanied by a voice from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'

Thus to the last seer of the Old Covenant, in Jesus had to become manifest the Messiah, in the Messiah the Son of God, and in the Son God the mystery of the Trinity. Henceforth he bore open testimony to the Messiahship of Jesus.

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