iv. The Voice.
A "voice from heaven" was a familiar method of communi- cating the will of God. For examples of such voices in the Old Testament see Gen. xxi. 17, xxii. 11, 15; Ex. xix. 19, xx. 22; 1 Kings xix. 12, 13. In the Gospels the Father's Voice is heard thrice — at the Baptism and the Transfiguration (cf. 2 Pet. i. 17) and before the Passion (John xii. 28). The Voice was audible or articulate only to those who had " ears to hear " (John v. 37, xii. 29).
* H. Alford, The Greek Testament i. 25.
154 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
The voice does not proclaim Jesus as the Messiah, as a legend would probably have represented. No such proclamation was needed either by Jesus or by the Baptist. The descent of the Spirit had told John that Jesus was the Christ (John i. 33). This voice from heaven, as afterwards at the Transfiguration (ix. 35), and again shortly before the Passion (John xii. 28), followed closely upon Christ's prayer, and may be regarded as the answer to it. His humanity was capable of needing the strength which the heavenly assurance gave. To call this voice from heaven the Bath-Kol of the Eabbis, or to treat it as analogous to it, is mis- leading. The Kabbinic Bath-Kol, or " Daughter- voice," is regarded as an echo of the voice of God ; and the Jews liked to believe that it had been granted to them after the gift of prophecy had ceased. The utterances attributed to it are in some cases so frivolous or profane that the more intelligent Eabbis denounced it as a superstition.
II.
The Meaning of the Baptism.
i. Its Meaning to Christ Himself.
For Jesus Himself the Baptism was a transfiguring moment — one of the cardinal points in the development of His humanity, marking His transition from the life of a private man to the career of a public teacher. Some suppose that it was at this point that He became fully conscious of His unique relationship to God and grasped in all its majesty the plan of His subsequent career. There is more unanimity in the belief that it was now that He was endowed with the miraculous powers of which He was to make use in His ministry. In the Gospels His miracles are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that His own Divine power was not at work in them ; it means that His human nature required to be potentiated by special gifts of the Holy Spirit, in order to be a fit organ through which His Divinity might act. And perhaps it was at this time that these gifts were con- ferred.
1. The Baptism was the Father's witness to His Sonship. — " A voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son." That voice
ST. LUKE III. 21, 22 155
was to assure not Himself indeed but others of His Sonship. In all probability the consciousness of His Sonship had flashed upon Him in His childhood, perhaps at His first visit to the Temple, when He uttered the memorable words, " Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business ? " (Luke ii. 49).
11 Even though He may have needed no assurance of His Sonship, there are many of God's children who do. There are many ways in which the assurance may be given. I know we are not to wait for any gracious illapse of the Holy Ghost before we claim our place in the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ. I know, too, that there are various degrees of assurance, and various ways in which that assurance is borne in upon the newborn soul. There is an assurance which may be gained by looking first at the Cross, and being convinced by the Spirit as I gaze upon Him who hangs there that judgment will not be twice demanded,
First at my bleeding Surety's hands, And then again at mine.
And this assurance is deepened when I see the empty tomb, and hear the triumphant cry, " He is not here, but is risen." " Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us " (Eom. viii. 34). All this is true, and most reassuring truth it is; and yet there is another way in which assurance is borne in upon the soul ; it is that of which the Apostle speaks in Eom. viii. 16 — "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit " — the direct witness of the Holy Ghost to the soul that we are born again, and that we are no more servants but sons, and " if children, then heirs ; heirs of God, and joint- lieirs with Christ ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together " (Rom. viii. 17). And this is the witness that the baptism of the Holy Ghost bestows.^
Our Master all the work hath done He asks of us to-day ; Sharing His service, every one Share too His sonship may. Lord, I would serve and be a son; Dismiss me not, I pray.'^
» E. W. Moore, The Spirit's Seal, 32. * T. T. Lynch, The Rivulet, 2.