The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 92

the very pebbles that lay in the bed of Jordan. He would gather Gentile believers in crowcis into his Church. They would become heirs of the faith of Abraham, true ehildren of that father of many nations, in whose seed all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. We must always be on our guard against pntting our trust in external privileges. Those privileges may be very great, very precious helps; but they are only helps toward the spiritual life; they are not the life itself. We must not dare to despise others who seem destitute of our privileges, but rather strive always to show, by increasing holiness of life, that we value and use the blessings which have been con- ferred upon us. And (3) he warns them. Judgment was coming. Only holiness of heart and life could endure the searching eye of God. His baptism would not help them unless they brought forth fruit worthy of repentance. The Judge was already in the world. John was nothing in comparison with him-not worthy to do him the most menial service. And as John was inferior to the coming Saviour, so was his baptism inferior to the Lord's baptism. John baptized with water; Christ would baptize with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. The baptism which Christ afterwards ordained was a baptism of water, but not of water only; it was a !aver of regeneration, a new birth of water and of the Spirit, a baptism into Christ by the one Spirit (1 Cor. xii. 13). And he was to baptize with fire. The prophecy was literally fulfilled on the great Day of Pentecost; but its meaning is not exhausted in that first fulfilment. Christ baptized with fire not only then; he baptizes with the Holy Ghost, not only in the sacrament which he ordained. There is a. more precious baptism yet; the perpetual baptism of the blessed Spirit's presence, a true baptism with fire-the fire of holy love and sacred energy, which spring from that Divine indwelling. This is the baptism which we must seek and pray for with all the power of our spirit, the only baptism which can help us in the great day, the baptism which distinguishes the saved from the lost, the wheat from the chaff. We must seek it all the more earnestly because be who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost is also the Judge, the awful Judge of quick and dead. He will gather the wheat into his garner; he will burn up the chaff with unquench- able fire. LESSONS. 1. Repent. See that your repentance is deep and true, a real change of heart; for only the children of repentance are children of the kingdom. :?. Imitate John the Baptist in his self-denial, in his ardent zeal, in bis deep humility. 3. Trust not in external privileges; see that your religion is true-not words, not forms, not mere excitement, but a real active principle of life. 4. Think of the awful fire of judgment; pray for the refining fire of the grncious Spirit. Vers. 13-17.-The baptism of Jesus. I. ITB REASON, 1. He was made sin fur us, though he was without sin. He came to be baptized; it was the purpose of his coming. He would not have come that long journey from Galilee to Bethany beyond Jordan unless there had been some grave reason, some necessity, some deep meaning in his baptism. It was the baptism of repentance; he needed no repentance. It was accom- panied with confession of sin; he could not confess, for he bad no sin. But God bad sent his own Son iu the likeness of sinful flesh; in some deep, mysterious sense "he was made sin for us." He bore the sin that was not his own. Therefore, as he submitted in his infancy to the rite of circumcision; as his mother, after the birth of the sinless Child, went through the ordinary purification; so now when he was about to begin his ministry, the Most Holy One came to the baptism of repentance. It seemed to John strange, unsuitable. He felt his own unworthiness in the presence of the Saviour. He himself, he knew, needed the baptism of the Holy Ghost; the Lord needed not the baptism of repentance. And so be would have hindered him. He bad hindered, it seems most. probable, the Pharisees and Sadducees. The reasons were very different. The Pharisees and Sadducees were not lit for his baptism; his baptism was not fit for Jesus. But the Lord who, in his ineffable condescension, had taken upou him the form of a servant, in that same condescension submitted to the rites which told of sin and uncleanness. He was baptized, not that he might be cleansed by the baptism of repentance, but rather, 11s Ignatius says in his ' Epistle to the Ephesians' (sect. 18), that he might by his baptism cleanse water nnd sanctify it to the mystical washing away of sin. 2. It becometh us ;; f<J,',fil all righteousness. God had sent John to baptize with water (John i. 33). 'l"ne Sor. of God, now in the form  AO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S'l'. MATTHEW. [orr. m. 1--17. ----------------------------------- of man, comes to the baptism ,vhich God had commanded. It is an example to us. It is our duty to fulfil a.II righteousness, all God's ordinances alike. We may not de.re to neglect things external, things which some men mll unimportant. If God has commanded them, that commandment gives them at once e. deep and reo.l impor• tancc; it makes them duties of righteousness. 'l'he principle of obedience is no Iese iovolvc<l in things that seem to some small and trivial, than in the highest duties of religion. The Lord Jesus came to the baptism of John; no Christian man mo.y dare to neglect the baptism of Jesus. For these reasons the Lord offered himself to be baptized. John knew him not at first, He must have heard of him from his parents; he must have known something of the wondrous birth at Bethlehem, and of his own destination to go before the face of the Lord in the spirit and power of Elias. Dut the two cousins had been long separated from each other; they had grown up far a.part ; John had lived a solit.a.ry life in the 'wilderness of J udroa; Jesus bad lived unknown and unregarded in the quiet town of Nazareth. John did not recognize him at first; but he felt the power of his presence. Holy himself, he reverenced that majesty of unearthly holiness which beamed from the calm, se.d, gracious eyes of the Saviour of the world. His heart told him that it was e. most sacred Person who sought his bRptism-a sinless, a Divine Presence that stood before him. His hopes were kindled, his soul filled with intense, eager anticipations, Surely it must be he that should come, the long-expected One. The descent of the Holy Ghost revealed the Messiah (John i. 33). But now a strange feeling of unworthiness came over him. A deep instinct prompted him to say, like Peter," Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord!" It is ever so with his saints. The nearer we draw to Christ, the more fully the Lord manifests himself to us, the more we feel our own utter sinfulness and weak- ness. But the Lord, who in his gracious lowliness came to John the Baptist, comes to his people still. John shrank from his awful purity at first; he suffered him when he heard his reassuring words. It is a parable of the experience of many an awakened soul. He seems so awful in his majesty, in his spotless holiness, and we so feeble, defiled with so many sins; but he allures us with his tender pity, he speaks comfortably to our souls, till we welcome the Lord into our heart, seeking henceforth to live always in that blessed fellowship which is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. II. THE DIVINE MANIFESTATION. 1. He went 'IJ,p straightway out of the water, There seems to be meaning in these words. His baptism was e. consecration for his great and blessed office. Son of God though he was, he had, in the mysterious union of the human and Divine, increased in wisdom from childhood to manhood; and now, it may be, the full coascionsnese of his Divine mission, the full clear knowledge of the awful, the most blessed, work which lay before him, dawned upon his holy human soul He went up straightway; immediately, as he emerged from the baptismal waters, he went up prepared for hie work; immediately he arose in the strength of holy purpose e.nd self-sacrificing love. He had lived hitherto in the quiet life of lowly obedience; now he was manifested as the great High Priest, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Priests under the Law received at their consecration the baptismal purification and the anointing of the holy oil. The Lord Jesus, now about to enter upon his three years' ministry, submitted to the baptism of repentance, and was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. 2. The heavens were opened. Paradise was closed to Adam; heaven i.e opened to Christ. The sin of Adam closed the way to Paradise; the obedience of the incarnate Son opens heaven to all who follow him. As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. "He bath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;" "Our citizenship is in heaven." Our tree.sure must be there, our heart mw;t be ia that heaven which was opened at the baptism of Jesus to all his true disciples. Heaven was opened over him at his baptism. It is opened over those who a.re baptized by hie commandment into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Iloly Ghost. For holy baptism admits us into covenant with God: "In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body "-the mystical body of Christ. The membe!'I of that body are bound by their baptism to obey the laws of the kingdom of heaven, and to live as oitizens of the heavenly commonwealth. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth." They who, by his grace, abide in spiritual union with Christ auall one day, like the holy martyr Stephen, see the heavens opened, and the Son of ir.an stun.ding on the ri~t hand of God. 3. The descent of the Holy Spirit. 'l'he Lord <JH, III, 1-17.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 81