THE FORERUNNER AND THE ANOINTING OF THE KING (Matthew 3)

THE FORERUNNER AND THE ANOINTING OF THE KING (Matthew 3)

H. A. IRONSIDE

OUR Lord has told us that of those born of women none was greater than John the Baptist. His greatness consisted, not simply in his personal character—though he stands out preeminently as a devoted man of God, true to principles and unyielding in his stand against iniquity even in high places (Matthew 14:4)—but in the fact that he was chosen of God to herald the coming of Christ as Israel’s Messiah and the world’s Redeemer (John 1:29–31), and formally to open to Him the door into the sheepfold (John 10:2, 3) by baptizing and acknowledging Him as the Anointed of God. 

  Such a ministry is needed greatly today when men have lost, in large measure, the sense of the sinfulness of sin. It is useless to preach the gospel of the grace of God to men who have no realization of their need of that grace. Only when the soul is awakened to see its uncleanness and unrighteousness in the eye of a holy God will there be the cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” 

Baptism in itself was not an act of merit. It was meant to imply that the baptized person owned that his just desert was judgment because of his sins. Thus they condemned themselves and justified God (Luke 7:29). That John did not imply that his baptism freed them from their sins is clear from the preaching recorded in John 1:29. He pointed the people to Jesus as the only One through whom they could obtain remission of sin.

Haughty religious professors - Strong language was used because of the hypocrisy of these religious formalists, who by their hidden wickedness proclaimed themselves children of the evil one. The Pharisees were the orthodox party in Israel, and the Sadducees were the heterodox group (Acts 23:8); but both alike rested upon their own fancied righteousness and therefore saw no need to repent (Romans 10:3). 

  The outward symbol was only for those who professed sincere repentance toward God, and who cast themselves upon His mercy as needy, helpless sinners. When Christ should come He would baptize with (or in) the Holy Spirit and fire. The wheat are the children of the kingdom (Matt. 13:38). They are the ones who were to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. The chaff are the evil-doers who will be baptized in the fire of judgment. Nothing could emphasize our Lord’s Deity more than John’s declaration regarding Him and this twofold baptism.  

   Here in Matthew’s Gospel it is His anointing as the King to which our attention is directed particularly. Mark emphasizes His prophetic office, and John presents Him as our Great High Priest, but this was after finishing the work the Father gave Him to do.