Read Matt 3:1-6.
"John the Baptist came, preaching…and saying, ‘Repent’”
It’s clear from Matthew and especially from Luke that John’s preaching, like that of the Old Testament prophets, focused on the personal and social sins that marred society. John preached against materialism and selfishness (Luke 3:11), and against such widespread sins as overcharging (v.13) and extortion (v.14). Those who confessed their sins were warned to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8).
John’s emphasis is important. In the first century the Jews took a bath in a mikvah in order to be ritually pure for worship. In contrast John called for an inner change of heart and mind (repentance), which is to produce a pure and holy life.
Repentance has always been a part of the Christian Gospel. Not “repentance” as being sorry for sin, or an effort at self-reform. In Scripture repentance is a change of heart and mind about God that bears fruit in a holy life. Without repentance there is no salvation, simply because whenever Jesus enters a life by faith, He does just such a transforming work in the human heart.
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“Do this to fulfill all righteousness”
Matt 3:15.
Many have debated why Jesus wanted to be baptized. John, His cousin, who knew Him well, was embarrassed to baptize Jesus even before he knew that Jesus was the Messiah. John’s baptism was for repentance – and John knew Jesus as a godly Jew who had no need to repent.
When I was in a phase of my life in my early twenties, where I felt I was sort of living a life of full dedication to the Lord, I would attend church and every time the preacher asked people to stand to commit their lives to God, the others all stood. I remained seated. I had already dedicated myself to God, and it didn’t seem right to just “go through the motions.” The Lord knew where I stood with Him, and I was satisfied with that.
If I had understood these verses in Matthew better, I would have stood with the others. Why? Because I would have realized that Jesus was baptized not because He needed to be, but in order to identify Himself with John’s message! It was right for Jesus to take a stand with John. Just as it would have been right for me to identify myself with the preacher's call to commitment.
It’s an important principle for us to apply. We too need to be identified with what is right, and what is righteous. We too need to be willing to take a public stand. many times we are so insular in our thinking, we only respond for ourselves. Maturity is when you respond not just for yourself but for the message that you believe in.
John’s Gospel tells us that it was only as Christ stood in the water beside His cousin, and the Spirit descended on Him as a dove, that John realized who Jesus is – the Messiah he had been commissioned to announce. Identifying with the message and the truth allows the Spirit to be poured out on us.
