LUKE 3
The public position is taken account of in the opening verses of this chapter; everything that publicly attached to Israel had broken down. The times of the Gentiles were running their course; the Roman power ruled. That in itself was the evidence that the kingdom had passed away from Israel. Descendants of Esau were subordinate rulers in that which had been David’s kingdom. As to the priesthood we are told that it was the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
[p. 48] and Luke states elsewhere that they were of the sect of the Sadducees. I understand that Annas had been deposed, but he continued to exercise the authority of high priest along with his son-in-law Caiaphas. The point here is to bring out how the kingdom and priesthood had lost their divine character. The men who were exercising the priesthood were Sadducees; they denied that there was any spirit or resurrection; they answered to the infidels of today. But if the kingdom and priesthood had both broken down, there was another element, thank God, that did not break down. The kingdom and priesthood had failed, but the prophetic word came to John in the wilderness. God always reserves to Himself the right to speak, whatever failure there may be on the part of men. That is an important principle. Publicly the administration entrusted to the church has broken down, but God still reserves to Himself the right to speak. He has spoken in the last dark day of the church’s departure and His word is a pure word, it does not break down. Annas and Caiaphas were the chief promoters of the crucifixion of the Lord. That was the character of the priesthood; they were thorough unbelievers. It is a great comfort to see that, however things which God committed to man have broken down, the prophetic word has always been available and always will be.
The word of God came upon John. God spoke then in view of the coming of Christ, and He is speaking now in the last days of the church in view of Christ’s coming again. The state of things in the church is every bit as bad as, or worse than, the state of things in Israel, but God is speaking in a distinct and marked way. God has been bringing in light ever since the Reformation; every century He has brought in more light; the word of God has been given and it is that which emancipates the people of God. They have been able to escape from what is really the word of man by receiving the word of God; the word brings forth a generation that is according to God. It is incorruptible seed and it brings forth a generation like itself. What marks Philadelphia is, “thou hast kept my word”; such persons receive and value the word of God. God is speaking in grace, and that will always be the character of divine speaking while the assembly is here. The word of God is the word of grace; Paul says, “I commend you to God and the word of his grace”.
The word of God to John concerned the baptism of repentance [p. 49] for the remission of sins; it was a word of Pure grace and it became fruitful; the grace of God opened up new ground for people to take. The great lesson of John’s ministry is that man is shut up to God. God was going to take a wondrous way, but that way had to be prepared, and God Himself had to prepare it. Repentance is a fruitful principle in the soul, for it involves, through grace, moral adjustment by the salvation of God. Those who were baptised by John acknowledged that they had nothing to look forward to but coming wrath. But by the favour of God they were permitted to take entirely new ground as judging themselves, and looking to God for remission of sins and for His salvation. Repentance results from a moral work of God in men, in which it is recognised that, if there is to be any blessing, it must be wholly of God. There is no natural ground on which we can have it.
If God moves in grace, it is to remove every obstacle or difficulty that stands in His way; that comes out in this quotation from Isaiah: “every gorge shall be filled up”. The gorges represent what does not come up to the proper level; there is deficiency, the valleys have to be filled up. This is illustrated in the crowds, who were lacking in gracious consideration for others and who said, “What should we do?” John says, “He that has two body coats, let him give to him that has none, and he that has food, let him do likewise”. If God comes in to operate in grace and salvation, He will fill up every deficiency. But on the other hand there are mountains and hills which have to be brought low; they represent such as the Pharisees boasting that they had Abraham for their father; all that sort of thing has to come down; if God moves in grace He will bring it down. Then the “crooked places” have their counterpart in such as the tax-gatherers who made people pay too much; the soldiers, oppressing and falsely accusing, would answer to the “rough places”. If God operates in grace He adjusts everything so that all flesh shall see His salvation; in result all can see how God can adjust man morally at every point. He deals with every condition, and He adjusts everything that is wrong, whether it is deficient, or high and haughty, or crooked, or rough — God takes His own way to bring about moral conditions that are suitable to Himself.
There are many crooked and rough places today; we have to take it home. Has everything been brought into adjustment with God in our souls so that not a single thing is left to interfere with God’s way in grace? The grace of God operates to effect perfect moral adjustment, and all is brought to pass through man’s realising what there is for him in God through grace. He has to give up all hopes of remedying his own condition; baptism means that all thought of that is given up; man must go under the water out of sight. Through the favour of God it is possible to take new ground, to repent and look to God for remission of sins and salvation. Salvation would involve complete moral adjustment.
John teaches the necessity for new birth in a very striking way, though he does not exactly put it in those word. He says to them, “God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham”. I have no doubt that is an allusion to the necessity for the new birth. If God makes a stone into a child it is a very sovereign movement, and that God should so act is the only hope for man. As far as man is concerned there is not a bit of anything in him for God, but if God makes a stone into a child it is a miracle of mercy. Man after the flesh is morally the offspring of Satan, the “offspring of vipers”, and therefore that man never has brought forth good fruit, and never can. John says that the time has come to deal with the tree right down to the root. It is not a question merely of the fruit but of the tree; he says, “Every tree therefore not producing good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire”; the axe is applied to the root of the trees. The root is what man is according to the flesh. Man according to the flesh never did bring forth good fruit, and the time had come for all expectations from man after the flesh to cease, not only for the tree to be cut down, but to be cast into the fire. It is quite certain that if you cut a tree down you do not expect fruit from it afterwards, and still less would you expect any fruit if it had been cast into the fire: that is the complete and final rejection of it so that henceforth nothing is to be expected from it; you cannot revive it. Such a statement as this looks on to the cross, where there was the cutting down and casting into the fire of all that man is according to the flesh, in order that the ground might be cleared for a new generation raised up by God Himself out of what was lifeless — “these stones”.
“All flesh shall see the salvation of God”. What God was going to do in grace would be the testimony to His salvation; it will be so when God saves Israel. When all Israel shall be saved, all flesh shall see the salvation of God in Israel. God’s [p. 51] intention now is that all flesh should see His salvation in His people. If the church had continued in unity, what a testimony there would have been in this world to the salvation of God, people walking in holiness and righteousness and serving God all the days of their lives! What a testimony to God’s saving power! If a man who has been a notorious drunkard, an evil living man, or a violent-tempered man, by the grace of God escapes from that and becomes characterised by just the opposite features and without boastfulness or pretension walks humbly with his God — what a testimony it is!
Everyone can see the salvation of God. There is a power about it. People take a great deal of notice of Christians; they watch us all the time, but do they see the salvation of God in us? The jailor at Philippi saw the salvation of God in Paul and Silas, and he said, I would like to be saved too. The great point is that men should be turned to God. It was said of John, “Many of the sons of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God”. If man turns to God, God in grace will adjust him and save him and give him repentance and remission of sins and everything he needs. The whole question is, Do we turn to God? Naturally we have all sorts of expedients of our own, but the secret of blessing is to turn to God. God says in substance in the glad tidings, ‘I will do everything for you if you will only turn to Me’; that is the God we have to do with. In the end He will have His garner full of precious wheat.
The evidence of man’s sinful state is that all his thoughts centre in himself and his own advantage. Men in the world are marked by self, but, when God’s grace comes to a man, instead of living for himself he begins to think of the good of others (verse 11). The question is not raised here of men leaving military service, but of behaving rightly in it. I believe, in the wonderful grace of God, it has pleased Him to have some testimony in almost every condition of life. Every saint should be exercised to be in keeping with his Christian profession; there is no Scripture to say that a man who is a soldier must give it up; God has left it to personal exercise. It is part of the liberty of Christianity that there are a number of things concerning which there is no legislation; they are left to individual exercise, and in such cases it becomes a question of how much I know God. I am told to abide in the calling wherein I am called “with God”. If I increase my [p. 52] knowledge of God I shall be exercised about things I was not exercised about when I did not know Him so well. The Christian does not judge of things in a legal way, but according to the spiritual intuitions of one who knows God, of course in the light of all that is enjoined, or found in principle in Scripture. God likes to see His people moving in their own exercises and spiritual intuitions. A man baptised by the Holy Spirit will have exercises according to God. In every case contemplated here things are adjusted: valleys filled, mountains and hills brought down, crooked places made straight, and rough places made smooth — all is adjusted. And then John says, ‘There is One greater than I coming after me; He is so great that I am not worthy to unloose His sandals’: “he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. What a thought it must have conveyed to his congregation of the greatness of the coming One! John was full of the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb; he was an extraordinary man, but the Lord was infinitely greater.
I think there is at the present day special need to be more exercised about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All round about us people are talking a great deal about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and connecting it with all kinds of things that more or less attract attention, professed healing and speaking with tongues and so on. In a day when the religious world is full of all sorts of notions about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we ought to be exercised to be in the spiritual genuineness of it. There is, I am afraid, a lack with us of that purifying of which the fire speaks. It indicates purification of the dross. Water baptism has an aspect of external purification, as purifying from evil associations, but fire penetrates to the very inwardness; the refiner’s purifying fire searches out the inwardness of man, it is an intense purification, and would be connected with what the Lord said in Malachi 3: 3, “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver”. Fire penetrates to the most inward feelings and motives of one’s heart and does not leave unjudged any dross. If I could speak with a tongue I should be a rather great person, much more important than one who could not; and if I could heal people or work miracles I should be a wonderful man. But to be inwardly in accord with God is much greater morally than to do such things. The Spirit and fire would exercise a purifying influence [p. 53] to the very centre of a man’s moral being so that there should not be anything in his secret thoughts, feelings, or desires that is contrary to God. Are we prepared to go in for that? There is fear lest young people may be drawn away from a divine path under the influence of high sounding talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and its results in outward signs. It ought to be an exercise with us to know the One who baptises with the Holy Spirit. John says, “He shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit”.
The great mark of having been baptised with the Holy Spirit would be that we should work together harmoniously as members of that body into which He has baptised us. The baptism of the Spirit is not exactly an individual matter; it puts all the saints vitally together in a living organism, and the great evidence of the power of the Spirit is that we function properly as members of the body. To function properly as a member of the body of Christ is morally greater than to work a miracle or speak with tongues.
John speaks of Jesus in two characters — as baptising with the Holy Spirit and fire, and as purging His threshing-floor. That covers the service of Jesus as John has it in view. He secures the wheat by baptising with the Holy Spirit, and that necessitates the winnowing away of all that is of the flesh. I have no doubt that the result of John’s ministry needed to be winnowed. There was wheat there, but chaff also. The Lord’s ministry had a winnowing effect; it got rid of what was of no value, even though clearly associated with what was of God. I suppose John recognised that there was much in the threshing-floor as the result of his ministry that would not go into the garner, and his words contained a solemn warning that the chaff would be burned with fire unquenchable. But I think we may regard the winnowing as also setting forth a service by which the Lord displaces worthless flesh even in true saints.
The threshing-floor is the place where wheat is found on its way to the garner. It answers to the present place of the saints; we are in His threshing-floor now, not yet in His garner. The saints are viewed as wheat, that is, as having divine value as being morally of Christ’s kind. Fire is the most penetrating form of purification that there is, and that goes along with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All that is of the flesh will be burnt up, however pretentious it is,
[p. 54] Baptising with the Holy Spirit brings in what has positive value before God, and it suggests that there will be no positive value for God in man apart from the Spirit. All that is of the flesh is worthless; it is a pity to cling to it, for it will all be burnt up. The baptism of the Spirit necessitates the refusal of the flesh in a way that was not possible before the Spirit was given. In the Old Testament there are certain allowances made for the flesh, but no allowances are made now. We can speak of infinite grace, but there is no grace for the flesh. To be baptised with the Spirit would indicate that men were to be characterised by the Holy Spirit, and nothing outside that would yield any pleasure to God.
The axe being laid to the root of the tree shows that the time had come for God to deal with the root of things; He was going to the very root of what man is as in the flesh, and dealing with it so that there might be a clear course for His grace in Christ. If the man characterised by sin and death is cut down, the way is cleared for the second Man out of heaven to bring in all the pleasure of God. The question is, Are we prepared to let Him have His way with us? It is well to note that all this was John’s “glad tidings to the people”.
The result — man characterised by the Holy Spirit — has been perfectly patterned in Jesus, so that we see the true nature of the wheat by looking at Him. Wheat has precious value before God as being characterised by the Holy Spirit. Winnowing is not a violent or destructive process like burning up; it is displacing in a gentle way. The winnowing fan creates a movement of air which blows the chaff away; it is a gentle movement, effectual, but not of a violent character; such is the Lord’s present service. One great object which the Lord has in view in all ministry is to practically displace the flesh; He displaces it by that which is of the Spirit, and which has been perfectly patterned in Himself. There is discipline and ministry. Tribulation is a word which I believe is connected with threshing, but winnowing comes after the threshing. Threshing I should understand to have more of a disciplinary character. The discipline of God is always of a delivering nature; it always cuts where the flesh tends to be most active. Winnowing gets rid of the chaff, so that it does not remain in evidence; nothing remains to be seen but the wheat, what is like Christ as Man in the Holy Spirit. The temptation in chapter 4 was necessary in order that it might [p. 55] be manifested what Man is as characterised by the Holy Spirit.
The winnowing process would go on much faster if we submitted ourselves more to the Lord. There is a great lack of subjection with us, like Peter who said, “Thou shalt never wash my feet”. The question is, What are we set to promote? We are either sowing to the flesh or to the Spirit. Are we laying ourselves out to give place and importance to Christ and the Spirit? Nothing will go into the garner but what is for the pleasure of Christ, because it is His garner.
John had before him the whole result of the Lord’s coming in. The Lord did not actually baptise with the Holy Spirit until He went to the right hand of God, but John was looking at the whole result of His coming in; he had it all before him by the Spirit.
Let us cherish the thought of what has divine value; it is all to be seen and learned in Jesus, and until we learn it there I doubt if it becomes power in our souls. Therefore if one goes on habitually with what is of the flesh it indicates that there is great distance from Jesus; we have not come under His personal influence. It would raise the question whether we are like the baptised persons with whom Jesus identified Himself. The persons who were baptised by John and with whom Jesus was baptised were persons He could identify Himself with; they were renouncing all confidence in the flesh, renouncing all claim on the blessing of God by reason of goodness in themselves; Jesus would identify Himself with that. He would take that ground publicly; there is nothing more wonderful than that the Lord should take the place publicly which is set forth in the prophetic language of Psalm 16: “My goodness extendeth not to thee”. The known favour of God was what He lived in; blessed and sinless as He was, He delighted to be on the ground of what God was for man. He, the sinless One, would take the ground that goodness extended not from man to God but from God to man. And sinful ones could take that ground too. Wondrous to say, it was common ground for the sinless One and for repentant ones. If man is shut up to God — which he is by his sinfulness — he becomes a vessel to receive all that God has for man in grace. That is how man gets blessing; he owns he is sinful, has no claim, and he is shut up to God, and be becomes a vessel to receive all that God has in favour for man. Man reaches that point through being convicted in divine goodness of his sinful [p. 56] necessities; Jesus took that ground in pure and perfect grace. Man comes up to it from his degradation; Jesus came down to it, to a place where He could say, “My goodness extendeth not to thee”. In Psalm 16 He is in the place of receiving as the One who trusted in God all that the pure and boundless favour of God would delight to give. Sinful men through repentance can receive all in boundless favour too. So Jesus would be with such; He was baptised and He prayed. All that was suitable to man was patterned in Him. The Lord’s words to the young man, “Why callest thou me good?” are in keeping with what we have been saying.
The Lord is seen here as in the place of entire dependence on God; there was a blessed Man here upon whom heaven could be opened; there was no longer any restraint on heaven, nothing to check its outflow; heaven was opened because a Man was found in this world who was a suitable resting-place for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit as a dove speaks of the Holy Spirit as seeking a resting place. Noah’s dove sought a resting place, and the psalmist says, “Oh that I had wings as a dove; then would I fly away and be at rest”. The dove seeks rest, and the Spirit of God was seeking rest in man, and He found it at last in Jesus, the perfect Man — the One who would fully take the place of dependence on God.
Here we see the second Man out of heaven taking the place before God of identification with those who renounced all claim and cast themselves wholly upon what God was in favour to men. If there was nothing in man for God there was everything in God for man, and it is in the apprehension of that that men become objects of good pleasure to God. Jesus was publicly acknowledged here as the beloved Son in whom God had found His delight. As Man He derived everything from God, His whole being was derived from God, and morally He had ever lived by what God was to Him; He was the beloved Son, and God’s delight was in Him. Man in the Person of Jesus is seen in the place of sonship, seen as the resting-place of the Spirit, every desire of God’s heart supremely gratified in One who looked up to Him to receive all that divine favour was pleased to bestow on man.
Our coming into the wealth and blessedness of this favour is dependent on redemption being accomplished, Jesus being glorified, and the Spirit given; but it is all patterned in Jesus. He received all from God: “The lines are fallen unto me in [p. 57] pleasant places, yea, I have a goodly heritage. Jehovah is the portion of my inheritance and of my lot”. As the dependent Man He received all that God was pleased to give as the full expression of His favour to man. Sonship for God’s delight was there; Man in supreme favour and blessedness with God in the Person of His beloved Son is seen here as identified with repentant ones, who would through infinite grace become His joint heirs. All through the thirty years He had been God’s delight; He had ever been in complete dependence on God, and the intelligent and affectionate answer of the beloved Son to God had always been there. But the heavenly host had said, “Good pleasure in men”. All that was patterned in Jesus will be brought to pass for the delight of God in “many sons”. The delight of God found in Jesus He will find in every grain of wheat that goes into the garner. It is reached on very simple lines; if we take the place of having no claim, the only question is, What is the favour of God to man? If we take the place of having any claim we cannot receive as of pure divine favour alone. God has no favour for man on that line. His favour for man is on the line of pure grace and depends on what He is. The supreme thought of divine favour for man is sonship. God has secured it in one Man; what He had cherished in the purpose of His love from eternity, He has secured in one Man. Now He can secure it through redemption in myriads. In Mark and Luke it is “Thou art my beloved Son”, but in Matthew, “This is my beloved Son”. The anointing in Matthew is more official — God calling attention to Him, “This is my beloved Son”. But when He says, “Thou art my beloved Son”, He is expressing His own delight in Him; that involves the sealing.
“The Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him”. This seems to convey the striking thought that the Spirit of God as characterising man was going to come into tangible expression in Jesus. If we want to understand what man is as characterised by the Spirit we must look at Jesus; it was expressed there in a bodily form.
The genealogy here is, I believe, the genealogy of Mary; that in Matthew is the legal genealogy of the King traced from Joseph; but here, as we have before noticed, the genealogy is traced up to God. I have the impression that every one of these persons named had some features derived from God; it is not a genealogy derived from the fallen man, but derived [p. 58] from God. The Lord came in as the fulness of everything that had been produced in man by the grace of God for 4000 years. He came in as the culminating point, and all the fulness of it was there in Him. The Lord did not identify Himself with the fallen race but with man viewed as the subject of divine grace.