THE GRACE OF THE GLAD TIDINGS
Glen M Barlow
I had a simple impression to take up this scripture in the gospel as having been impressed that it foreshadows, at the outset of the Lord’s public service, what would be accomplished in His death. It speaks not only of the condition that His death had to meet, but the glorious answer to it in the grace of God.
This chapter has its primary bearing on Israel, but Scripture tells us that all that happened to Israel is written “as types of us”, 1 Cor 10: 6. I think Israel really represents man in responsibility before God, presented with divine providence and favour and yet failing in that responsibility, and failing completely. That is what Israel’s history illustrates to us, the way that everything that God set on for man, everything that He provided for man’s blessing - right from the outset, right from the garden where man was placed in the most favourable circumstances possible - met with failure, met with sin, when committed to man in responsibility.
I would like to take up this chapter which contains the thoughts of repentance, faith, the giving of the Holy Spirit and sonship, as conveying something of the desires of the heart of God in the gospel, because He is approaching man now, not on the grounds of man’s responsibility, but on the grounds of His own grace. That is what I would seek some measure of help to speak of today - the grace of God presented in the glad tidings to men.
The chapter begins, “Now in those days”. What were “those days”? The character of them is set out in the preceding chapter; they were days in which the incoming of God, “God with us” (Matt 1: 23), was met with the murderous hatred of man. Those are the days in which this message was conveyed by John the baptist. The incoming of the Lord Jesus was God “manifested in flesh”, 1 Tim 3: 16. What it met with was the hatred expressed in Herod’s actions, the murderous hatred of man against God, the rejection of God. Is that different to the day in which we live? We live in “those days” when the incoming of God in grace has been met with the rejection of the world. They hated the Lord Jesus “without a cause”, Ps 69: 4. That being true, the call in the gospel is on all men to repent.
Repentance relates to our sins - the things we have done and what they mean to a holy and righteous God; it relates to what we are - our sinful state; but I noticed a remark a little while ago that it relates too to the fact that we ‘belong to a world that has rejected Him’, CAC vol 28 p17. I think that must turn the heart in repentance to God. That is the race; that is the order of man to which we belong, the man that saw Jesus, God’s provision of a Saviour, and said, “Away with this man”, Luke 23: 18. Does that turn your heart to repentance? So John called on Israel to repent here, but now God is enjoining “men that they shall all everywhere repent”, Acts 17: 30. That is what God is enjoining, and I understand the force of the word “enjoins” in that scripture to be that He commands it. He commands repentance. You might say that, even if there were no means of salvation, God would be entitled to command repentance. But He is not bringing forward repentance in the way of demand, but in the way of grace, FER vol 15 p13. That is how God is presenting repentance now. John the baptist could not present that, but what is foreshadowed in the latter part of this chapter indicates the way in which repentance, with faith, can open the way into all the blessings of God. As recognising what we are before a holy and righteous God - our sins, our sinful state, the responsibility of man away from God - we can be brought by His grace into divine blessing.
So the effect of this word of John is to draw a distinction between those who repented and those who did not. The gospel draws a distinction. There were men here who thought the distinction was between Jew and Gentile. There is no such distinction now. God’s distinction is between those who have confessed their sins - it speaks in this chapter of those who “were baptised by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins” - and those who have not. Have you confessed your sins before a holy and righteous God in repentance? It distinguishes the wheat from the chaff; it distinguishes these Pharisees and Sadducees from those who came to be baptised by John. John says, “do not think to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father”. They would have made a claim, as you might like to do, on the grounds of what they were according to flesh; they would say, ‘Well, we are children of Abraham’. However, in Galatians it tells us, “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Know then that they that are on the principle of faith, these are Abraham’s sons”, chapter 3: 6-7. So John says, “that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham”. He has! God has raised up of that which was utterly morally dead children of Abraham: “you, being dead in your offences and sins”, Eph 2: 1. Do you have faith? That is the ground on which that which was dead can come into life. There is no distinction of Jew and Gentile. There is a distinction of those who have repented and have faith, and those who do not. Judgment is coming; this scripture makes that clear. It was true when John spoke; it is still true now. We are not preaching judgment - this is a day of grace - but judgment is coming; the wheat will be gathered “into the garner”, but the chaff will be burnt “with fire unquenchable”. This is the solemnity of the gospel, beloved! This distinction is drawn on the grounds of repentance and faith. It is a distinction that has eternal consequences for your soul.
Well, if we are to have faith, that faith needs an object. We have sinned against a holy and righteous God. The righteousness of God must be upheld; in must be judged. Faith needs an object, and in that light, I find verse 13 extraordinarily beautiful, “Then comes Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan to John”. He comes as it were from the place of reproach to the place of death. Another has said that ‘where sin had brought me, grace brought Him’, JND, Collected Writings vol 16 p352. That which these waters of baptism speak of, death, is that to which we were entitled. He was not entitled to it; holy, spotless, perfect Man. There was nothing in Him that warranted the waters of death, and John recognises it: “John urgently forbad him”. John recognised there was nothing worthy of death in that Man. In another place he says, “Behold the Lamb of God”, John 1: 36. You think of what John saw in that blessed Man, but He came to the waters of baptism. This of course speaks directly of the baptism of John and the way that the Lord Jesus identified Himself with Israel in condescending grace, but He Himself tells us in Luke of another baptism: “I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened until it shall have been accomplished!”, chap 12: 50. This passage foreshadows the death of Jesus in which He came where I was! He came into the very place of death where I was: a stone, morally dead. He came into that place, and His voice is heard there, His voice can be heard in death, John 5: 25. He came to the very place where we are as away from God, and He suffered the penalty that belonged to my sins. Precious Saviour! Precious Saviour that He should say, “Suffer it now”; the One who came in grace to the place that belonged to me. That way involved the cross, it involved His sufferings at the hands of man, it involved that He should answer to a holy and righteous God, not only for what I have done, but for what I am; that He should answer to God in those three hours of darkness for what the whole order of man was before God. The glorious basis for salvation was laid in that precious work, the shedding of His precious blood having accomplished atonement. The witness to that life given up is the fact that His blood was shed, and that work forms the basis of salvation for all who repent and have faith in Him. Do you have your faith in the Lord Jesus and in His precious blood? I trust all here do have their faith in Him.
Then it speaks of how, having been baptised He “went up straightway from the water”. Baptism is a type, not just of death, but of death and resurrection. The Lord Jesus, the One who has accomplished that work, is now the other side of death. He has been raised “by the glory of the Father”, Rom 6: 4. If the shedding of His blood is the witness to the fact that His life was given up, then His being raised is the witness to the fact that death has been overcome. Everything that stood out against these persons to whom the Lord Jesus came here - the persons with whom He identified Himself, everything that stands out against you, He has answered for it, He has met it. He has met the matter of sin; He has met the matter of death. He has met every liability that falls upon you, if you have faith in Him. He “went up straightway from the water”. He has gone on to new ground. The gospel has in mind that you should have part with Him on new ground; part with Him in an order of things to which sin does not attach, to which death does not attach, because He has met and overcome it all. The power for that is in the Holy Spirit of God. It was referenced this morning that the glad tidings are preached for this purpose, that we might receive the Holy Spirit of God. I think one of the reasons for that is that the conscious knowledge and enjoyment of everything that has been secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus is known only by the Holy Spirit. The gospel is preached for your acceptance, not your understanding. I trust that everyone here has accepted in faith what has been presented in the gospel, but if you want to know and enjoy what you have accepted, only the Spirit can give you that. So the gospel is preached that you might receive the Holy Spirit. The baptism of Jesus exceeds in every way the baptism of John, “he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. The desires of God come out in that, I think, the desires that you may enter into blessing. The work has been accomplished, the victory has been won, the ground has been won for you, and the Father would desire that you would come onto that ground, and the Holy Spirit is the power for it.
We then have this acclamation of heaven for the Lord Jesus. It speaks of God’s absolute satisfaction in the Person and work of Jesus, and therefore any who have their faith in Him have no cause for doubt. If our salvation depended on anything that we could do, if it depended even on our own appreciation of what has been done, what doubts we might have! But the One who accomplished this work is the One of whom the Father could say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, the One in whom He finds His delight, now and eternally. What the Father would desire is that you might be brought into relationship with the One in whom He has His delight, and to be the object of the same favour. What glorious thoughts God’s are!
In John’s epistle, it says, “even as he is, we also are in this world” (1 John 4: 17); that is, as another has said, that as Christ is the object of the Father’s love, so too is the believer, FER vol 13: p53. “As he is”: what a portion is the believer’s! He remains always distinct as the glorious Son of God, but as He is the object of the delight and favour of the Father, so are believers in this world. So the gospel goes on to sonship. It must. That is the Father’s desire in purpose, that we should be sons by adoption (Eph 1: 5), and this glorious, completed work forms the basis for us to be brought into that relationship. At the end of this gospel, when the Lord Jesus is in resurrection, it says, “And as they went to bring his disciples word, behold also, Jesus met them, saying, Hail! And they coming up took him by the feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus says to them, Fear not; go, bring word to my brethren”, Matt 28: 9-10. There was a Man infinitely delightful to the Father when on earth, and on the cross, and in going into death. Now He is raised and He is still delightful to the Father, but the difference is that the Father’s delight is now also in others whom He has secured; “go, bring word to my brethren”.
Well, I trust that all here are counted among His brethren. The gospel has great things in mind: not just relief from judgment - necessary and essential though that is - but that we should be brought into living relationship with the One who has secured our blessing; into living relationship with a God who, when met with the failure of man in responsibility, came out from His own side in grace. He provided everything He required, because of His love.
May we enter into it in a greater way, for His Name’s sake.
Sidcup
5th April 2026