NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.
By C. P. B.
THE MISSION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.
THE words, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ," used to introduce Mark's narrative, evidently mean the beginning of the earthly ministry of our Lord, and the events which immediately preceded it. Commenting upon this text Dr. George F. Pentecost says: "Had Mark been writing of the beginning of the being and work of Christ, like John, he must have gone back into eternity, where he was with the Father; had he desired to write from the beginning of the gospel as declared to man, he must have gone back to the garden of Eden, where Christ's coming was first announced to Adam and Eve." And this is true, for the promise of redemption to our first parents, the promise to Abraham, and the truth preached to the children of Israel, was the gospel, the good news of salvation from sin and from its awful penalty. Christ is set forth in the Scriptures as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13: 8), and the whole throng of the redeemed, from Adam to the last soul ransomed from the pit of destruction, will ascribe their salvation to God and to the Lamb. Rev. 7: 9, 10. But the gospel means much more than simply salvation from the penalty of sin. It means purity even in this life. "She shall bring forth a son," said the angel, "and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins." Matt. 1: 21. The great end to be attained is not simply eternal life; God is to be honored in our salvation, and that can be done only by the complete vindication in each one of our hearts of the righteousness of his Government. The mere bestowal of eternal life, unending existence, would not be a vindication of the righteousness of God's law; that which is to be attained is holiness, without which eternal existence would be alike impossible and undesirable. This we must get through Christ, whom the apostle tells us "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." The last is the logical result of the others. God will not, yea, cannot, imbue with eternal life that which is antagonistic to his very being, neither can he suffer that to become extinct which is in harmony with him. Christ was raised from the dead because, being without sin, it was not possible that he should be holden of death (Acts 2: 24); and likewise those who have been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4), those in whom the Spirit of God dwells, shall be quickened by his Spirit that dwelleth in them. Rom. 8: 11. As it is written, "Righteousness tendeth to life," but "the wages of sin is death." THE value of the gospel is derived from the divinity of its Author. It is "the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." In one sense all are the sons of God, but it is not in any such sense as this that the term is applied to Christ. His absolute divinity is most clearly set forth in the Scriptures. In Isa. 9: 6 he is called, "Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." And in John 1: 1-3, 14 we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." While the apostle Paul tells us that he is "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." Rom. 1: 4. And of the value of the gospel he says (verse 16): "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." THE gospel was not new to the world in the days of John the Baptist, but the personal work and ministry of that gospel by the Son of God was new. Hitherto the Lord of the vineyard (Luke 20) had sent his servants to receive of the fruit, but now he would send his Son. But before him was to go a messenger, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." John was this messenger. The fruit which the Lord would fain have received from his vineyard (the house of Israel and the men of Judah, Isa. 5: 7) was the fruit of righteousness. Says the prophet: "He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." And it was for this reason that John came preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. THE Jewish people had almost entirely lost sight of the object of the coming of the promised Saviour. They looked for a political deliverer, but Jesus was coming to save them from their sins, to deliver them from the dominion of Satan, not from the power of the empire of Rome. He was coming to call, not the righteous, but sinners to repentance; but before he could help any they must realize their need of help; and it was John's mission to turn the thoughts of the people from themselves to God, away from their own "righteousness, which is of the law," to "that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Phil. 3: 9. John's preaching was calculated to prepare the people to receive Christ not as an earthly king but as a spiritual deliverer. ONE notable feature in John's work was the humble spirit in which it was done. It was no part of his mission to exalt himself. He came saying, "There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose." But while worthy of note, John's humility was only what we would expect in the forerunner of the Saviour. The spirit of self-exaltation is entirely foreign to the gospel of Christ. The great Captain of our salvation humbled himself, and they who would be Christ's must crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts. MANY have queried why it was necessary for Christ to be baptized. He was not a sinner, and even John seemed to feel that the rite could have no significance in the case of the Saviour of the world. But Jesus said, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." The following comment, made in substance by an able writer on the International Lessons, may serve to throw some light upon this text:— Jesus, when he came to this world, came not only in behalf of sinners, but he so identified himself with them that he judicially took their place under the law and assumed their condition because of sin. Therefore he stood forth as the representative and substitute for sinners, and walked before them in the way of confession and appropriation. Christ's baptism was a significant type of his own death, or rather burial and resurrection, and we have in it two things: first, the way in which he was to fulfill all righteousness, viz., by dying and being raised again; and second, the way in which we come into righteousness, viz., by union with him we die to sin and become alive to righteousness. This death and resurrection to newness of life we signify by our baptism.