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EDITORIAL

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 22, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 41.

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EDITORIAL

By Editor

The Baptism of the Man

JOHN the baptizer, the messenger of God, was doing his Heaven-appointed work. His clear, strong reproof pierced the hearts of adamant, even those of the wicked Herod and his wickeder paramour, Herodias, the latter of whom was planning black vengeance. But his word bore fruit in regenerated hearts and renewed lives. Publican and sinner, male and female, merchant and fisherman, soldier and civilian, priest and peasant, had bowed before the rough prophet in the wilderness, confessing their sins, and had been baptized of him in the Jordan.
DEPRECIATIVE of himself, magnifying only his message and the One of whom he was the forerunner, his preaching swept through Judea like the early rain, until men began to think the roughly garbed preacher of the desert was himself the Messiah. But John knew to the contrary. He was not the Messiah, he was not Elijah, he was not Moses, or Jeremiah, or any of the prophets who had fallen in harness by the way. He was the mighty voice of Isaiah's prophecy, predicted more than six centuries before, and now vocal in Judea. That voice was preparing the way of the Lord in the moral desert of Israel. It was given to straighten their perverted theology, sift to the nothing the superstitious, soul-burdening traditions of the elders, bring low the mountains of self-righteousness, and exalt in the approval of God, humility, and humble trust. He pointed the way. The Coming One only could do the work. He would baptize the humble and faithful in the life-giving power of His Spirit, but immersed in the glory of whose presence the eternally identified with sin would perish.
Photograph from a scene on the Jordan. Our Lord may have been baptized on the spot photographed; but no "holy place," no "holy water" from the Jordan, can save the soul. There is but one Fount of cleansing; but one great Example—our blessed Lord.
Photograph from a scene on the Jordan. Our Lord may have been baptized on the spot photographed; but no "holy place," no "holy water" from the Jordan, can save the soul. There is but one Fount of cleansing; but one great Example—our blessed Lord.
ONE day He, the Predicted One, came. John knew, before He came, that He was manifest in their midst. "In the midst of you standeth One whom ye know not, even He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose." John 1:26, 27. When John saw Him, he recognized His holiness. The prophet felt, in the very presence of the Holy One, the atmosphere of heaven. He was amazed that that Man whose very presence radiated holiness should ask to be baptized. John felt that the honor was above him. He would have hindered the Sinless One. "I have need to be baptized of Thee," faltered the prophet, "and comest Thou to me?" Jesus replied, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered Him."
THE divine-human Son of God needed not to be baptized for His own sins. Personally He had none to confess, none of which to repent; but He had identified Himself with the race. He was made one with humanity. He stood in their stead. He bore their sins. He was a partaker of flesh and blood, of the seed of Abraham, of the flesh of David. He stood there in our behalf, kin with all mortals, bearing our infirmities, our weakness, our iniquities. He was our Fellow in the flesh, as He was and is God's Fellow in eternity. He repented in our behalf, died to sin in our behalf, rose to life forever in our behalf, and His burial and rising from the river Jordan was a symbol of that death and life as it should be in every believer.
WHEN Jesus came up out of the Jordan, He prayed; and what a prayer it must have been! That was the first step in the public life of His mission. It was the beginning of the time of that wonderfully pregnant three years' ministry which has changed the face of the world. Appreciating its meaning, its trials, its temptations, its fearful conflicts with baleful, malevolent powers of darkness, its heart-breaking burdens, its agony for souls, Jesus prayed; and in response to His mighty, simple faith, the portals of heaven opened. The Spirit in visible form, like a dove of peace, descended upon the Kneeling One, and from the blue above came the voice of the eternal God, "Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." The simple, graphic narrative has its various lessons. Let us take home to our hearts two of them.JOHN, and perhaps a few others, saw with Jesus the opening heavens, the descent of the Spirit's symbol. It was an assurance to the prophet that Jesus was the Christ. John said, "I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel." "I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptized in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." John 1:31-34. So God reveals Himself to the pure in heart. Paul heard the voice of God speaking, and understood His words. His unspiritual companions heard but an incomprehensible sound. Jesus, in response to a prayer, heard the Father speak, and knew what He said. Others knew that some holy being was speaking to Him. Still others said, "It thundered." "The friendship of Jehovah is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant," or, as the margin reads, "His covenant, to make them know it." O soul, keep within the current of His working, within the circle of His manifest presence! Sometimes there may be clouds to shut from your human heart His indescribable glory; and sometimes He will flood your soul with light, and you will hear for that Son's sake His voice speak to you, "Thou art My beloved son; in thee I am well pleased." It was for Christ; it is for you, if you are in Christ. Then you can say of Jesus, with John, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" All the divinely ordained Scriptures of the past met in Him. The sin Bearer, seen and embraced by faith in type, had come to save.
THE Spirit descended and abode upon Him. It was God's anointing for His work. For thirty years since His birth His mother had waited; His friends had waited; the world had waited; the devil had waited for His manifestation; and God had waited. Sometimes young men become impatient, and enter God's work, and run without an anointing, and without a message; but God's fitting is more than years. Jesus waited thirty years for the anointing of the Spirit, and then how God used Him! Have you not read of "how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him"? Acts 10:38. The lesson is ours, and the experience may be, if we will yield to serve God as did our blessed Lord.
W.