SEVEN centuries before Christ, "the prophet of the evangel" had uttered these words: "The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. . . . Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God!" Isa. 40 : 3-9.
CENTURY after century dragged its slow length along. Backsliding, war, defeat, captivity, pain, sorrow, and unmeasured affliction were the lot of the chosen people. Hungry ears longed for the "voice" in the wilderness of darkness and want and wo, but they heard it not. Longing eyes looked through the gloom for the coming glory, but, disappointed, closed them in captivity and death. Had the prophet spoken a dream out of his own mouth? Nay, he was God's messenger of comfort to His people in his promise of another messenger. And the faithful, the hopeful, believed and waited in the wilderness.
THE messenger came; the messenger of the Prince of the covenant. Not from princely halls or schools of reputation, with the endorsement of the great and wise, came he; but a plain, strong-muscled, lithe-limbed, clear-eyed, pure-hearted, man came from the wilderness of Judea to a worse wilderness of sin and tradition and worldliness and sophistry and formal hypocrisy. He was clothed in camel's hair. His garments were bound around with a leather girdle. "His meat was locusts and wild honey."
BUT the preaching of John the Baptist had in it the very potency of God. Men were convicted of sin, from the formal Pharisee to the rough soldier, from the peasant of the Jordan valley to King Herod upon his throne. He spoke with the power of God. The Spirit of God in hearts responded to its searching, solemn warning and appeal. But ever he told them, as they believed him to be the Coming One, "I am not He, but am sent to prepare the way before Him."
The Jordan.
SEVEN hundred years before, the same prophet had spoken: "The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God."
AND centuries again rolled their slow wheels along the course of time, but no messenger came in whom the prophecy met the fulfilment. In a limited way God's prophets realized these blessings, but no one saw this prophecy fulfilled. The Sent of God only could do this work, but He came not. But one day, seven hundred years after Isaiah's lips had been locked in the last long sleep, as John was baptizing near the Jordan, he looked up and saw One of power coming to him. He, too,
asked to be baptized. John protested, saying, "I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" "Suffer it now," said Jesus; "for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."
"JOHN baptized with water unto repentance." Of what did Jesus repent? There were no sins recorded against Him either in the books of heaven or in His own character. Ah, but He stood there in behalf of sinful humanity, the Sinless for the sinner, identified in all things with mortal man, a Saviour for all who need salvation. Not alone upon the4cross did He bear man's sins and temptations; but He took the flesh of man, was "born of a woman, born under the law" (Gal. 4:4), was "made of the seed of David according unto the flesh" (Rom. 1:3), "in all things to be made like unto His brethren;" and all this that He might be identified with them in all their sin and suffering and misery and wo. He could not sin, therefore He bore their sins. He could not repent of His own sins (for He had none), therefore He repented for them. He became what He was, even to the cross and the grave, "that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Gal. 4:5.
THAT is ever the Christ-spirit, manifest in Moses, in Daniel, in Nehemiah, in Ezra, in Paul; supremely manifest in Jesus. "For both He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one." Therefore He came to the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance. Therefore He repented as tho the sins were His very own; for Love had laid them upon Him, the Sin-bearer, in contradistinction to Lucifer, the sin-loader. By so doing, Jesus acknowledged that sin was wrong, that God was right, and as one of the human family, as the Redeemer of the human family, He came acknowledging both the sin and the righteousness of God: "thus it becometh [prepō] us to fulfil all righteousness." "For it became [prepō] Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings." "For such a high priest became [prepō] us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." In every position, in every step downward or upward, He did the thing proper to do. And therefore when He came to John, to the baptism of repentance, as our representative, standing for us, He did the proper, the becoming, thing. Blessed be God, He stood for us, met our fullest need. Let faith grasp that infinite repentance of all sin, before the soul is so imprisoned and darkened and poisoned in its very depth that it will have no desire for the light.
"HAVING been baptized, and praying," Luke tells the story, "the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon Him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased." And for the sake of every repentant sinner who follows in His Lord's steps is this written. If by faith he grasps that repentance of sin that loathes the sin and turns from it, and accepts of the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus as his only hope, it is also his privilege, of which neither priest nor council nor creed can deprive him, of taking as his very own that word from heaven, "Thou art My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." He is "accepted in the Beloved."
THE baptism of the water was unto repentance. The bestowing of the Spirit is unto service. Therefore the words of Jesus: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke 4:18, 19. "How God anointed Him [Jesus of Nazareth] 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. He yielded to do God's work; God anointed Him for the work. If we yield to do His work, God will, through Christ, give us the anointing. Repent; go forward in baptism praying, that all sin may be removed and buried with your baptism, that the Spirit may clothe you for work, give you at least one of God's spiritual gifts for His service. This is your privilege; nay, more, it is your duty. It is supremely selfish to seek God to bless us by the healing of the soul from sin, and then to refuse to consecrate it to His service, to not want to consecrate it to His service. You are His. Christ identified Himself with you in your sin that you might be enabled to identify yourself with Him in holy service. He lifted you out of your sin that He might clothe you in His robe of righteousness and fit you for His service. O, will you, as you contemplate again, or perhaps for the first time, what He has done for you, refuse longer to yield all to Him, that He may make you a bearer of good tidings to all?
