Luke 3:16
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:
Luke's account places this saying in the ministry of John as the forerunner of Christ, who arose from among the faithful in Israel who had long waited for the coming of the Messiah. His birth answered long prayers for the coming Redeemer, and his work was to prepare the Lord's ways and make ready a people prepared for the Lord. He thus stands as the forerunner raised up from those waiting ones to prepare the way before Christ.
The words were spoken when the people were in expectation and mused in their hearts whether John himself were the Christ, and John answered them all. In answering he humbled himself, refused honors that did not belong to him, and made clear that he was not the Messiah or the promised one. He directed the people and his own followers away from himself toward Christ, making it his role to point men to Christ rather than to claim anything for himself.
The One to whom he pointed was coming after him and was far mightier than he, whose work and mission were so exalted that John was not worthy even to stoop to loose the strap of His shoes. That unworthiness to unloose the latchet expresses Christ's superiority and the immeasurable distance between the forerunner and the Coming One. John contrasted his own baptism with water with Christ's baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire. He preached repentance and baptism and prepared the way, and Christ would complete the work John had begun, the same preaching of repentance and baptism and of the coming One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit which Nicodemus had heard.
The fire is tied to John's warning that repentance must bear fruit, separating the fruitful from the wicked. It refers to judgment by which Christ will purge His threshing floor, gather the wheat, and destroy the chaff with fire that cannot be quenched. The saying is therefore used to urge conversion and a fruitful life in the Lord's vineyard, warning that continued failure to meet Christ's expectation brings judgment. John's prophetic work in this connected the law and the prophets with the Christian dispensation, pointing back to them and forward to Christ as the Saviour of the world. His message to the people of his day in these words is one that present workers should study to advantage.