Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 3:11
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and [with] fire:
11. unto repentance ] i. e. to be a symbol of the changed life.
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ] The work of the meanest slaves. John, great prophet as he was, with influence sufficient to make even Herod tremble for his throne, is unworthy to be the meanest slave of the Stronger One the Son of God.
with the Holy Ghost ] Lit. in the Holy Ghost. This preposition is used in Greek and especially in Hellenistic Greek to signify the instrument, but it also expresses the surrounding influence or element in which an act takes place. With water=in water; with the Holy Ghost=surrounded by, influenced by the Holy Ghost.
The matured Christian conception of the Holy Ghost would not be present to the mind of John. Some of his disciples at Ephesus said to Paul “we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” Act 19:2.
fire ] This metaphor implies: (1) Purification, (2) Fiery zeal or enthusiasm, (3) Enlightenment; all which are gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the ancient hymn by Robert II. of France the third point is brought out:
“Et emitte clitus
Lucis tu radium
Veni lumen cordium.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear – The word translated here as shoes has a signification different from what it has in our language. At first, in order to keep the feet from the sharp stones or the burning sand, small pieces of wood were fastened to the soles of the feet, called sandals. Leather, or skins of beasts dressed, afterward were used. The foot was not covered at all, but the sandal, or piece of leather or wood, was bound by thongs. The people put off these when they enter a house, and put them on when they leave it. To unloose and bind on sandals, on such occasions, was formerly the business of the lowest servants. The expression in this place, therefore, denotes great humility, and John says that he was nor worthy to be the servant of him who should come after him.
Shall baptize you – Shall send upon you the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is frequently represented as being poured out upon his people, Pro 1:23; Isa 44:3; Joe 2:28-29; Act 2:17-18. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the same, therefore, as the sending of his influences to convert, purify, and guide the soul.
The Holy Ghost – The third person of the adorable Trinity, whose office it is to enlighten, renew, sanctify, and comfort the soul He was promised by the Saviour to convince of sin, Joh 16:8; to enlighten or teach the disciples, Joh 14:26; Joh 16:13; to comfort them in the absence of the Savior, Joh 14:18; Joh 16:7; to change the heart. Tit 3:5. To be baptized with the Holy Spirit means that the Messiah would send upon the world a far more powerful and mighty influence than had attended the preaching of John. Many more would be converted. A mighty change would take place. His ministry would not affect the external life only, but the heart. the motives, the soul; and would produce rapid and permanent changes in the lives of people. See Act 2:17-18.
With fire – This expression has been variously understood. Some have supposed that John refers to the afflictions and persecutions with which men would be tried under the Gospel; others, that the word fire means judgment or wrath. According to this latter interpretation, the meaning is that he would baptize a portion of mankind – those who were willing to be his followers – with the Holy Spirit, but the rest of mankind – the wicked – with fire; that is, with judgment and wrath. Fire is a symbol of vengeance. See Isa 5:24; Isa 61:2; Isa 66:24. If this is the meaning, as seems to be probable, then John says that the ministry of the Messiah would be far more powerful than his was. It would be more searching and testing; and they who were not suited to abide the test would be cast into eternal fire. Others have supposed, however, that by fire, here, John intends to express the idea that the preaching of the Messiah would be refining, powerful, purifying, as fire is sometimes an emblem of purity, Mal 3:2. It is difficult to ascertain the precise meaning further than that his ministry would be very trying, purifying, searching. Multitudes would be converted; and those who were not true penitents would not be able to abide the trial, and would be driven away.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 3:11
And with fire.
The fiery baptism
I. The Holy Ghost is fire. Baptism with the Holy Ghost is not one thing and baptism with fire another, but the former is the reality of which the latter is the symbol.
II. Christ plunges us into this fire. What a grand ideals conveyed by the metaphor of the completeness of the contact with the Spirit of God into which we are brought! How it represents all our being as flooded into that transforming power. Christs personal agency in effecting this saturating of mans coldness with the fire from God.
III. The fiery baptism quickens and cleanses.
1. Fire gives warmth. It comes to kindle in mens souls a blaze of enthusiastic Divine love, melting all the icy hardness of the heart, etc. For a Christian to be cold is sin. Marked absence of this spirit of burning in the Christian Church.
2. This baptism gives cleansing by warmth. Fire purifies. The Spirit produces holiness in heart and character. All other cleansing is superficial. The alternative for every man is to be baptized in fire or to be consumed by it. (Dr. MacLaren.)
The Baptism of the Spirit
I. The nature of the promised baptism. Johns baptism was introductory and transitory-Christs was to be spiritual, quickening, searching. Analogy between water in the natural world and the Spirits influence in the moral world. The baptism of the spirit includes all other blessings (Luk 11:13, with Mat 7:11).
II. The plenitude of the promise. A baptism, repletion, falness, etc. Like torrents of rain poured on the thirsty earth (Eze 34:26; Joe 2:28; Hos 14:5; Mal 3:10). On the day of Pentecost there was the baptism of the Holy Ghost. What abundant communications of Divine influence we should expect!
III. The need of the promised baptism.
1. In the time of John.
2. In our time-now. The low and languid piety of many. The comparatively small success of the various agencies for the conversion of sinners. Church agencies can only be spiritually useful as they are charged with Divine force. Have you received this baptism? Ye must be born again. (A. Tucker.)
Baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Johns baptism was outward washing merely, significant, but no inward grace. It was only a symbol. Christs would be the same in outward appearance, as water was employed, but there shall be an inward reality, a living, glorious, inward grace in His baptism. When was the Baptists prediction fulfilled? Though Christ never baptized with His own hands, yet it is He who baptizeth when His authorized ministers baptize. Theirs are the hands, but His the grace. Like Elijah, they pour the water on the sacrifice, but He gives the fire. It refers to Pentecost, cloven tongues. It is important to realize the double aspects in the gifts of God. The Holy Ghost would be in every heart a Spirit of fire-fire for death or life, to purify or to destroy. Gods presence in mans heart is His greatest gift; how truly it may be called a fire l It separates good from evil. It purifies. It tests. Our duty in life is to cherish and obey this awful fiery Spirit. To burn in the spirit, to have a glowing zeal for God. The spark is blown into a flame by prayer. (G. Moberly, D. C. L.)
The influence of fire
(1) softens;
(2) purifies;
(3) sanctifies;
(4) is a solace.
The Holy Spirit is a Comforter through
(1) grief;
(2) sorrow;
(3) tribulation;
(4) poverty. (H. T. Day.)
I. The nature and importance of this baptism.
II. The character and dignity of the person who baptizes. Not a mere man-the Son of God. He dispenses this blessing as the fruit of His mediation.
III. The persons who may partake of this baptism (Luk 3:1-38.).
IV. On what tenets, or in what way they may have it conferred. Repentance towards God. Faith in Christ.
1. Consider the necessity of this baptism, etc.
2. If you have received it, Quench not the Spirit, etc. (Joseph Benson.)
The fiery baptism continuous
To all, sooner or later, Christ comes to baptize them with fire. But do not think that the baptism of fire comes once for all to a man in some terrible affliction, some one awful conviction of his own sinfulness and nothingness. No; with many-and those, perhaps, the best people-it goes on month after month, and year after year. By secret trials, chastenings which none but they and God can understand, the Lord is cleansing them from their secret faults, and making them to understand wisdom secretly; burning out of them the chaff of self-will and self-conceit and vanity, and leaving only the pure gold of righteousness. (Charles Kingsley.)
The kindling, warmth, and effect of the fiery influence
The manner in which the Holy Spirit enters the heart resembles the manner in which fire is kindled. This manner is not always uniform. Sometimes a spark lies smothered for a while, and only after a long interval bursts out and begins to burn. So with the Holy Spirit. The spark may have reached the heart, and may remain theres hut the deceitfulness of worldly cares or pleasures, or the remains of unsubdued sin, stifle it, till at length some providential circumstance occurs which fans the spark into a flame. Another effect of fire is, to communicate its warmth to all that come within its reach. And such is also, the effect of the Holy Spirit upon the soul. The heart of man is by nature cold-cold towards God, and cold towards his fellow-creatures. Not so the man whose heart has been touched by the Holy Spirit. I shall only carry this comparison one step further. We all understand the effect of fire in restoring comfort to the body. We approach closer to it when we have been made uneasy through the chilling influence of cold, and the genial feelings of health and warmth revive within us. So, likewise, the Holy Spirit cheers the heart and re-animates the languid feelings; gives new life to the zeal and piety, which, without it, would sicken and decay. (J. B. Sumner, M. A.)
The fiery influence sometimes gentle
But there is also a fire that, like the genial heat in some greenhouse, makes even the barren tree glow with blossom, and bends its branches with precious fruit. (Dr. Maclaren.)
The fiery influence purifying.
Did you ever see a blast-furnace? How long would it take a man, think you, with hammer and chisel, or by chemical means, to get the bits of ore out from the stony matrix? But fling them into the great cylinder, and pile the fire, and let the strong draught roar through the burning mass, and by evening you can run off a glowing stream of pure and fluid metal, from which all the dross and rubbish is parted, which has been charmed out of all its sullen hardness, and will take the shape of any mould into which you like to run it. The fire has conquered, has melted, has purified. So with us. Love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us, love that answers to Christs, love that is fixed upon Him who is pure and separate from sinners, will purify us and sever us from our sins. Nothing else will. All other cleansing is superficial, like the water of Johns baptism. Moralities and the externals of religion will wash away the foulness which lies on the surface, but stains that have sunk deep into the very substance of the soul, and have dyed every thread in warp and woof to its centre, are not to be got rid of so. (Dr. Maclaren.)
The analogy between these two baptisms
1. They are both sudden. Whitefield was once preaching on Blackheath, and a man and his wife coming from market saw the crowd, and went up to hear. Whitefield was saying something about what happened eighteen hundred years ago, and the man said to his wife: Come, Mary, we will not stop any longer. He is talking about something that took place more than eighteen hundred years ago. Whats that to us? But they were fascinated. The truth of God came to their hearts. When they were home, they took down the Bible and said: Is it possible that these old truths have been here so long, and we have not known it? Ah! it was in the flash of Gods Spirit on Blackheath that they were saved-the Spirit coming mightily, and suddenly, and overwhelmingly upon them. So it was that Gods Spirit came to Andrew Fuller, and James Harvey, and the Earl of Rochester, and Bishop Latimer-suddenly.
2. They were both irresistible. Notwithstanding all our boasted machinery and organization for putting out fires, the efforts that were made did not repulse the flames last December one single instant. There was a great sound of fire-trumpets, and brave men walking on hot walls; but the flames were baulked not an instant. So it has been with the Holy Spirit moving through the hearts of this people. There have been men here who have sworn that the religion of Jesus Christ should never come into their households; they and their children kneel now at the same altar.
3. They are both consuming. Did you ever see any more thorough work than was done by that fire last December? The strongest beams turned to ashes. The iron cracked, curled up, destroyed. So the Holy Ghost has been a consuming fire amid the sins and habits of those who despise God.
4. They were both melting. If you examined the bars, and bolts, and plumbing work of the Tabernacle, after it went down, you know it was a melting process. The things that seemed to have no relation to each other adjoined-flowed together. So it has been with the Spirit of God, melting down all asperities and unbrotherliness. Heart has flowed out towards heart.
5. The fiery influence qualifying for work.
If God baptized us with fire, it is because He means to fit us for hot and, tremendous work. (Dr. Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. But he that cometh after me] Or, I coming after me, who is now on his way, and will shortly make his appearance. Jesus Christ began his ministry when he was thirty years of age, Lu 3:23, which was the age appointed by the law, Nu 4:3. John the Baptist was born about six months before Christ; and, as he began his public ministry when thirty years of age, then this coming after refers to six months after the commencement of John’s public preaching, at which time Christ entered upon his.
Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear] This saying is expressive of the most profound humility and reverence. To put on, take off, and carry the shoes of their masters, was, not only among the Jews, but also among the Greeks and Romans, the work of the vilest slaves. This is amply proved by Kypke, from Arrian, Plutarch, and the Babylonian Talmud.
With the Holy Ghost, and with fire] That the influences of the Spirit of God are here designed, needs but little proof. Christ’s religion was to be a spiritual religion, and was to have its seat in the heart. Outward precepts, however well they might describe, could not produce inward spirituality. This was the province of the Spirit of God, and of it alone; therefore he is represented here under the similitude of fire, because he was to illuminate and invigorate the soul, penetrate every part, and assimilate the whole to the image of the God of glory. See on Joh 3:5.
With fire] . This is wanting in E. S. (two MSS. one of the ninth, the other of the tenth century) eight others, and many Evangelistaria, and in some versions and printed editions; but it is found in the parallel place, Lu 3:16, and in the most authentic MSS. and versions. It was probably the different interpretations given of it by the fathers that caused some transcribers to leave it out of their copies.
The baptism of fire has been differently understood among the primitive fathers. Some say, it means the tribulations, crosses, and afflictions, which believers in Christ are called to pass through. Hence the author of the Opus Imperfectum, on Matthew, says, that there are three sorts of baptism,
1. that of water;
2. that of the Holy Ghost; and,
3. that of tribulations and afflictions, represented under the notion of fire.
He observes farther, that our blessed Lord went through these three baptisms:
1. That of water, he received from the hands of John.
2. That of the Holy Spirit he received from the Father. And,
3. That of fire, he had in his contest with Satan in the desert.
St. Chrysostom says; it means the superabundant graces of the Spirit. Basil and Theophilus explain it of the fire of hell. Cyril, Jerome, and others, understand by it the descent of the Holy Spirit, on the day of pentecost.
Hilary says, it means a fire that the righteous must pass through in the day of judgment, to purify them from such defilements as necessarily cleaved to them here, and with which they could not be admitted into glory.
Ambrose says, this baptism shall be administered at the gate of paradise, by John Baptist; and he thinks that this is what is meant by the flaming sword, Ge 3:24.
Origen and Lactantius conceive it to be a river of fire, at the gate of heaven, something similar to the Phlegethon of the heathens; but they observe, that when the righteous come to pass over, the liquid flames shall divide, and give them a free passage: that Christ shall stand on the brink of it, and receive through the flames all those, and none but those, who have received in this world the baptism of water in his name: and that this baptism is for those who, having received the faith of Christ, have not, in every respect, lived conformably to it; for, though they laid the good foundation, yet they built hay, straw, and stubble upon it, and this work of theirs must be tried, and destroyed by this fire. This, they think, is St. Paul’s meaning, 1Co 3:13-15. If any man build on this foundation (viz. Jesus Christ) gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. – If any man’s work be burnt, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as BY FIRE. From this fire, understood in this way, the fathers of the following ages, and the schoolmen, formed the famous and lucrative doctrine of PURGATORY. Some in the primitive Church thought that fire should be, in some way or other, joined to the water in baptism; and it is supposed that they administered it by causing the person to pass between two fires, or to leap through the flame; or by having a torch, or lighted candle, present. Thus have those called Doctors of the Church trifled. The exposition which I have given, I believe to be the only genuine one.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am not the Christ, Mar 1:8; Luk 3:15,16; Joh 1:15,26, I am but the messenger and forerunner of Christ, sent before him to baptize men with the baptism of water, in testimony of their repentance; but there is one immediately coming after me, who is infinitely to be preferred before me, so much, that I am not worthy to carry his shoes, or unloose his shoe latchet. He shall baptize men with another kind of baptism, the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire.
With the Holy Ghost, inwardly washing away their sins with his blood, and sanctifying their hearts: the Holy Ghost working in their hearts like fire, purging out their lusts and corruptions, warming and inflaming their hearts with the sense of his love, and kindling in them all spiritual habits. Or, with the Holy Ghost, as in the days of Pentecost, there appearing to them cloven tongues like as of fire, as Act 2:3; thus the term fire is made exegetical of the term the Holy Ghost. Or, with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; changing and renewing the hearts of those that believe in him, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, and consuming and destroying others, that will not believe, as with fire.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. I indeed baptize you with waterunto repentance(See on Mt3:6);
but he that cometh after meis mightier than IIn Mark and Luke this is more emphatic”Butthere cometh the Mightier than I” (Mar 1:7;Luk 3:16).
whose shoessandals.
I am not worthy to bearThesandals were tied and untied, and borne about by the meanestservants.
he shall baptize youtheemphatic “He”: “He it is,” to the exclusion ofall others, “that shall baptize you.”
with the Holy Ghost“Sofar from entertaining such a thought as laying claim to the honors ofMessiahship, the meanest services I can render to that ‘Mightier thanI that is coming after me’ are too high an honor for me; I am but theservant, but the Master is coming; I administer but the outwardsymbol of purification; His it is, as His sole prerogative, todispense the inward reality.” Beautiful spirit, distinguishingthis servant of Christ throughout!
and with fireTo takethis as a distinct baptism from that of the Spirita baptism of theimpenitent with hell-fireis exceedingly unnatural. Yet this wasthe view of ORIGEN amongthe Fathers; and among moderns, of NEANDER,MEYER, DEWETTE, and LANGE.Nor is it much better to refer it to the fire of the great day, bywhich the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.Clearly, as we think, it is but the fiery character of theSpirit’s operations upon the soulsearching, consuming, refining,sublimatingas nearly all good interpreters understand the words.And thus, in two successive clauses, the two most familiaremblemswater and fireare employed to set forththe same purifying operations of the Holy Ghost upon the soul.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I indeed baptize you with water,…. These words, at first view, look as if they were a continuation of John’s discourse with the Pharisees and Sadducees, and as though he had baptized them; whereas by comparing them with what the other Evangelists relate, see Mr 1:5 they are spoken to the people, who, confessing their sins, had been baptized by him; to whom he gives an account of the ordinance of water baptism, of which he was the administrator, in what manner, and on what account he performed it:
I indeed baptize you; or, as Mark says, “I have baptized you”; I have authority from God so to do; my commission reaches thus far, and no farther; I can administer, and have administered the outward ordinance to you; but the inward grace and increase of it, together with the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, I cannot confer. I can, and do baptize, upon a profession of repentance, and I can threaten impenitent sinners with divine vengeance; but I cannot bestow the grace of repentance on any, nor punish for impenitence, either here or hereafter; these things are out of my power, and belong to another person hereafter named: all that I do, and pretend to do, is to baptize
with water, or rather in water, as should be rendered. Our version seems to be calculated in favour of pouring, or sprinkling water upon, or application of it to the person baptized, in opposition to immersion in it; whereas the “preposition” is not instrumental, but local, and denotes the place, the river Jordan, and the element of water there, in which John was baptizing: and this he did
unto repentance, or “at”, or upon “repentance”: for so may be rendered, as it is in Mt 12:41 for the meaning is not that John baptized them, in order to bring them to repentance; since he required repentance and fruits meet for it, previous to baptism; but that he had baptized them upon the foot of their repentance; and so the learned Grotius observes, that the phrase may be very aptly explained thus: “I baptize you upon the `profession’ of repentance which ye make.” John gives a hint of the person whose forerunner he was, and of his superior excellency to him: he indeed first speaks of him as one behind him, not in nature or dignity, but in order of time as man;
but he that comes after me. John was born before Jesus, and began his ministry before he did; he was his harbinger; Jesus was now coming after him to Jordan from Galilee, to be baptized by him, and then enter on his public ministry: but though he came after him in this sense, he was not beneath, but above him in character; which he freely declares, saying,
is mightier than I; not only as he is the mighty God, and so infinitely mightier than he; but in his office and ministry, which was exercised with greater power and authority, and attended with mighty works and miracles, and was followed with the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. Not to mention the mighty work of redemption performed by him; the resurrection of his own body from the dead; and his exaltation in human nature, above all power, might, and dominion. The Baptist was so sensible of the inequality between them, and of his unworthiness to be mentioned with him, that he seems at a loss almost to express his distance from him; and therefore signifies it by his being unfit to perform one of the most servile offices to him,
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; or as the other Evangelists relate it, “whose shoelatchet I am not worthy to unloose”; which amounts to the same sense, since shoes are unloosed in order to be taken from, or carried before, or after a person; which to do was the work of servants among the Jews. In the Talmud e it is asked,
“What is the manner of possessing of servants? or what is their service? He buckles his (master’s) shoes; he “unlooses his shoes”, and “carries them before him to the bath.””
Or, as is elsewhere f said,
“he unlooses his shoes, or carries after him his vessels (whatever he wants) to the bath; he unclothes him, he washes him, he anoints him, he rubs him, he clothes him, he buckles his shoes, and lifts him up.”
This was such a servile work, that it was thought too mean for a scholar or a disciple to do; for it is g said,
“all services which a servant does for his master, a disciple does for his master, , “except unloosing his shoes”.”
The gloss on it says, “he that sees it, will say, he is a “Canaanitish servant”:”
for only a Canaanitish, not an Hebrew servant h, might be employed in, or obliged to such work; for it was reckoned not only, mean and servile, but even base and reproachful. It is one of their i canons;
“if thy brother is become poor, and is sold unto thee, thou shalt not make him do the work of a servant; that is,
, any reproachful work; such as to buckle his shoes, or unloose them, or carry his instruments (or necessaries) after him to the bath.”
Now John thought himself unworthy; it was too great an honour for him to do that for Christ, which was thought too mean for a disciple to do for a wise man, and too scandalous for an Hebrew servant to do for his master, to whom he was sold; which shows the great humility of John, and the high opinion he had of Christ. It has been controverted whether Christ wore shoes or not; Jerom affirmed that he did not: but it seems from hence that he did; nor were the Jews used to walk barefoot, but on certain occasions. The Baptist points at the peculiar work of this great person, in which he greatly exceeds anything done by him;
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; referring, either to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, to be bestowed on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, of which the cloven tongues, like as of fire, which appeared unto them, and sat upon them, were the symbols; which was an instance of the great power and grace of Christ, and of his exaltation at the Father’s right hand. Or rather, this phrase is expressive of the awful judgments which should be inflicted by him on the Jewish nation; when he by his Spirit should “reprove” them for the sin of rejecting him; and when he should appear as a “refiner’s fire”, and as “fuller’s soap”; when “the day of the Lord” should “burn as an oven”; when he should “purge the blood of Jerusalem”, his own blood, and the blood of the Apostles and Prophets shed in it, “from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning”; the same with “the Holy Ghost and fire” here, or the fire of the Holy Ghost, or the holy Spirit of fire; and is the same with “the wrath to come”, and with what is threatened in the context: the unfruitful trees shall be cut down, and cast into the fire”, and the “chaff” shall be burnt with unquenchable fire”. And as this sense best agrees with the context, it may the rather be thought to be genuine; since John is speaking not to the disciples of Christ, who were not yet called, and who only on the day of Pentecost were baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, in the other sense of this phrase; but to the people of the Jews, some of whom had been baptized by him; and others were asking him questions, others gazing upon him, and wondering what manner of person he was; and multitudes of them continued obdurate and impenitent under his ministry, whom he threatens severely in the context. Add to all this, that the phrase of dipping or baptizing in fire seems to be used in this sense by the Jewish writers. In the Talmud k one puts the question, In what does he (God,) dip? You will say in water, as it is written, “who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?” Another replies, , “he dips in fire”; as it is written, “for behold the Lord will come with fire”. What is the meaning of , “baptism in fire?” He answers, according to the mind of Rabbah, the root of “dipping in the fire”, is what is written; “all that abideth not the fire, ye shall make go” through the water. Dipping in the fire of the law, is a phrase used by the Jews l. The phrases of “dipping, and washing in fire”, are also used by Greek m authors.
e T. Hieros. Kiddushin, fol. 59. 4. Maimon. & T. Bartenora in Misu. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 3. f T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 22. 2. Maimon. Hilch. Mechirah, c. 2. sect. 2. g T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 96. 1. Maimon. Talmud Torn, c. 5. sect. 8. h Maimon. Hilch. Abadim, c. 1. sect. 7. i Moses Kotzensis Mitzvot Torah, precept. neg. 176. k T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 39. 1. l Tzeror Hammor. fol. 104. 4. & 142. 3. & 170. 1. m Moschi Idyll. 1. Philostrat, Vit. Apollon, l. 3. c. 5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Mightier than I ( ). Ablative after the comparative adjective. His baptism is water baptism, but the Coming One “will baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire.” “Life in the coming age is in the sphere of the Spirit. Spirit and fire are coupled with one preposition as a double baptism” (McNeile). Broadus takes “fire” in the sense of separation like the use of the fan. As the humblest of servants John felt unworthy to take off the sandals of the Coming One. About see on Mt 8:17.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
To bear. Compare to unloose, Mr 1:7. John puts himself in the position of the meanest of servants. To bear the sandals of their masters, that is, to bring and take them away, as well as to fasten or to take them off, was, among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, the business of slaves of the lowest rank.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance:” (ego men humas Baptizo en hudati eis metanoian) “I surely (certainly) immerse you all in water with reference to repentance,” your confession of your sins, or claim to have done such. John taught men the need of inward purification, which baptism typified, but could not convey. Neither baptism, nor faith in baptism, cleanses from sin, or ever did. Inward cleansing is effected by repentance to God and faith in Jesus Christ, by faith in His blood, Act 20:20-21; Rom 3:25; Rom 3:28.
2) “But he that cometh after me,” (ho de opiso mou erchomenos ischuroteros mou estin) “But the one coming of his own accord, after me, exists stronger than I,” in knowledge, character, and all matters, Mr 1:7.
3) “Is mightier than I,” (ischuroteros mou estin) “(In comparison with me) is stronger,” Luk 3:16. John wanted no one to entertain the thought that he was the Messiah. He did want them to understand that he had a Divine mission to tell them that the coming of the Savior was at hand and they should prepare for His coming.
4) “Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear” (hou ouk eimi hikanos ta hupodemata Bastasai) “Whose sandals I am not worthy to bear,” either to wear or to carry, as an expression of John’s humility and inferior state in comparison with Jesus, Joh 1:26-27; Mr 1:7,8.
5) “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:” (autos humas Baptisei en pneumati hagio kai puri) “He will immerse you in Holy Spirit and (in) fire,” some in one and some in the other. Note John does not himself claim to give salvation, which only Christ can do, but to give knowledge of it, in harmony with the former prophetic statement of Zacharias, Luk 1:76-77. To immerse with the Holy Spirit meant to quicken or cleanse with the Holy Spirit such as believed from among the Pharisees, as Joseph of Aramithea and Nicodemus, and to immerse with fire meant to submerge those in flames of hell fire who rejected Him, Joh 3:1-2; Joh 7:50; Joh 19:39; Luk 16:23-24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The three Evangelists relate the Baptist’s discourse in the same words. In one respect, Luke’s account is more full: for he opens it by explaining the occasion on which this discourse was delivered. It arose from the people being in danger of being led, by a false opinion, to convey to him the honor which was due to Christ. To remove, as soon as possible, every occasion of such a mistake, he expressly declares, that he is not the Christ, and draws such a distinction between Christ and himself as to maintain Christ’s prerogative. He would have done this of his own accord, by handing them over, to use a common expression, as disciples to Christ: but he takes up the matter at an earlier stage, lest, by remaining silent any longer, he should confirm the people in an error.
He who cometh after me is stronger than I Christ is thus declared to be so far superior in power and rank, that, with respect to him, John must occupy a private station. (282) He uses ordinary forms of speech to magnify the glory of Christ, in comparison of whom he declares that he himself is nothing. The chief part of his statement is, that he represents Christ as the author of spiritual baptism, and himself as only the minister of outward baptism. He appears to anticipate an objection, which might be brought forward. What was the design of the Baptism which he had taken upon himself? For it was no light matter to introduce any innovation whatever into the Church of God, and particularly to bring forward a new way of introducing persons into the Church, which was more perfect than the law of God. He replies, that he did not proceed to do this without authority; but that his office, as minister of an outward symbol, takes nothing away from the power and glory of Christ.
Hence we infer, that his intention was not at all to distinguish between his own baptism, and that which Christ taught his disciples, and which he intended should remain in perpetual obligation in his Church. He does not contrast one visible sign with another visible sign, but compares the characters of master and servant with each other, and shows what is due to the master, and what is due to the servant. It ought not to have any weight with us, that an opinion has long and extensively prevailed, that John’s baptism differs from ours. We must learn to form our judgment from the matter as it stands, and not from the mistaken opinions of men. And certainly the comparison, which they imagine to have been made, would involve great absurdities. It would follow from it, that the Holy Spirit is given, in the present day, by ministers. Again, it would follow that John’s baptism was a dead sign, and had no efficacy whatever. Thirdly, it would follow, that we have not the same baptism with Christ: for it is sufficiently evident, that the fellowship, which he condescends to maintain with us, was ratified by this pledge, (283) when he consecrated baptism in his own body.
We must therefore hold by what I have already said, that John merely distinguishes, in this passage, between himself and the other ministers of baptism, on the one hand, and the power of Christ, on the other, and maintains the superiority of the master over the servants. And hence we deduce the general doctrine, as to what is done in baptism by men, and what is accomplished in it by the Son of God. To men has been committed nothing more than the administration of an outward and visible sign: the reality dwells with Christ alone. (284)
Scripture does sometimes, though not in a literal sense, (285) ascribe to men what John here declares not to belong to men, but claims exclusively for Christ. In such cases, however, the design is not to inquire, what man has separately and by himself, but merely to show, what is the effect and advantage of signs, and in what manner God makes use of them, as instruments, by his Spirit. Here also is laid down a distinction between Christ and his ministers, that the world may not fall into the mistake, of giving to them what is justly due to him alone: for there is nothing to which they are more prone, than to adorn creatures with what has been taken from God by robbery. A careful attention to this observation will rid us of many difficulties. We know what disputes have arisen, in our own age, about the advantage and efficacy of signs, all of which may be disposed of in a single word. The ordinance of our Lord, viewed as a whole, includes himself as its Author, and the power of the Spirit, together with the figure and the minister: but where a comparison is made between our Lord and the minister, the former must have all the honor, and the latter must be reduced to nothing.
Mat 3:11
. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire It is asked, why did not John equally say, that it is Christ alone who washes souls with his blood? The reason is, that this very washing is performed by the power of the Spirit, and John reckoned it enough to express the whole effect of baptism by the single word Spirit The meaning is clear, that Christ alone bestows all the grace which is figuratively represented by outward baptism, because it is he who “sprinkles the conscience” with his blood. It is he also who mortifies the old man, and bestows the Spirit of regeneration. The word fire is added as an epithet, and is applied to the Spirit, because he takes away our pollutions, as fire purifies gold. In the same manner, he is metaphorically called water in another passage, (Joh 3:5.)
(282) “ In ordinem cogendus sit.” — “ Il faut qu’il baissc la teste.” — “He must bow the head.”
(283) “ A este confirme et ratifie par ce signe;” — “was confirmed and ratified by this sign.”
(284) “ La verite du Baptesme vient et procede du Christ seul.” — “The truth of Baptism comes and proceeds from Christ alone.”
(285) “ Improprie.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) With water unto repentance.The I is emphasized, as also the baptism with water, as contrasted with that which was to follow. The result of Johns baptism, even for those who received it faithfully, did not go beyond the change of character and life implied in repentance. The higher powers of the unseen world were to be manifested afterwards.
He that cometh after me.The words as spoken by the Baptist could only refer to the expected Christ, the Lord, whose way he had been sent to prepare.
Mightier.i.e., as the words that follow show, stronger both to save and to punish; at once the Deliverer and the Judge.
Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.In Luk. 3:16 we have the yet stronger expression, The latchet (or thong) of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. Among Jews, Greeks, and Romans alike, this office, that of untying and carrying the shoes of the master of the house or of a guest, was the well-known function of the lowest slave of the household. When our Lord washed the disciples feet (Joh. 13:4-5), He was taking upon Himself a like menial task which, of course, actually involved the other. The remembrance of the Baptists words may in part account for St. Peters indignant refusal to accept such services.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.As heard and understood at the time, the baptism with the Holy Ghost would imply that the souls thus baptised would be plunged, as it were, in that creative and informing Spirit which was the source of life and holiness and wisdom. The baptism with fire would convey, in its turn, the thought of a power at once destroying evil and purifying good; not, in any case, without the suffering that attends the contact of the sinners soul with the consuming fire of the holiness of God, yet for those who had received the earlier baptism, and what it was meant to convey, consuming only what was evil, and leaving that which was precious brighter than before. The appearance of the tongues like as of fire that accompanied the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was an outward visible sign, an extension of the symbolism, rather than the actual fulfilment of the promise.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. He that cometh after me is mightier This entire speech of John’s is mainly founded on the closing two chapters of the Old Testament, to which we have already referred, where is predicted the day of Christ’s coming, preceded by his harbinger, and attended by all the terrors of searching scrutiny, divine blessing, and fiery judgment. In this expression John alludes to Mal 3:1: Behold, I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Jehovah whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. (We may here remark that LORD, in capitals, in the Old Testament, means Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God.) The one to come after John was, indeed, mightier than he, being no other than Jehovah incarnate. Shoes Whenever a Jew entered a respectable house he left his sandals at the door. Orientals of rank are attended by a servant, who takes them in charge; and this is a very menial duty. But so humble is John the Baptist in comparison with his Lord, that the service which is too disgraceful to be performed for any man by anybody but the lowest servants, is too honorable for him to perform. This menial duty was sometimes performed in reverence by disciples for the rabbi. Baptize you with the Holy Ghost God’s holy Spirit had been at various times bestowed in sanctifying, regenerating, and miracle-working power under the old dispensation. Since the close of the Old Testament books, miracles had ceased; but Christ came preceded, attended, and succeeded by a stupendous display of divine powers. The baptism of the Holy Spirit in its sanctifying, quickening, and even wonder-working power, was one of these displays. It was even made visible in the memorable season of Pentecost. Acts 2.
This text is the fundamental passage for showing, from the very nature of the rite, what is the true mode of performing baptism. This I have shown at fuller length than is here possible, in my two sermons on The Double Baptism, in the Methodist Episcopal Pulpit. We may here remark:
1 . The baptism of the Holy Spirit was not by immersion but affusion. At the Pentecost, where the Spirit baptism was made visible, the tongues of fire descended and sat upon them. When our Lord was baptized the Holy Spirit descended and lighted upon him. On Cornelius and his company it was poured out. So Tit 3:5-6. The washing of regeneration is shed on us. Baptism by the Holy Ghost is always by affusion.
2 . If so, then the word baptizo, as a religious rite, does not necessarily or properly signify immersion. It is the descent of the element upon the person, not of the person into the element. For if baptism by the element spirit is affusion, then baptism by the element water is affusion. The meaning of the word is the same whatever be the element.
3 . We have here a principle of interpretation. The symbol ought always to conform to and picture its original. Now, spirit baptism is the original of which water baptism is the symbol. If spirit baptism be by affusion, certainly water baptism must also be affusion. Spiritual affusion cannot be symbolized by immersion in water. Hence immersion fundamentally fails to be a picture of the original. It is symbol without a reality, a shadow without a substance.
4 . The baptism by fire is a case equally clear. Its process was made visible at the Pentecost, when the fiery tongues sat upon the apostles. Baptismal fire is by affusion; the fire of hell is by immersion. So, Mat 3:10, the fruitless tree is cast into the fire. So, Rev 20:15, cast into the lake of fire.
And with fire The baptism of spirit and of fire are no doubt different parts or phases of the same process. To understand the difference between the two phases we must reduce the idea of spirit back to its simple idea of a breathing. “He breathed upon them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Joh 20:22. Hereby was effected the gentle impartation of holy tempers, consecrating unction, and comforting grace. The baptism of fire, manifested in the fiery tongues at Pentecost, is the severer purgation, burning sin away by sharper agonies, imparting a severer spiritual purity and energy, and qualifying the preacher for the performance of sterner rebuke toward a wicked world.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“I indeed baptise you in water to repentance, but he who comes after (or ‘behind’) me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire,”
John has ever before his eyes the One Who is coming. That is why he is baptising in water. His baptism is as an acted out prophecy of what is coming, and in order to prepare men for it. It is a picture of the fact that the One Who is coming will fulfil the promises of the prophets and drench them with the Holy Spirit and fire. He, John, is preparing them for it, but he wants them to be aware of the fact that one day soon the greater reality will come. See Isa 32:15; Isa 44:1-5; Joe 2:28; Eze 36:25-27; Mal 3:1-3; Isa 4:4; Zec 13:9.
‘He who comes after (opisow) me.’ ‘After’ (opisow) is not usually a time word (never elsewhere in Matthew, see Mat 4:19; Mat 10:38; Mat 16:24), although instances are known. The thought may therefore be that John knows that the Coming One will become his follower (come after him), but will in the end prove to be high above him. Alternately we may see it as a rare use of it as meaning ‘after’ in time.
‘I indeed (ego men).’ This is a typical Matthaean emphasis bringing out a contrast. Here it signifies ‘I in contrast with Him’.
“I indeed baptise you in water to repentance.” He recognises that his baptism is the lesser work of God, a prophetic acting out of a greater reality yet to come. ‘To repentance’ is probably better rendered ‘because of repentance’. It was not inducing repentance but accepting that it had taken place, as the very coming of the people to him, and their open admission of sins, revealed. But that was all that John could do. While God could change their inner hearts, there was nothing that he himself could do about it except preach and then leave it to God. How different it would be in the case of the One Who was coming Who had the power within Himself to give life (Joh 5:21), and Who could drench men in the Holy Spirit.
‘He is mightier than I.’ The Coming One would be the Reality to which John was the shadow. John wants all to know that although he himself may be a prophet, and powerful through God, he is but in the end an ordinary man. But this One Who is coming is God’s ‘Superman’, with a power that will be far greater than his. He is the mightier than John. Indeed, as we learn later, while Satan can be thought of as a ‘strong man’ (Mat 12:29) Jesus is ‘the stronger than he’ (Luk 11:22), a fact which will shortly be demonstrated by Jesus in the same wilderness (Mat 4:1-11). Thus His mightiness is here first revealed by John in order for it to be demonstrated by His resistance to the wiles of the Devil. He will be all-powerful and all-prevailing. We could add with Isaiah, ‘He will be the Mighty God’ (Isa 9:6). But how far John was aware of the full implications of this we do not know.
For we should note that it is possible to be aware of the divinity of Jesus without being able to put it into words. The inner sense is there even when it cannot be verbalised. Indeed throughout the ages no one has been able to put it into words in a full satisfactory way, for human language does not have the means to do so. Many who have been heretics in their words have been orthodox in their hearts. Many an Arian died willingly for Christ out of love for Him, and not all have the refined ability of the advanced theologian. And many church members today are heretics without knowing it because of what they would say that they believed about Jesus as the Son of God, although their hearts would say otherwise, because their belief has never been tested out or corrected. But fortunately God looks at the heart and understands the problem. He knows how difficult it is for us to grasp the full significance of His tri-unity.
And John sees Him as not only greater than he but as holier as well, for John sees himself as not fit even to take off and carry His shoes (the carrying of the shoes assumes that they have either just been taken off or are about to be put on, so that it also indicates the taking off of the shoes). Dealing with a man’s shoes in this way was the task of the lowest slave, (the Rabbis declared that even a Teacher in those days would not expect his disciples, who would perform most general tasks for him, to perform a task like this for him), and thus by these words John is humbling himself into the very dust. He is declaring that he is not even fit to be the Coming One’s humblest slave. So the Coming One will be mighty and holy. In the words of Isaiah He will be the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the One Who is powerful, compassionate and merciful (Isa 9:7). Note how these two aspects described by John, His mightiness and His holiness, will be brought out in the parallel where the voice from Heaven will declare Him to be God’s beloved Son, and the One Who is totally pleasing to God (Mat 3:17).
But as we shall later see, while John was right in what he said about Him, he was not fully right in his own interpretation of it. He saw the Coming One as the One Who would come like a powerful wind, a wind of the Lord driving a rushing river (Isa 59:19), a powerful tempest toppling trees before Him, a sweeper away and burner of chaff. He was a little short on what stamped Jesus off as unique, His love, and compassion, and mercy; His gentleness and tenderness. As Jesus would later have to point out to an anxious John, lying puzzled in his stinking and dark prison, while it was true that He had come like ‘a rushing wind’, it was first of all as a wind of healing and of hope as Isaiah had also prophesied, dealing gently with the bruised reeds and fanning the dying embers of the flax into flame, rather than dousing them in His fury (Mat 11:1 to Mat 12:21).
‘He will baptise (drench, overwhelm) you in the Holy Spirit and fire,” John’s baptism pictured this forthcoming climax. He would come like deluging, life-giving rain, and purifying and consuming fire. On those who were ready to receive Him He would come like the life-giving rain, the Holy Breath, in the ‘washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit’ (Tit 3:5). He would produce fruitfulness and blessing as the prophets had made clear (Isa 44:1-5; Eze 34:26; Eze 36:25-27; Eze 37:1-10; Eze 37:14; Jer 31:27-34; Psa 72:6; Zec 10:1). And He would come like refining fire (Mal 3:1-2; Zec 13:9). Purity, holiness and goodness would abound. But the same fire that would refine would also burn up what was only chaff (Isa 5:24; Isa 66:16; Isa 66:24; Eze 15:6-7; Eze 22:21-22). His fire would not only purify, but would also destroy. The message is one of sharp division. To those who believe, life and blessing, refreshing rain and a purifying wind, and along with it the purifying fire, but to those who do not believe He would be a scattering tempest and a fire of destruction.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Coming One (3:11-17).
John’s large-scale ministry having been established in these few verses, Matthew now turns his attention to Jesus. We do not know how long John had been preaching before this incident now described occurred, but that he had a widespread and effective ministry, possibly over a number of years, Josephus also testifies. What we do know from external sources is that his ministry was so effective and so far reaching that disciples of John were found around the world for decades to come (compare Act 18:24-25; Act 19:1-6).
But John was ever aware that he was preaching in readiness for ‘the last days’ and that the Coming One would soon arrive. This was central to his message. And yet, as his later doubts would reveal, he no more than anyone else was expecting someone like Jesus. He was anticipating someone a little more fierce and somewhat more politically active than Jesus, and as he later lay in prison waiting for the great movement and climactic events that he thought would be necessary in order to justify what he had taught, he could not understand why so little seemed to be happening (Mat 11:3). He genuinely began to wonder whether Jesus really was the Coming One. Like so many, he had in the end a wrong appreciation of the Kingly Rule of Heaven, even though he understood what lay at its roots. It was its outworking that he could not understand.
But at this stage he had no doubts about Jesus’ superiority, even though he had not yet learned the full truth about Him. Jesus was his cousin, and he knew enough about Him to recognise and acknowledge His infinite superiority to himself. (There is no reason to think that John had cut off all communication with his wider family after his parents had died, especially as he must have known something about the mystery of Jesus’ birth, even if not the full story). Here was One Whom he knew put his own life to shame. And now God would shortly reveal to him that Jesus was indeed the Coming One, for he himself would witness His being anointed by the Holy Spirit (an experience made very clear in Joh 1:32-34).
Analysis of Mat 3:11-17 .
a
b “He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire, Whose winnowing fork is in His hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor, and He will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire” (Mat 3:11-12)
c Then comes Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him (Mat 3:13).
d But John would have prevented him, saying, “I have need to be baptised of you, and do you come to me?” (Mat 3:14).
c But Jesus answering said to him, “Allow it now, for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness (or ‘do fully what is right’).” Then he allows him (Mat 3:15).
b And Jesus when He was baptised, went up immediately from the water, and lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on Him (Mat 3:16).
a And lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat 3:17).
Note that in ‘a’ John is aware of Jesus’ holiness and righteousness, and that He is the Mightier One, and in the parallel it is confirmed by God, that He is His beloved Son, and that He is well pleasing to Him. In ‘b’ He is the One Who will ‘baptise’ (drench) in the Holy Spirit and fire, and in the parallel He is depicted as receiving the Holy Spirit for that purpose. In ‘c’ Jesus comes to John in order to be baptised by him, and in the parallel He persuades him to do it. Centrally in ‘d’ is John’s declaration that it is he who should be baptised by Jesus. That Jesus is greater than he.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
John’s sermon would have been incomplete without a reference to Him whose way he was sent to prepare:
v. 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. His was merely a temporary and a symbolical mission. He was only the forerunner, the herald, and he was fully satisfied with this secondary and subordinate position. His baptism was merely preparatory. By inducing men to repent and by administering the washing of Baptism, he was getting them ready for the understanding of the higher mission of the Messiah. But He who is just coming, who follows immediately after me in point of time, who will shortly make His appearance, is stronger than I; to Him pertains almighty power. And with this power is combined divine dignity. So great, so august, so exalted is His personage that John does not feel himself worthy even to take off His sandals, the work of the lowest slaves in the Orient. The ministry of this man will stand out in wonderful contrast. Himself will baptize you, will give you a peculiar baptism, with the Holy Ghost and with fire. A twofold effect of Christ’s work is here predicted: To those who with penitent hearts accept Him as Savior, He will give the precious boon of the Holy Spirit, with all His glorious gifts and powers, Joh 1:33; Mar 1:8; Act 1:5; but those whose impenitent hearts would reject the purchased salvation He will immerse in fire. They have refused to accept the Spirit with His invigorating and illuminating power, and therefore the omnipotence of His outraged holiness will submerge and devour them.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 3:11. I indeed baptize you This is the answer which John made to the question put to him, Joh 1:19-27 in which he shews what difference there was between him and the Messiah. “I indeed, says he, baptize you with water, to bring you to repentance; for they who were baptized, not only declared that they had repented of their sins, but they bound themselves never to commit the like again, and to lead a life of holiness and virtue;” which is the meaning of the Baptist in this place. He that cometh after me, says he, (namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, who entered on his ministry about six months after John, and was about six months younger; see Luk 1:36.) is mightier than I; whose shoes, &c. a proverbial and humiliating expression, meaning, “whose lowest servant I am not worthy to be,” and denoting the great superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ above John. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost; the effusion of which on the day of Pentecost, St. John styles a baptism; shewing thereby the copiousness and abundance of it: and indeed it was a glorious effusion over the church, of which the Lord JesusChrist in this peculiar sense was the author; Act 2:2; Act 2:33. He adds, and with fire; because the Holy Ghost descended on the apostles in the shape of fire, and had the same power and virtue as that element, of purifying, enlivening, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 3:11 . Yet it is not I who will determine the admission or the exclusion, but He who is greater than I. In Luk 3:16 there is a special reason assigned for this discourse, in keeping with the use of a more developed tradition on the part of the later redactor.
] denotes the telic reference of the baptism (comp. Mat 28:19 ), which imposes an obligation to . To the characteristic stands opposed the higher characteristic . , the two elements of which together antithetically correspond to that “baptism by water unto repentance;” see subsequently.
is, agreeably to the conception of ( immersion ), not to be taken as instrumental , but as in , in the meaning of the element , in which immersion takes place. Mar 1:5 ; 1Co 10:2 ; 2Ki 5:14 ; Polyb. v. 47. 2 : ; Hom. Od . ix. 392.
] that is, the Messiah . His coming as such is always brought forward with great emphasis in Mark and Luke. The present here also denotes the near and definite beginning of the future.
. ] In what special relation he is more powerful is stated afterwards by , . . .
, . . .] In comparison with Him, I am too humble to be fitted to be one of His lowest slaves. To bear the sandals of their masters ( ), that is, to bring and take them away, as well as to fasten them on or take them off (the latter in Mark and Luke), was amongst the Jews, Greeks, and Romans the business of slaves of the lowest rank. See Wetstein, Rosenmller, Morgenl. in loc.; comp. Talmud, Kiddusch . xxii. 2.
] He and no other, Mat 1:21 .
] was spoken indeed to the Pharisees and Sadducees; but it is not these only who are meant, but the people of Israel in general, who were represented to the eye of the prophet in them, and in the multitude who were present.
. . . ] in the Holy Spirit , those who have repented; in fire (by which that of Gehenna is meant), the unrepentant. Both are figuratively designated as , in so far as both are the two opposite sides of the Messianic lustration , by which the one are sprinkled with the Holy Ghost (Act 1:5 ), the others with hell-fire, as persons baptized are with water. It is explained as referring to the fire of everlasting punishment , after Origen and several Fathers, by Kuinoel, Schott ( Opusc . II. p. 198), Fritzsche, Neander, de Wette, Paulus, Ammon, B. Crusius, Arnoldi, Hofmann, Bleek, Keim, Volkmar, Hengstenberg, Weber, vom Zorne Gottes , p. 219 f.; Gess, Christi Vers. u. Werk , I. p. 310. But, after Chrysostom and most Catholic expositors, others (Erasmus, Beza, Calvin, Clericus, Wetstein, Storr, Eichhorn, Kauffer, Olshausen, Glckler, Kuhn, Ewald) understand it of the fire of the Holy Spirit, which inflames and purifies the spirits of men . Comp. Isa 4:4 . These and other explanations, which take as not referring to the punishments of Gehenna, are refuted by John’s own decisive explanation in Mat 3:12 : . It is wrong, accordingly, to refer the to the fiery tongues in Act 2 . (Euth. Zigabenus, Maldonatus, Elsner, Er. Schmid, Bengel, Ebrard). The omission of is much too weakly attested to delete it, with Matthaei and Rinck, Lucubr. crit . p. 248. See Griesbach, Comm. crit . p. 25 f.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1283
THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT
Mat 3:11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.
IT is ignorantly imagined, that they who are most enlightened with the knowledge of Christ, and are most zealous in bringing others to an acquaintance with him, must of necessity be puffed up with pride, and be filled with a high conceit of their superiority to others. But none ever surpassed the Apostle Paul either in zeal or knowledge; yet none ever manifested more deep humility, since language could not even afford him words whereby sufficiently to express the low sense he had of himself before God: he calls himself less than the least of all saints. Another eminent example of humility is exhibited in the conduct of John the Baptist, who, though faithful in the highest degree as a preacher of righteousness, never sought his own glory, but invariably directed the eyes of his followers to Christ, in comparison of whom he accounted himself unworthy of the smallest regard. His expressions before us lead us to consider,
I.
The transcendent dignity of Christ
Christ, in a civil view, was not at all superior to John, yea, perhaps inferior, inasmuch as the son of a carpenter might be reckoned inferior in rank to the son of a priest: nevertheless he was, in other points of view, infinitely superior:
1.
In his person
[The person of John might well be considered as dignified in no common degree. He was the subject of prophecy many hundred years before he came into the world [Note: Isa 40:3. Mal 3:1.]: his formation in the womb was announced by an angel from heaven, and that too at a period when his parents, according to the common course of nature, could entertain no hope of having any progeny. He was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his very birth; and was ushered into the world with the restoration of prophecy, after that gift had been withdrawn from the church almost four hundred years. But in all these respects Christ was far greater than he: Christ had been the subject of prophecy from the very foundation of the world: his work and offices had been exhibited to the world in numberless types and prophecies during the space of four thousand years. His body was formed, not merely in a preternatural, but in a supernatural way, by the immediate agency of the Holy Ghost, who created it in the womb of a virgin; by which means he was not merely holy, but spotless, without the smallest taint of that corruption, which every child of Adam inherits. Without noticing the songs with which the heavenly choir celebrated the tidings of his birth, or any of those miraculous circumstances which pointed him out to the Eastern Magi, we see already how far superior he was to John, even in those things wherein John surpassed all other men.
But what must we say, when to this we add, that he was God, God manifest in the flesh, God over all, blessed for ever? Then all comparison must cease: and the expressions used by John, instead of appearing exaggerated, will be acknowledged to be infinitely below the truth: though the loosing of the sandals, and carrying them to the bath, was deemed too mean an employment for a Hebrew servant, or for any but a slave [Note: See Gill on the place.], yet John accounted it far too high an honour for him to render such a service to that glorious person, whose advent he announced.]
2.
In his office
[John was a prophet of the most high God, yea, more than a prophet. He had the distinguished honour of being the forerunner of the Messiah, who should prepare his way, and point him out to the people, being himself divinely instructed how to distinguish him from all others who should attend his ministrations. Hence our Lord himself declares respecting him, that there never had been a greater person born of woman than John the Baptist; but glorious as he was, Jesus far excelled him in glory. Jesus was the great prophet, to whom Moses and all the prophets gave testimony, and to whose directions all were commanded to submit. He was the Messiah himself, the very Lamb of God that was to take away the sins of the world, of whom John himself needed to be baptized, and by whom alone John himself could be saved. Surely then the words of John respecting him were not an unmeaning hyperbole, the offspring of affectation and the footstool of vanity, but they were the words of truth and soberness; for though John was like the morning star, yet he was altogether eclipsed as soon as ever the Sun of Righteousness arose.]
The superiority of Jesus will still further appear while we consider,
II.
The baptism he administered
Jesus never administered the baptism of water to any: but to him was committed the work of baptizing with the Holy Ghost
[Though the Church had from the beginning received, in some measure, the communications of Gods Spirit, yet, till Christ was glorified, the Holy Ghost was not given in a very genera or abundant manner: it was reserved for Christ to send him down, in order that, through the Spirits testimony, his own divine mission might be established beyond a possibility of doubt. Accordingly, a few days after his ascension, he fulfilled his promise, and sent down the Spirit upon his waiting disciples, causing it to rest upon them visibly, in the shape of cloven tongues of fire. And when, on another occasion, he poured out the Spirit upon Cornelius and his company, Peter particularly called to mind this declaration, which John the Baptist had made to the infant Church, and acknowledged it to be a glorious completion of his prophecy [Note: Act 11:16.].]
This baptism infinitely surpassed that of John
[John baptized with water those who were penitent, testifying to them that they should believe on him who was to come after him [Note: Act 19:4.]: but Jesus, by the baptism which he administers, makes men both penitent and believing. John, in applying water to the body, even if he had immersed his followers ten thousand times, could do no more than cleanse the outward body; he could not reach the mind; he could not affect the soul; he could not in any degree change the character of his disciples. But the Spirit, with which Jesus baptized, acted with the powerful energy of fire. This was no sooner poured out than it penetrated the inmost recesses of the soul, and, like a furnace, purged away the dross which was there concealed. What a change it effected in the characters of men may be seen by its operations on the day of Pentecost: how was the lion instantly transformed into a lamb! and how did the noxious qualities, which had so lately rendered men like incarnate fiends, immediately subside and disappear! And such are the effects which it invariably produces wheresoever it is bestowed.]
Infer
1.
How awfully are they mistaken who rest in the outward form of baptism!
[I would on no account depreciate baptism, or detract in the least from its importance. It is necessary for all who embrace the faith of Christ: and is replete with blessings to all who receive it aright. Even the outward ministration of it gives us a title to the blessings of the Christian covenant, exactly as circumcision gave to the Jews a title to the adoption of sons, and to the promises which God had made to his people [Note: Rom 9:4.]. But if we receive it not aright, we are still, like Simon Magus, in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity [Note: Act 8:13; Act 8:18-23.]. To receive any saving benefit (for, if it be rightly received, baptism does save us [Note: 1Pe 3:21.]) we must have not only the sign, but the thing signified, a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; or, in other words, we must be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. For the truth of this I will even appeal to the consciences of the ungodly themselves. Who does not feel at times that he needs somewhat more than he has ever yet received, in order to fit him for death and judgment? There is in every man at times, I say, this conviction: and this which is so wanted, is the very gift which Christ alone can bestow, namely, the baptism of the Spirit, as contrasted with, and superadded to, the baptism of water: it is the renewing of the Holy Ghost superadded to the washing of regeneration [Note: Tit 3:5.]. If we have received this spiritual baptism, it will infallibly discover itself by its effects upon our heart and life. As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ [Note: Gal 3:27.], seeking daily to be clothed with his righteousness, and to be transformed into his image. So also, if we have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body, with the holy Apostles and the primitive saints, we shall have been made to drink into one spirit with them [Note: 1Co 12:13.]. Now it is easy to see whether such a change have been wrought upon our heart and life, by our being altogether like-minded with them: and I wish you all to judge yourselves, that you may not be judged of the Lord.
It is easy to put this off with a sneer: but we cannot change that declaration of God, that, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his [Note: Rom 8:9.]; or that, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God [Note: Joh 3:5.]: and, if we will brave those explicit declarations, we shall find ere long, whose word shall stand, whether ours or Gods.]
2.
What rich encouragement does the Gospel afford to drooping contrite souls!
[It is by the Gospel that Christ communicates this blessing to mankind. See this exemplified in the instance of Cornelius. Peter, in preaching to him, said, To Christ give all the prophets witness, that whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. Then we are told, While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word [Note: Act 10:43-44.]. Now to you also do I make the same blessed declaration, that all who believe in Christ shall be justified from all things. O that God might bear the same testimony to it at this time, by sending to you the Holy Ghost in rich abundance! What joy that event would occasion, you may see in the effect produced on all the college of Apostles at Jerusalem, at the recital of it in reference to Cornelius: They glorified God, saying, Then hath God unto the Gentiles granted repentance unto life [Note: Act 11:15-18.]. Yes, my dear brethren, Repentance, repentance unto life, would infallibly accompany the gift of the Holy Spirit to your souls. And is not that worth seeking? You are sure to repent sooner or later: and how much better is it to repent on earth, than to repent in hell; to have repentance unto life, than repentance that shall be eternally to be repented of! Go then to the Lord Jesus for this heavenly baptism. The baptism of water you are to receive but once: bat the baptism of the Spirit you are to be receiving every day and hour. St. Paul speaks of supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ [Note: Php 1:19.], which you are to be continually receiving: and it is the very office of Christ to impart them to you. The Lord grant, that you may all now be filled with the Spirit [Note: Eph 5:19.], and that, having him poured out abundantly upon you, you may possess also, in the richest abundance, all his attendant blessings both of grace and glory [Note: Tit 3:6-7.]!
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
XVIII
THE MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST (CONTINUED)
Harmony pages 14-16 and Mat 3:11-17
In several preceding chapters we have turned aside somewhat from the regular course of the narrative to consider, at length, at its first New Testament appearance, the vital and fundamental doctrine of repentance, as preached originally by John the Baptist, and continued by our Lord and all his apostles. We have seen that while John had clear conceptions of the etymology of words and of doctrines in their abstract sense, he was no mere theorist, but intensely practical, insisting on concrete truth as embodied in the daily life. To him, therefore repentance was as inseparable from fruits, worthy of it, as a tree is from its proper fruits. Hence he not only urges reformation in its positive and negative sense of “ceasing to do evil and learning to do well,” but the instant and continuous responsibility to an inexorable judgment at the hands of the coming Messiah. “And even now the ax lieth at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. . . . Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.” We now come to the comparison instituted by John between Christ and himself: “I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.” On this remarkable passage observe:
First, no comparison is instituted between the water baptism of John and the water baptism administered by our Lord through his disciples. They are exactly the same in subject, act and design, as has already been shown, but the comparison is wholly between the dignity of Christ’s superior person, office and power, and John’s inferior person, office and power. The dignity of person John counts not himself worthy to loose the latchet of the Messiah’s sandals. The Messiah is mightier than John, equaling him indeed in water baptism, but exceeding him in two other baptisms, to wit: baptism in the Holy Spirit, and baptism in fire.
The controversies of the ages arise on the meaning of “He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.” The first question to be answered is: Do baptism in the Spirit and in fire mean the same thing? In other words, is “baptism in fire” epexegetical of baptism in the Spirit? If they are identical in meaning, then what is the baptism in the Holy Spirit and in fire? And when, where, how, and why first administered by our Lord? And is it continuous now as well as then? But if baptism in the Spirit and baptism in fire be two distinct things, then what is the baptism in fire, and where, when, why and by whom administered? There is more confusion of mind, and more inconsistency of interpretation on these questions than on any other New Testament problems.
My own interpretation of the passage, and my answers to the questions are worth no more than the common sense and argument back of them. In general terms I refer first to three sermons in my first volume of sermons, entitled severally: (1) baptism in water; (2) baptism in the Holy Spirit; (3) baptism in fire.
Second, in my interpretation of Act 2 there is an elaborate discussion of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, where for the first time in the history of the world it ever occurred. Just here we need something, clear indeed, but far less elaborate. Here, on one point at least, and much as I deprecate it, I must utterly dissent from Dr. Alexander Maclaren, commonly regarded as the prince of Baptist expositors.
In the first volume of his elaborate exposition of Matthew, he labors at great length to prove that “baptism in fire” is epexegetical of “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” leaving the general impression on my mind, at least, that “baptism in fire” means cleansing or purification, about equal in force to sanctification. At other times I don’t know what he means. For if baptism in the Spirit and in fire is equivalent to sanctification, then how is it there was never in the history of the world, a baptism in the Spirit before the first Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection? Surely men were spiritually cleansed, sanctified before that date. My own mind is clear on the following negations:
(1) Baptism in the Holy Spirit is not regeneration, nor conversion, nor sanctification, but an entirely new thing, a thing of promise, unknown to the world until the first Pentecost after our Lord’s resurrection and exaltation. Whatever it is, it is wholly connected with the advent and administration of that “other Paraclete,” the Holy Spirit, who as Christ’s alter ego, rules the churches on earth, while Christ remains, rules, and interests in heaven.
(2) The baptism in fire is not cleansing, but destructive and punitive, the exercise of sovereign judgment by our Lord, unto whom as the Son of Man, all judgment has been committed. Its punitive character as judgment takes cognizance only of one’s attitude toward and treatment of Christ in his cause and people as presented by the gospel. It is exercised now on nations or cities, as Jerusalem A.D. 70, and on the souls of the wicked when they die, as Dives in the parable (Luk 16:23-24 ); and on the bodies of all the living wicked in the great world-fire of the final advent (Mal 4:1-2 ; 2Pe 3:7-10 ) and finds its highest expression, when after the final judgment, the wicked, both souls and bodies, are baptized in the lake of fire (Mat 10:28 ; Rev 20:14-15 ).
That Dr. Maclaren is mistaken about the import of baptism in fire appears from the context. Read carefully the three verses, Mat 3:10-12 . The tenth verse closes: “Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” The eleventh verse closes: “He will baptize you in fire.” The twelfth verse closes: “But the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
It violates every sound principle of interpretation to make “fire” in the middle verse of the context mean something radically different from the “fire” in the first and third verses. There can be no doubt of the destructive, punitive character of the fire in verses ten and twelve; there should be none of the like import in verse eleven intervening. This becomes more evident when we consider that John is interpreting Mal 3:1-4:3 . The whole context of the prophecy shows that when the Messiah comes he will discriminate between evil and good persons (not mixed evil and good in one person), and separate them one from another by diverse fates, so that there would be no difficulty in discerning between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. The refiner’s fire of Mal 3:2-3 has not a different purpose from the fire that burns like an oven in 4:1. We doubt not the appropriateness of using the refiner’s fire to represent the purifying work in individual character, as set forth by the hymn: “Thy dross to consume, thy gold to refine.” And this would be a genuine work of sanctification. But such is not Malachi’s idea, in this connection, nor that of John the Baptist, as appears not only from Mal 3:5-6 ; Mal 3:16-18 ; Mal 4:1-2 , but from the historical fulfilment of Mal 3:12 , when he does come suddenly to his temple at the beginning and end of his ministry, Joh 2:13-18 ; Mat 21:12-13 ; Mar 11:15-18 ; Luk 19:45-46 . In neither of these Temple purgations was there a work of individual sanctification, but the latter is indirectly connected with the cursing of the barren fig tree, as in Mat 3:10 , the barren tree is hewn down and cast into the fire. Malachi is not considering a mixture of good and evil in one individual, the evil to be eliminated by the fire of chastisement; but he is considering a mixture of good people and evil people. God’s fire will be used to separate them and make evident the difference between them. So Paul discusses the same thought: “But if any man buildeth on the foundation gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, stubble; each man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire.” Here Paul’s use of the fire, at the last great day, is not to separate the evil from the good in individual character, but it is to separate evil people from good people, who by unwise builders have been mingled together in building a temple upon the foundation, Christ. If the builder puts on the foundation, Christ, the unregenerate, hypocrites, formalists, ritualists, then that fire will separate them, and the builder who put them on will suffer loss to the extent that his work is destroyed in the revelation of that great fire test.
To find a fulfilment of the identity of the “baptism in Spirit and fire” in the “tongues of fire” at Pentecost is merely silly, since they were not tongues of fire, but “tongues like as of fire.” A rising flame parts itself into the appearance of tongues. So the luminous appearance at Pentecost distributed itself into tongues, as fire seems to do.
On our paragraph, Mat 3:10-12 , Dr. Broadus, in his commentary, ably shows that we may not interpret the “fire” in Mat 3:11 as differing in import from the “fire” in Mat 3:10 ; Mat 3:12 . To pray that we may “be baptized in fire,” while not so meant, is equivalent to praying that we may be cast into hell. The baptism in fire is the punitive destruction of the wicked. A few terse sentences will enable us to discriminate:
In the baptism in fire, Christ is the administrator, an in- corrigible sinner is the subject, the element is fire, the design is punitive.
In the baptism in the Holy Spirit, Christ is the administrator, the Holy Spirit is the element, the subject is a Christian, the design is to accredit and empower him for service.
In regeneration the Holy Spirit is the agent or administrator, the subject is a sinner, the design is to make him a Christian.
In sanctification the Holy Spirit is the agent, the subject is a Christian, the design is to make him personally holy, i.e., a better Christian. Regeneration and sanctification have been wrought by the Spirit in all dispensations since Adam.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit never occurred in the history of the world until the first Pentecost after Christ’s exaltation.
But it was prefigured twice in types. First, when Moses had completed the tabernacle, or movable house of God, the cloud, representing the divine inhabitant, came down and filled it (Exo 40:33-38 ). Second, when Solomon had completed the Temple, the fixed house of God, the cloud, representing the divine inhabitant, came down and occupied it (1Ki 7:51-8:11 ).
So when Jesus had built his church, antitype of tabernacle and Temple, the Holy Spirit came down to accredit, empower and occupy it (Act 2:1-33 ). In other words
The baptism in the Spirit was the baptism of the church the house that Jesus built to succeed the house that Solomon built, as that had succeeded the house that Moses built.
From that date the church was accredited, occupied and empowered by the other Paraclete, the Promised of the Father and the Sent of the Father and Son.
Daniel, in his great prophecy, fixing the date and order of events, says, “Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy” Here “the Most Holy” is a place, a house, and not the person, Christ. His anointing came at his baptism when the Spirit came on him.
As the sanctuary of both Moses and Solomon has been anointed when ready for use, so in this verse, following Messiah’s advent and expiation, a new most holy place was anointed by the coming of the Holy Spirit on the new Temple.
Because the old Temple had served its day, the very hour Christ said, “it is finished,” referring to the expiation of sin by the true Lamb of God, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom.” The new Temple was ready, waiting for its anointing on the day of Pentecost. Hence, I repeat, when we come to interpret Act 2 , all the words of John the Baptist and our Lord, in the Gospels, which speak of the baptism in the Spirit as a promise, and all the fulfilments, Act 2:4 ; Act 8:17 ; Act 10:44-46 ; Act 19:6 , and Paul’s great exhaustive discussion at 1 Corinthians 12-14, will be fully considered.
The import of John’s comparison between Jesus and himself is, therefore, that Jesus is mightier than himself. John himself was not the Messiah, but only his herald. John is but a voice soon to be silenced forever. John must decrease, as the morning star pales and fades before the increasing light of the day. John is not the true light, but only a witness to the light. John indeed baptizes -penitent believers in water, but the one who follows him will not only continue the baptism in water, but will also baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire.
THE CULMINATION OF JOHN’S MINISTRY
This predetermined culmination of John’s ministry was the manifestation of the Messiah to Israel. This manifestation would directly connect with his administration of the ordinance of baptism. He himself declares: “And I knew him not; but that he should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water. . . . 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 on him, the same is he that baptizeth in the Spirit” (Joh 1:31 ; Joh 1:33 ). When by this sign the as yet unknown person of the Messiah is disclosed to John himself, then must he who had hitherto spoken of the coming Messiah in general terms now identify the person, and by repeated testimony lead Israel to accept him so identified, in all his messianic offices. So that the culmination of John’s ministry consists in two particulars:
(1) John must baptize the Messiah, receiving for himself in the ordinance demonstrative evidence of the right person.
(2) This person of the Messiah so manifested to John, must by him be identified to Israel and through his repeated witness, set forth in all his messianic offices as the object of their faith. These two things accomplished, his mission is ended forever. We can do no more in rounding out this chapter than to consider the first part of this culmination, reserving for the next chapter John’s identification to Israel of the person of the Messiah and his presentation of him in all his messianic offices as the object of faith. For the present, therefore, our theme is
JOHN BAPTIZES THE MESSIAH The Harmony, in three parallel columns, pages 15-16, gives us the record of this momentous event, according to three historians (Mat 3:13-17 ; Mar 1:9-11 ; Luk 3:21-22 ). All these historians identify the person so baptized as Jesus. Matthew says, “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.” Mark says, “And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in the Jordan.” Luke says, “Jesus also having been baptized.” Thus the person of the Messiah is Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee. All of them give two heavenly attestations to Jesus as the Messiah; the visible descent on him of the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, and the voice of the -Father from the most excellent glory, declaring Jesus his most beloved Son in whom he is well pleased. He himself came to John and solicited baptism at his hands. The ordinance was administered in the river Jordan.
According to these and correlated passages, the honorable position of this ordinance in the kingdom of God is as follows:
(1) In it is the Messiah manifested.
(2) In it the whole Trinity are present. The Son is being baptized, the Holy Spirit and the Father attesting the Son. Hence in our Lord’s Great Commission, reaching to all nations throughout all time, those disciples must be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity is indissolubly connected with baptism and is proclaimed wherever in pool, lake, river, or sea the ordinance is administered.
(3) Therefore it is a confession on the part of every disciple submitting to the ordinance that he accepts Jesus as the sent of the Father, and anointed of the Spirit to be his sacrifice, prophet, priest, king, and judge.
(4) Its symbolism expresses the heart, of the gospel and unites therein our Lord and all his disciples who follow his example (Rom 6:3-5 ; Col 2:12 ; 1Co 15:1 ; 1Co 15:29 ).
A great sermon on the position of baptism has been translated into foreign languages. This was a sermon before the Southern Baptist Convention by Dr. Henry Holcombe Tucker, editor of the Christian Index. From this honorable position of the ordinance it follows that it should never be belittled or despised as a matter of small moment.
The act of John in baptizing Jesus was one thing and not three things. John did not sprinkle water in Hesys (rantizo) and pour water on Jesus (cheo) and dip Jesus in water (baptizo). He did a specific thing. Whatever the specific thing John did, to which Jesus submitted, is the thing which Jesus did when he also (through his disciples) baptized. (Compare Joh 3:22-23 ; Joh 4:1-2 .) And it follows that the specific thing which John did, to which also Jesus submitted, and which he himself did (through his disciples) is the very thing which he commanded) in Mat 28:19 , to be done unto the end of time.
Apart from the clear meaning of baptizo , we may settle the question in another way. The argument of Rom 6:3 and Col 2:12 shows that Jesus was figuratively buried and raised in baptism, and that we who follow him are planted in the likeness of his death and also raised in the likeness of his f resurrection. Therefore baptism is indissolubly connected with the resurrection of the buried dead.
Since John administered a baptism ( eis metanoian ) unto repentance, a baptism of repentance unto the remission of sins ( eis aphesin hamartion ), we have the question, why should Jesus seek baptism at John’s hands, seeing he needed no repentance and no remission of sins? John himself raised this question: “But John would have hindered him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? But Jesus, answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffereth him” (Mat 3:14-15 ). The answer is clear, as John understood later. (See Joh 1:31 ; Joh 1:33 .) John’s baptizing had a twofold purpose.(l) as related to penitent believers, (2) as to the Messiah himself. In no other way could John complete his ministry. Out of this comes another question, How harmonize John’s protest (Mat 3:14 ) with his subsequent declaration, “I knew him not, at Joh 1:31 ; Joh 1:33 ? John could not know the person of the Messiah until he saw the appointed sign, the visible descent of the Spirit upon him, but he could be impressed in mind, in other ways, that Jesus was not a sinner needing repentance.
One of the most remarkable things about Jesus was a presence that at times filled friend and foe with awe and amazement. A glory of irresistible power radiated from him. I cite five instances of the radiating power of this presence on his enemies: Twice when he alone purged the Temple, driving all his panic-stricken enemies before him (Joh 2:13-16 ; Mat 21:12 f; Mar 11:15-17 ; Luk 19:45 f); the overawing of the Nazarenes when they rejected and sought to kill him (Luk 4:29-30 ); the prostration of those who sought to arrest him (Joh 18:6 ) ; the outcry of the demons when brought into his presence (Mat 8:29 f; Mar 5 ; Luk 8 .) Not only John the Baptist felt the radiating power of this sinless, awful presence, but Christ’s own disciples many times later. For example, Peter, at the miraculous draught of the fishes (Luk 5:8 ); Peter and others at the stilling of the tempest (Mar 4:41 ); at the transfiguration (Mat 17:6-7 ); all the disciples on the last journey to Jerusalem (Mar 10:32 ). We thus understand how John the Baptist (Mat 3:14 ) could be impressed with the sinlessness of Jesus, and yet not really know he was the Messiah until the sign came.
Now we have seen why Jesus should be baptized of John, but why baptized at all, that is, why to his own mind? The reasons are as follows:
(1) As he foreknew, in connection with this ordinance, it would be his own inauguration as Messiah. Therefore he overcame John’s scruples. Therefore, when baptized, he prayed for his spiritual anointing and the attestation of his Father. His prayer was not vague and indefinite. He knew he must be anointed as prophet, priest, and king, and sealed as the sacrifice for sin. He knew he must be endued for service as Messiah by the Holy Spirit. He must be equipped to resist and overcome the devil. All this appears as follows:
Anointing as Prophet: Read Isa 11:1-5 ; Isa 42:1-2 , which describe his spiritual equipment for service. He prayed for that. The fulfilment is, “God gave not the Spirit to him by measure,” but immeasurably (Joh 3:34 ). Read Isa 61:1 f and his declaration, Luk 4:16-21 . He was anointed to do this very preaching.
Sealed for Sacrifice: Referring to this descent of the Spirit our Lord says, “Him hath God, the Father, sealed” (Joh 6:27 ).
On receipt of this enduement of the Spirit: He went at once to meet the temptation of Satan, as the Second Adam (Mat 4:1 f; Mar 1:12 f; Luk 4:1 f).
So, also, the descent of the Spirit: Was his anointing as King and Priest.
(2) He was baptized to set forth in symbol the great truths of his gospel his death, burial, resurrection (Rom 6:1 f; Col 2:12 ; 1Co 15:1 ; 1Co 15:29 ).
(3) As an example for all his followers (see same scriptures).
However, he had the messianic consciousness before his baptism. He sought the baptism; he overcame John’s scruples; he prayed for the anointing and attestation before he received them.
The meaning of his reply to John, “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” is that neither he nor John must stop at only one of the purposes of John’s baptism, but meet all the other purposes of that baptism. And evidently, as set forth in 2 above) this baptism would memorialize all righteousness, which comes by vicarious expiation, burial and resurrection. It would be a pictorial gospel.
QUESTIONS
1. What comparison did John institute between Christ and himself?
2. Was this a comparison between John’s baptism in water and Christ’s baptism in water? If not, what is the point of comparison?
3. On what phrase of this comparison arise the controversies of the ages, and what two questions are involved in the controversies?
4. From what great Baptist expositor does this interpretation dissent, and what is the point of the dissension?
5. What negations express the dissent from Dr. Maclaren?
6. How is the baptism in fire exercised?
7. Give the argument to show that Dr. Maclaren is mistaken about the baptism in fire.
8. Reply to the contention that tongues of fire at the first Pentecost after the resurrection, prove the identity of baptism in the Spirit and fire.
9. Analyze, in a few terse sentences, the baptism in fire, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, regeneration, and sanctification.
10. Show how the baptism in the Holy Spirit was twice prefigured.
11. Explain the baptism in the Holy Spirit from the passage in Dan 9 .
12. What of the predetermined culmination of John’s ministry, and what were his own words to show that it connected with his baptism in water?
13. It what two things, then, does the culmination of John’s ministry consist?
14. Who are the historians that give an account of John’s baptism of the Messiah?
15. In whom, as a person, do all these historians identify him?
16. What two attestations of Jesus as the Messiah do all the historians give?
17. According to these and correlated passages, what of the honorable position of this ordinance in the kingdom of God?
18. What great sermon on the position of baptism has been translated into foreign languages?
19. What follows from this honorable position of the ordinance?
20. What was the act of John in baptizing Jesus?
21. Apart from the clear meaning of baptize, how otherwise may we settle the question?
22. Why should Jesus seek baptism at John’s hands, seeing he needed no repentance and no remission of sins?
23. How may we harmonize John’s protest (Mat 3:14 ) with his subsequent declaration, “I knew him not,” (Joh 1:31 ; Joh 1:33 )?
24. But why should Jesus be baptized at all?
25. How does it appear that he had the messianic consciousness before his baptism?
26. What, then, is the meaning of his reply to John, “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness”?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Ver. 11. I indeed baptize you with water to repentance ] There is a twofold baptism, Heb 6:2 , the doctrine of baptisms ( ), viz. Fluminis et flaminis, external and internal, the putting away of the pollution of the flesh, and the answer of a good conscience (purged from dead works) to God-ward. When these two meet, when men are baptized with water to repentance, then baptism saveth ( ), 1Pe 3:21 ; that is, it effectually assureth salvation, whensoever by the Spirit and faith the baptized comes to be united to Christ, and to feel the love of God shed abroad in his soul, whereby is wrought in him a spirit of repentance, a grief for sin, as it is an offence against God. And hereupon St Peter saith, “Baptism saveth,” in the present tense, implying that it is of permanent and perpetual use; effectual to save and seal up the promises, whensoever we repent. From which happy time, baptism, once received, remains a fountain always open for sin and for uncleanness, to those that mourn over him that bled over them; a laver of regeneration, a washing of the Spirit, who poureth clean water upon them, ridding and rinsing them from all their sins, past, present, and future, Zec 12:10 ; Zec 13:1 ; Eze 36:25 . Provided that they stand to the covenant and order of baptism, in a continual renovation of faith and repentance, as occasion shall be offered. This doctrine of baptisms (now cleared by divines) various of the ancient doctors understood not, which disheartened Piscator from spending much time upon them. a
He that cometh after me ] Whose harbinger and herald I am, whose prodromus and paranymph, friend and forerunner, I am, as the morning star foreruns the sun, with whose light it shineth.
Is mightier than I ] And will easily outshine me: “he must increase, but I must decrease;” and this is the complement of my joy, Joh 3:29-30 . To rejoice in the good parts of others, though it eclipseth thy light, and that from the heart, this is indeed to be able to do more than others; this is to excel others in any excellence whatsoever, if this be wanting.
Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ] Christ thought John worthy to lay his hand on his holy head in baptism, who thinks not himself worthy to lay his hand under Christ’s feet. The more fit any man is for whatsoever vocation, the less he thinks himself. “Who am I?” said Moses, when he was to be sent to Egypt; whereas none in all the world was comparably fit for that embassy. Not only in innumerable other things am I utterly unskilful, saith St Augustine, but even in the Holy Scriptures themselves (my proper profession), the greatest part of my knowledge is the least part of mine ignorance. b I, in my little cell, saith Jerome, with the rest of the monks my fellow sinners, dare not determine of great matters. c This is all I know, that I know nothing, said Socrates; and Anaxarchus went further, and said, that he knew not that neither, that it was nothing that he knew. d This is the utmost of my wisdom, said David Chytraeus, that I see myself to be without all wisdom. And if I would at any time delight myself in a fool, saith Seneca, I need not seek far: I have myself to turn to. e Thus the heaviest ears of grain stoop most towards the ground; boughs, the more laden they are, the more low they hang; and the more direct the sun is over us, the less is our shadow. So the more true worth is in any man, the less self-conceitedness; and the lower a man is in his own eyes, the higher he is in God’s. Surely John Baptist lost nothing by his humility and modesty here, for our Saviour extols him to the multitude Mat 11:7-11 ; and there are those who doubt not to affirm (where they have it I know not) that for his humility on earth he is dignified with that place in heaven from whence Lucifer fell. Sure it is, that “he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” If men reckon us as we set ourselves ( Tanti eris aliis, quanti tibi fueris ), God values us according to our abasements. The Church was black in her own eyes, fair in Christ’s,Son 1:5-15Son 1:5-15 .
With the Holy Ghost, and with fire ] That is, with that fiery Holy Ghost, , that spirit of judgment and of burning, wherewith the “filth of the daughters of Zion is washed away,”Isa 4:4Isa 4:4 ; that they may escape that unquenchable fire mentioned in the verse next following. This fire of the spirit must be fetched from heaven, Lumen de lumine, light from the light from the Father of lights, who giveth his Spirit to those who ask it; Hinc baptismus dicitur . It must be a coat from his altar, which when you have once gotten, your heart must be the hearth to uphold it; your hands, the tongs to build it; God’s ordinances, the fuel to feed it; the priest’s lips, the bellows to blow it up into a flame: so shall we find it (according to the nature of fire): 1. To enlighten us, as the least spark of fire lightens itself at least, and may be seen in the greatest darkness. 2. To enliven and revive us; for “whatsoever is of the Spirit is spirit,” Joh 3:6 , that is, nimble and active, full of life and motion. A bladder is a dull lumpish thing, so is a bullet; but put wind into the one, and fire to the other in a gun, and they will flee far. Fire is the most active of all other elements, as having much form, little matter; and therefore the Latins call a dull dronish man a fireless man, which God cannot abide. f “What thou doest, do quickly,” said our Saviour to Judas; so odious to him is dullness in any business. Baruch, full of the spirit, repaired the wall of Jerusalem earnestly, Neh 3:20 . Se accendit, he burst out into heat, and so finished his part in shorter time. “I press toward the mark,” saith Paul, , I persecute it, Phi 3:14 . Never was he so mad in persecuting the saints, Act 26:11 , as after his conversion he was judged to be the other way,2Co 5:132Co 5:13 ; as Lucan says of Caesar:-
” In omnia praeceps,
Nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum.
In all things first, never to trust the action while the matter remains to be completed. 3. To assimilate: as fire turns fuel into the same property with itself; so doth the Spirit inform the mind, conform the will, reform the life, transform the whole man more and more into the likeness of the heavenly Pattern; it spiritualizeth and transubstantializeth us, as it were, into the same image from glory to glory, 2Co 3:18 as the sun (that fire of the world) by often beating with its beams upon the pearl makes it radiant and orient, bright and beautiful like itself. 4. To elevate and carry the heart heavenward, as fire naturally aspireth, Job 5:7 ; and the spark fleeth upwards, to kindle our sacrifices, and make us heavenly minded; to break out at length, though for a while it lie under the weight of sin, that doth so easily beset us, Heb 12:1 ; as fire may lie puffing and blowing under green wood, as almost smothered. g 5. To purify us (as fire doth metals) from “our dross, and to take away all our tin,” Isa 1:25 ; 1Co 9:11 . For he is “like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap,” Mal 3:2 , whereby we are purified by “obeying the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren,”1Pe 1:221Pe 1:22 . 1Pe 1:6 . And that is the last property of the Holy Ghost and of fire (that I now insist upon), Congregat homogenea, segregat heterogenea: it unites them to saints, and separates them from sinners, for “what communion hath light with darkness?” 2Co 6:14 . It maketh division from those of a man’s house, if not of his heart; and yet causeth union with Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, if truly Christian, Col 3:2 . Oh, get this fire from heaven: so shall you glorify God, Mat 5:16 and be able to dwell with devouring fire (which hypocrites cannot do, Isa 33:14 ), get warmth of life and comfort to yourselves, give light and heat to others, walk surely, as Israel did by the conduct of the pillar of fire, and safely, as walled with a defence of fire, Zec 2:5 . And if any man shall hurt such, “fire shall proceed out of their mouths to devour them,”Rev 11:5Rev 11:5 . So that a man had better anger all the witches in the world than one of those that are “baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire,” &c., especially if they be much mortified Christians, such as in whom his fiery spirit hath done with the body of sin, as the king of Moab did with the king of Edom, Amo 2:1 burnt his bones into lime.
a A patrum lectione, postquam nonnullos evolvisset D. Piscator, sibi temperavit: aususque fuit dicere, Vix ullum patrum usum et efficaciam baptismi recte intellexisse.
b Non solum in aliis innumerabilibus rebus multa me latent, &c. Epist. 119.
c Ego in parvo tuguriolo, cum monachis, i.e. cum compeccatoribus meis, de magnis statuere non audeo. Epist. ad August. cxii. 5.
d Anaxarchus praedicabat se ne id quidem nescire, quod nihil sciret. Tusc. 3.
e Si quando fatuo delectari volo non longe mihi quaerendum est, me video. Seneca. Quod si ex parte aliquid didicerim, tamen in comparatione latitudinis intellectus, profecto nihil me intellexisse intelligo. Baldus.
f Segnis quasi seignis, id est, frigidus, ignavus. Tardis mentibus virtus non facile committitus. Cic.
g The least spark of fire will endeavour to rise above the air: so the Spirit.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
11. . ] is not redundant, but signifies the vehicle of baptism, as in . . . afterwards.
] The present participle is used of a certain and predetermined future event; “he that is to come.” See on ch. Mat 2:4 .
. ] Lightfoot (from Maimonides) shews that it was the token of a slave having become his master’s property, to loose his shoe, to tie the same, or to carry the necessary articles for him to the bath. The expressions therefore in all the Gospels amount to the same.
. . . ] This was literally fulfilled at the day of Pentecost: but Origen and others refer the words to the baptism of the righteous by the Holy Spirit , and of the wicked by fire . I have no doubt that this (which I am surprised to see upheld by Neander, De Wette, and Meyer) is a mistake in the present case, though apparently (to the superficial reader) borne out by Mat 3:12 . The double symbolic reference of fire, elsewhere found, e.g. Mar 9:50 , as purifying the good and consuming the evil, though illustrated by these verses, is hardly to be pressed into the interpretation of in this verse, the prophecy here being solely of that higher and more perfect baptism to which that of John was a mere introduction. To separate off . as belonging to one set of persons, and as belonging to another, when both are united in , is in the last degree harsh, besides introducing confusion into the whole. The members of comparison in this verse are strictly parallel to one another: the baptism by water , the end of which is , a mere transition state, a note of preparation, and the baptism by the Holy Ghost and fire , the end of which is ( Mat 3:12 ) sanctification , the entire aim and purpose of man’s creation and renewal. So Chrys.: . Thus the official superiority of the Redeemer (which is all that our Evangelist here deals with) is fully brought out. The superiority of nature and pre-existence is reserved for the fuller and more dogmatic account in Joh 1:1-51 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 3:11-12 . John defines his relation to the Messiah (Mar 1:7-8 ; Luk 3:15-17 ). This prophetic word would come late in the day when the Baptist’s fame was at its height, and men began to think it possible he might be the Christ (Luk 3:15 ). His answer to inquiries plainly expressed or hinted was unhesitating. No, not the Christ, there is a Coming One. He will be here soon. I have my place, important in its own way, but quite secondary and subordinate. John frankly accepts the position of herald and forerunner, assigned to him in Mat 3:3 by the citation of the prophetic oracle as descriptive of his ministry. , etc. emphatic, but with the emphasis of subordination. My function is to baptise with water , symbolic of repentance. . . . He who is just coming (present participle). How did John know the Messiah was just coming? It was an inference from his judgment on the moral condition of the time. Messiah was needed; His work was ready for Him; the nation was ripe for judgment . Judgment observe, for that was the function uppermost in his mind in connection with the Messianic advent. These two verses give us John’s idea of the Christ, based not on personal knowledge, but on religious preconceptions. It differs widely from the reality. John can have known little of Jesus on the outer side, but he knew less of His spirit. We cannot understand his words unless we grasp this fact. Note the attributes he ascribes to the Coming One. The main one is strength fully unfolded in the sequel. Along with strength goes dignity , etc. He is so great, august a personage, I am not fit to be His slave, carrying to and from Him, for and after use, His sandals (a slave’s office in Judaea, Greece and Rome). An Oriental magnificent exaggeration. : returns to the Power of Messiah, as revealed in His work, which is described as a baptism, the better to bring out the contrast between Him and His humble forerunner. . Notable here are the words, . They must be interpreted in harmony with John’s standpoint, not from what Jesus proved to be, or in the light of St. Paul’s teaching on the Holy Spirit as the immanent source of sanctification. The whole baptism of the Messiah, as John conceives it, is a baptism of judgment. It has been generally supposed that the Holy Spirit here represents the grace of Christ, and the fire His judicial function; not a few holding that even the fire is gracious as purifying. I think that the grace of the Christ is not here at all. The is a stormy wind of judgment; holy, as sweeping away all that is light and worthless in the nation (which, after the O. T. manner, is conceived of as the subject of Messiah’s action, rather than the individual). The fire destroys what the wind leaves. John, with his wild prophetic imagination, thinks of three elements as representing the functions of himself and of Messiah: water, wind, fire . He baptises with water, in the running stream of Jordan, to emblem the only way of escape, amendment. Messiah will baptise with wind and fire, sweeping away and consuming the impenitent, leaving behind only the righteous. Possibly John had in mind the prophetic word, “our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away,” Isa 64:6 ; or, as Furrer, who I find also takes in the sense of “wind,” suggests, the “wind of God,” spoken of in Isa 40:7 : the strong east wind which blights the grass ( Zeitschrift fr Missionskunde und Religionswissenschaft , 1890). Carr, Cambridge G. T. , inclines to the same view, and refers to Isa 41:16 : “Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away”. Vide also Isa 4:4 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 3:11-12
11″As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Mat 3:11
NASB”I am not fit to remove His sandals”
NKJV, NRSV”whose sandals I am not worthy to carry”
TEV”I am not good enough even to carry his sandals”
This term may be translated two ways (1) following the usage in the Egyptian papyri, “to take off and carry a visitor’s shoes to the storage place” or (2) to ” untie and remove.” Both acts were traditionally done by slaves. Not even the students of rabbis were asked to perform this task. This was an idiomatic statement of John’s understanding of the superiority of Jesus.
“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” Only one preposition and one article in the Greek text link the Holy Spirit and fire, implying that they are parallel (note Isa 4:4). However, as in Luk 3:17, fire may refer to judgment, while the Holy Spirit referred to cleansing or to purity. It is possible both refer to the Pentecostal experience of Acts 2. Some have seen this as a two-fold baptism: one baptism for the righteous and one for the wicked, or Jesus baptizing as Savior or as Judge. Others have related it to conversion before Pentecost and the special endowment at Pentecost. 1Co 12:13 implies that Jesus is the baptizer “in,” ” with,” or “by” the Spirit (cf. Mar 1:8; Luk 3:16; Joh 1:33; Act 1:5; Act 2:33).
Mat 3:12 “but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” The metaphor Jesus used to describe the eternal judgment of God (cf. Isa 66:24) was Gehenna (contraction of “the valley of the sons of Hinnom”), the garbage dump located south of Jerusalem (cf. Mar 9:48; Mat 18:8; Mat 24:41; Jud 1:7). A Canaanite fire and fertility god had been worshiped (an activity known as molech) at Gehenna in Israel’s past by sacrificing of children (cf. Lev 18:21; Lev 20:2-5; 1Ki 11:7; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:10). This aspect of eternal judgment is shocking to modern readers, but it was evident (rabbinical teaching) and expressive to first century Jews. Jesus did not come as judge, but all who reject Him will be judged (cf. Luk 3:16-17, Joh 3:17-21). A possible OT precedent for this metaphor was Isaiah 34 which described God’s judgment on Edom.
SPECIAL TOPIC: FIRE
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
with. Greek. en. The literal rendering of the Hebrew (Beth = B). Mat 7:6; Mat 9:34. Rom 15:6. 1Co 4:21, &c.
shoes = sandals.
worthy = fit or equal. Not the same word as “meet for” in Mat 3:8.
bear = bring or fetch. Mark: “stoop down and unloose”. Luke: “unloose”. Probably repeated often in different forms.
He shall baptize. “He” is emph. = He Himself will, and no other. See App-115. See Act 1:4, Act 1:5; Act 2:3; Act 11:15. Isa 44:3. Compare Eze 36:26, Eze 36:27. Joe 2:28.
baptize . . . with. See App-115.
the Holy Ghost = pneuma hagion, holy spirit, or “power from on high”. No Articles. See App-101.
fire. See Act 2:3. Note the Figure of speech Hendiadys (App-6) = with pneuma hagion = yea, with a burning (or purifying) spirit too, separating the chaff from the wheat (Mat 3:12), not mingling them together in water. “Fire” in Mat 3:11. Mat 3:35 symbolic (see Isa 4:3. Ma Mat 1:3, Mat 1:1-4; Mat 4:1. Compare Psa 1:4; Psa 35:5. Isa 17:13; Isa 30:24; Isa 41:16. Jer 51:2. Hos 13:3). In Mat 3:12, the “fire” is literal; for destroying, not for purging. Note the seven emblems of the Spirit (or of pneuma hagion) in Scripture. “FIRE” (Mat 3:11. Act 2:3); “WATER” (Eze 36:25. Joh 3:5; Joh 7:38, Joh 7:39); “WIND” (Eze 37:1-10); “OIL” (Isa 61:1. Heb 1:9); a “SEAL” (Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30); an “EARNEST” (Eph 1:14); a “DOVE” (Mat 3:16).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
11. .] is not redundant, but signifies the vehicle of baptism, as in . . . afterwards.
] The present participle is used of a certain and predetermined future event; he that is to come. See on ch. Mat 2:4.
. ] Lightfoot (from Maimonides) shews that it was the token of a slave having become his masters property, to loose his shoe, to tie the same, or to carry the necessary articles for him to the bath. The expressions therefore in all the Gospels amount to the same.
. . . ] This was literally fulfilled at the day of Pentecost: but Origen and others refer the words to the baptism of the righteous by the Holy Spirit, and of the wicked by fire. I have no doubt that this (which I am surprised to see upheld by Neander, De Wette, and Meyer) is a mistake in the present case, though apparently (to the superficial reader) borne out by Mat 3:12. The double symbolic reference of fire, elsewhere found, e.g. Mar 9:50, as purifying the good and consuming the evil, though illustrated by these verses, is hardly to be pressed into the interpretation of in this verse, the prophecy here being solely of that higher and more perfect baptism to which that of John was a mere introduction. To separate off . as belonging to one set of persons, and as belonging to another, when both are united in , is in the last degree harsh, besides introducing confusion into the whole. The members of comparison in this verse are strictly parallel to one another: the baptism by water, the end of which is , a mere transition state, a note of preparation,-and the baptism by the Holy Ghost and fire, the end of which is (Mat 3:12) sanctification, the entire aim and purpose of mans creation and renewal. So Chrys.: . Thus the official superiority of the Redeemer (which is all that our Evangelist here deals with) is fully brought out. The superiority of nature and pre-existence is reserved for the fuller and more dogmatic account in Joh 1:1-51.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 3:11. , you) John, therefore, did not exclude the Pharisees from baptism.- , in water) The conclusion of the verse corresponds with this part of it. John, however, depreciates not so much his baptism as himself. And again, in this place alone, is that fire mentioned in contradistinction to water, whereas the Holy Spirit is mentioned in every case.- , for repentance) This portion of the verse corresponds with Mat 3:12.-, but) The contrast does not apply only to those who confer, but to those also who receive baptism (See Act 1:5, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost), and also to the different times.- , after me) It was fitting that John should be born a little before the Messiah.-, that cometh) sc. immediately; see Mat 3:13.- , mightier than I) One whom you ought to fear and to worship, rather than me, who am feeble. John teaches, both here and in Mat 3:12, that his power is not great; whereas that of Christ, as God, is infinite.[127] He does not say directly, Messiah cometh after me, but expresses it by a paraphrase more obscurely, and yet more augustly. John, moreover, said this at the time when he possessed the greatest power; see Act 13:25.-, to bear) As a servant bears the shoes, which his master has either called for, or commanded to be taken away.-Cf. Psa 60:8.-, He) Believe on Him: see Act 19:4.-, you) sc. as many as shall receive Him.-, shall baptize) i.e. abundantly impart; see Tit 3:6; Act 2:3-4; Act 2:17; Act 10:44; and shall thereby show Himself the mightier. The Holy Spirit and fire have the greatest power.-, …, in, etc.) This was the difference between John and Christ; see Joh 1:33.- , the Holy Ghost) See Gnomon on Luk 3:16.- , and with fire) St Luke has these words, though St Mark has not: even, therefore, were the reading doubtful in St Matthew, there would be no danger;[128] it is certain, however, that he also wrote . The Holy Spirit, with which Christ baptizes, has a fiery power, and that fiery power was manifested to the eyes of men; see Act 2:3.
[127] A power, which there is no one who shall not experience, either exercised for salvation, or else in terrible vengeance.-Vers. Germ.
[128] Orig. 4, 131e, 132c, Iren. 321, Cypr. Hil. Vulg. have . It is only some more recent uncial MSS. (ESV in Tischend. Gr. Test.) and Syr. of Jerus., which have omitted the words.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
The Two Baptisms
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.Mat 3:11.
This text is a contrast between two baptizers, John and Jesus. Jesus is mightier than John, in the purity of His character, by so much as an immaculate one is superior to a sinful one; in the power which He holds, in so much as omnipotence transcends temporary, limited, and derived power; in the dignity of His character and of His office, by so much as all authority in heaven and on earth surpasses a brief earthly commission; and in His ministry, inasmuch as one was to decrease and cease and the other to increase and endure alway, even unto the end of the world. There stood the two baptizers; and of the one it is said that he was as great as any man ever born of a woman. Hence it is not instituting a comparison between an insignificant man on the one hand and a greater man on the other, but it is instituting a comparison between the greatest man and a Being infinitely greater than the greatest man.
I
The baptism of John was merely preparatory and negative. I indeed baptize you with water. There is something extremely beautiful and pathetic in John the Baptists clear discernment of his limitations, and of the imperfection of his work. His immovable humility is all the more striking because it stands side by side with as immovable a courage in confronting evil-doers, whether of low or of high degree. To him to efface himself and be lost in the light of Christ was no trial; it brought joy like that of the friend of the Bridegroom. He saw that the spiritual deadness and moral corruption of his generation was such that a crash must come. The axe was laid at the root of the trees, and there was impending a mighty hewing and a fierce conflagration. There are periods when the only thing to be done with the present order is to burn it.
But John saw, too, that there was a great deal more needed than he could give; and so, with a touch of sadness, he symbolized the incompleteness of his work in the words preceding the text, by reference to his baptism. He baptized with water, which cleansed the outside but did not go deeper. It was cold, negative. It brought no new impulses; and he recognized that something far other than it was wanted, and that He who was to come, before whom his whole spirit prostrated itself in joyful submission, was to bestow a holy fire which would cleanse in another fashion than water could do.
The bounds of our habitation are fixed; so are our talents, so are our spheres of influence; so are our ranges of ministry. John knew exactly what he had to do, and he kept strictly within the Divine appointment. His was, indeed, an initial, or elementary, ministry, and yet God was pleased to make it a necessary part of His providential purpose. Men must work up to date, and people must be content to receive an up-to-date ministry, and their contentment need not be the less that they have an assurance that One mightier than the mightiest is coming with a deeper baptism. I indeed baptize you with water,that is what every true teacher says, qualifying his utterance by the special environment within which his ministry is exercised. This is what is said by the schoolmaster: I indeed baptize you with letters, alphabets, grammars; but there cometh one after me, mightier than I, who shall baptize you with the true intellectual fire. The schoolmaster can do but little for a scholar, yet that little may be all-important. The schoolmaster teaches the alphabet, but the spirit maketh alive. There is a literary instinct. There is a spirit which can penetrate through the letter into the very sanctuary of the spiritual meaning. The schoolmaster has an initial work; the literary spirit develops and completes what he could only begin.1 [Note: Joseph Parker.]
Johns perfect freedom from jealousy, leading to the frank and glad recognition of One who would supplant him through the greater fulness of His Divine gifts, seems to have been that which most impressed the Evangelist in the character of the Baptist. It was this self-effacement, this entire devotion to the duty which God laid upon him, that gave the Baptist such truth of discernment. It was the single eye which gave light to his whole body, the simplicity and purity of heart which enabled him to see things as they really were. We are not disciples of John; but we should do well to honour and to imitate his noble simplicity, which so entirely subordinated self to the righteousness which he proclaimed. If we have any good cause at heart, we must unfeignedly rejoice when others are able to promote it more efficiently than we can do; otherwise we are loving ourselves more than the good cause. The same is true of every gift which we can legitimately prize; we must see with pleasure its higher manifestations in another, for otherwise we are prizing, not the gift, but the glory which it brings us. Though not formally a disciple of Jesus, John was a better Christian than most of us; for he had the simplicity of Christ, an entire forgetfulness of self in his devotion to God and goodness.1 [Note: James Drummond, Johannine Thoughts, 26.]
Also of John a calling and a crying
Rang in Bethabara till strength was spent,
Cared not for counsel, stayed not for replying,
John had one message for the world, Repent.
John, than which man a sadder or a greater
Not till this day has been of woman born,
John like some iron peak by the Creator
Fired with the red glow of the rushing morn.
This when the sun shall rise and overcome it
Stands in his shining desolate and bare,
Yet not the less the inexorable summit
Flamed him his signal to the happier air.2 [Note: F. W. H. Myers, Saint Paul.]
II
A more effectual baptism was called fora baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire. This would carry with it a deep and supernatural change. Fire is an element which has always affected the human mind with peculiar awe. It is in every way so strange and mysterious and, as it were, preternatural. Whether glowing on the hearth, or racing in forked darts across the heavens, or carrying all before it in a hurricane of flame, it is always weird and wonderful. And accordingly, from the first, man has felt towards it a fear and dread with which he does not regard any other force whatsoever in nature. In primitive times, as he saw it crawl out of the dry sticks he rubbed together and writhe about his fingers like a live thing, or was dazzled by the splendour of it in the midday sky, he even found a god in it and worshipped it; and where his religious conceptions have ceased to be so crude as this, he has nevertheless taken it as the most natural of all emblems under which to speak of the Divine. In the Old Testament itself every one will remember how very often fire is associated both with the real and with the visionary appearances of God to man. It is from the burning bush that Moses is commissioned to undertake the deliverance of the people. It is a pillar of fire (and cloud) that leads them through the wilderness. Long after, when rival worships have been set up in Israel, and the controversy between them is to be finally decided, it is by the falling of fire from heaven upon the faithful prophets sacrifice that the people are constrained to cry, Jehovah, he is God; Jehovah, he is God. Later still, when the prophetic spark kindles the heart of an exile by the river Chebar he can find no better words in which to describe the Awful One who has appeared to him, than these: Behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself. And, finally, in the New Testament, where, however, such language has at last become frankly metaphorical, you have such a statement as this: Our God is a consuming fire. So closely has this unaccountable, uncontrollable, and everyway mysterious element associated itself in mens minds with the nature and operations of the Deity, that they have felt instinctively that existence furnished them with no more apt or suggestive figure under which to think and speak of Him.
When, therefore, it is said of Jesus that He baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire, we see what is implied. It is implied that the influence He sheds around Him is something more than natural. The spiritual power He exerts, the inspiration He gives, the communication of inward life He makes is altogether different from the ordinary. It does not belong to the common sphere of resources which are at the command, or of powers which are within the gift, of man. It is superhuman, supernatural, Divine.
In course of a letter to Lady Welby, Bishop Westcott writes: The full thought of God as Love and Fire on which you dwell is that which is able to bring hope and peace to us when we dare in faith to look at the world as it is. Again and again the marvellous succession rises: God is spiritlightlove: our God is a consuming fire.1 [Note: Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, ii. 72.]
Fire represents the Divine nature as it flames against sin to consume it (Heb 12:29). This is the fire of Gods anger. But there is also the fire of His love. We may have the fire of sunshine, or the cheery fire of the hearth, or the fire which melts away the dross, as well as the fire of the conflagration which burns and destroys. It is this beneficent ministry of fire which symbolizes the Spirit of God. The emblem speaks to us of the Divine love kindled in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, the love that purifies and cleanses. The very same word is used (Act 2:33) to describe the outpouring of the Spirit which is employed (Rom 5:5) to express His shedding abroad of love in our hearts: evidently the gift of the Spirit and of love are one and the same. As St. Augustine says: The Spirit is Himself the love of God: and when He is given to a man He kindles in him the fire of love to God and his neighbour. So Charles Wesley speaks of the flame of sacred love, and likens all-victorious love to the refining fire of the Holy Spirit. The same idea is expressed by the common phrases of every language. We talk about the warmth of affection, the blaze of enthusiasm, the fire of emotion. Christians are to be set on fire of Godthat is, the celestial flame of love is to burn intensely in their hearts. The Spirits baptism of fire is His baptism of love.2 [Note: J. H. Hodson, Symbols of the Holy Spirit, 35.]
III
The baptism of fire searches and cleanses as water cannot do. There are some deeply established uncleannesses for which the action of water is not sufficiently stringent. In many cases of contagious disease, if we are to rid ourselves of every vestige of corruption, there are many things which must be burnt. The germs of the contagion cannot be washed away. They must be consumed away. Water would be altogether insufficient. We need fire. Fire is our most effective purifying minister, a powerful and relentless enemy of disease.
There can be no doubt that it was mainly this thought that was before the Baptists mind when he spoke the words with which we are dealing. The symbol of his own work was water, and there is a great deal, in the way of cleansing, that water can do. It can remove the worst of the defilement to be seen anywhere, and make unsightly things fairly pleasing to look at. As he preached and pleaded with men his words had a certain, even striking, effect; the reformation that set in for the time being changed the face of society. But there are stains which no water can erase, inward impurities which it cannot reach. These must be burned out if they are to disappear. And this Jesus effects through His gift of the Holy Ghost. He breathes flame through mens hearts, and makes them pure.
In 1665 London was in the grip of that terrible Plague, the horrors of which may still be felt through the pages of Defoe. The disease germs were hiding and breeding and multiplying everywhere. Every corner became a nest of contagion. Nothing could be found to displace it. In the following year the Great Fire broke out, and the plague-smitten city was possessed by the spirit of burning. London was literally baptized with fire, which sought out the most secret haunts of the contagion, and in the fiery baptism the evil genius of corruption gave place to the sweet and friendly genius of health. Fire accomplished quite easily what water would never have attained. And so in a comparison of fire and water as cleansing and redeeming agencies, common experience tells us that fire is the keener, the more searching, the more powerful, the more intense.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, 209.]
To me it seemed that Gods most vehement utterances had been in flames of fire. The most tremendous lesson He ever gave to New York was in the conflagration of 1835; to Chicago in the conflagration of 1871; to Boston in the conflagration of 1872; to my own congregation in the fiery downfall of the Tabernacle at Brooklyn. Some saw in the flames that roared through its organ pipes a requiem, nothing but unmitigated disaster, while others of us heard the voice of God, as from heaven, sounding through the crackling thunder of that awful day, saying, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire!2 [Note: The Autobiography of Dr. Talmage, 231.]
1. The fire has a refining power on true character. Partly by the fiery trials of human life, partly by the test of sore temptation, partly by the fire of disappointment, partly by the shattering of vain ideals and the scattering of earthly hopes, partly by all that sobers and deepens us, by the fire of bodily pain, by the fire of mental anguish, by every action of the Eternal Spirit of the living God, instructing, guiding, warning, rebuking, judging, haunting, condemning, up to the sorrows of death and beyond it; by all these each soul is tried in the baptism by fire whereby the good is refined and the evil destroyed.
The great glory of the gospel is to cleanse mens hearts by raising their temperature, making them pure because they are made warm; and that separates them from their evils. It is slow work to take mallet and chisel and try to chip off the rust, speck by speck, from a row of railings, or to punch the specks of iron ore out of the ironstone. Pitch the whole thing into the furnace, and the work will be done. So the true way for a man to be purged of his weaknesses, his meannesses, his passions, his lusts, his sins, is to submit himself to the cleansing fire of that Divine Spirit.
Did you ever see a blast-furnace? How long would it take a man, think you, with hammer and chisel, or by chemical means, to get the bits of ore out from the stony matrix? But fling them into the great cylinder, and pile the fire and let the strong draught roar through the burning mass, and by evening you can run off a glowing stream of pure and fluid metal, from which all the dross and rubbish is parted, which has been charmed out of all its sullen hardness, and will take the shape of any mould into which you like to run it. The fire has conquered, has melted, has purified. So with us. Love shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us, love that answers to Christs, love that is fixed upon Him who is pure and separate from sinners, will purify us and sever us from our sins. Nothing else will. All other cleansing is superficial, like the water of Johns baptism.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
Beautiful colours, rich gold-work, exquisite designs, and artistic skill may be seen on the unfinished porcelain vase, but a careless touch may spoil them, there is a needs-be that the vase should be placed in the fire, that the artists skill may be burnt in, and then the colours become permanent. The Holy Spirit is the Artist and the Fire. He alone can produce the beautiful colours of a holy life and make the character impervious to the attacks of evil. He alone can make us resolve with Jonathan Edwards, who wrote in his diary these words: If I believed that it were permitted to one manand only onein this generation to lead a life of complete consecration to God, I would live in every respect as though I believed myself to be that one.1 [Note: F. E. Marsh, Emblems of the Holy Spirit, 122.]
2. The fire will destroy everything that is not sterling metal. This is the alternative before every human beingeither to be purified by the baptism of fire, or else to meet that central Holiness as a flame of judgment. Of course it must be so. For the holiness of God cannot change its character. It is mans heart that must be changed. To the obedient it is a savour of life unto life, to the evil a savour of death unto death; to the one remedial, to the other retributive. The Spirit of God must sanctify, or else it must destroy.
The gold is gold, and cannot be anything worse if it would. The chaff is worthless by nature, not by fault. The fire must of necessity purify the one and burn the other. Neither gold nor stubble can change. But that which is tested by the fire of the Divine Holiness is the will and the character of moral and responsible beings. Man can become pure as the gold or worthless as the stubble. From the same material issues the sinner and the saint. It must depend upon the soul itself whether the Divine Holiness shall be to it the fire which purifies or the fire which destroys. God cannot deny Himself, or be anything else than moral Perfection, or He would no longer be God. It is the creature that must change. The human will must change. The human will must so submit itself to the action of the grace of God that the evil shall be burnt out and the good refined. Our destiny is in our hands. The love and mercy which created us has no pleasure in our ruin. And if any soul hereafter meet that holiness of God in the form of unquenchable fire, it will be because that soul has refused to meet Him as the power which cleanses.
The same pillar of fire which gladdened the ranks of Israel as they camped by the Red Sea shone baleful and terrible to the Egyptian hosts. The same Ark of the Covenant whose presence blessed the house of Obed-edom, and hallowed Zion, and saved Jerusalem, smote the Philistines, and struck down their bestial gods. Christ and His gospel even here hurt the men whom they do not save.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
IV
The baptism of fire imparts to the life an unmistakable glow and ardour and enthusiasm. This certainly is one very prominent trait in the life of Jesus Himself. The spirit of holiness in Him included a great zeal in the service of the Father. Once at least it blazed up even fiercelywhen the desecration of the Temple had stung Him to the quick, and in wrath He overthrew the money-changers tables and drove the offenders before Him. But it was not only in an instance so dramatic as this that the zeal of his Fathers house was apparent in Him. It was the habit of His life and it appears all through. The holy enthusiasmif we may use the word reverently of Himin which He had given Himself at the first to the work that brought Him here never flagged during all the years He was engaged in it. Occasionally we see it manifesting itself in short-lived gleams of thankfulness at what has been accomplished for the Kingdom or of anticipation of its future triumph. Oftener it takes the form rather of a quiet, invincible, sustaining power that enables Him to hold on His way. It comforts His heart under the disappointments He meets with, strengthens Him under His heavy burden, and carries Him through all opposition; so that, because of His zeal for the truth and the kingdom and the glory of God, He did not fail nor was discouraged till He had set judgment in the earth.
What is greatly to be desired is that, in the lives of those who follow Jesus, there should be a large measure of the enthusiasm that glowed in His owna serious, intelligent, glowing sympathy with God, a supreme thankfulness because of the purposes of grace He entertains towards our race, and a great readiness to spend and be spent in the carrying on of these so far as opportunity offers to every man. That is Christian enthusiasmChrists own enthusiasm, which He shares with all in whom His influence has free play. As for the forms it will take, they will be endless; for men are endlessly different, nor is there any need why any man should violate his own nature in order to serve God faithfully. In the world there are all sorts of men and women, possessed of all sorts of temperaments and dispositions, and in the work of building up Gods Kingdom on earth there is a place and a work for every one of them. What is imperative is that at the bottom of all our hearts there should be this deep, unchanging, burning desire to help that great work on for Jesus sake.
Suppose we saw an army sitting down before a granite fort, and they told us that they intended to batter it down: we might ask them, How? They point to a cannon-ball. Well, but there is no power in that; it is heavy, but if all the men in the army hurled it against the fort, they would make no impression. They say, No; but look at the cannon. Well, there is no power in that. A child may ride upon it, a bird may perch in its mouth; it is a machine, and nothing more. But look at the powder. Well, there is no power in that; a child may spill it, a sparrow may peck it. Yet this powerless powder and powerless ball are put into a powerless cannon; one spark of fire enters itand then, in the twinkling of an eye, that powder is a flash of lightning, and that ball a thunderbolt, which smites as if it had been sent from heaven. So is it with our Church machinery at this day: we have all the instruments necessary for pulling down strongholds, and oh for the baptism of fire!1 [Note: William Arthur, The Tongue of Fire, 309.]
1. Passionate religious enthusiasm attaches itself to a person; and the more near and real our intercourse with the person, the more beautiful will be our holiness, and the more fiery-hearted will be our service and devotion. Just think for a moment what magnificent import this revelation in the Person of Jesus had for those Jews who became His disciples. The religion of the Jews had become an obedience to precept and law. The germ of their national faith is to be found in those ten laws which we call the Ten Commandments. But to these ten laws the Rabbis had made countless additional lawspetty, trying, and irritating laws, which had come to be regarded as of equal importance with the original ten. To the earnest Jew, the warm, loving purpose of God had become buried in a mountainous mass of man-made traditions. It was no longer God with whom the Jew was dealing, but this vast dead-weight of Rabbinical law. God had become to them an earth-born system, a burdensome ism, a heavy and smothering tradition. Then came the Christ, and the first thing He did was to tear these miles of wrappages away.
Christ gives fervour by bringing the warmth of His own love to bear upon our hearts through the Spirit, and that kindles ours. Where His great work for men is believed and trusted in, there, and there only, is excited an intensity of consequent affection to Him which glows throughout the life. It is not enough to say that Christianity is singular among religious and moral systems in exalting fervour into a virtue. Its peculiarity lies deeperin its method of producing that fervour. It is kindled by that Spirit using as His means the truth of the dying love of Christ. The secret of the gospel is not solved by saying that Christ excites love in our souls. The question yet remainsHow? There is but one answer to that: He loved us to the death. That truth laid on hearts by the Spirit, who takes of Christs and shows them to us, and that truth alone, makes fire burst from their coldness.
In the times of the Crusaders a band of valiant knights traversed the sunny plains of France, to sail from Marseilles for the Holy Land. There, along with others who were bound on the same enterprise, they embarked on the stately vessel that was to carry them across the sea. But, eager as they were to do, day after day they lay helplessly becalmed. The hot sun beat upon them, and was flashed back from the unbroken surface of the waves. They lounged wearily upon the deck; they scanned the heavens in vain for the signs of an approaching breeze. It seemed as though some adverse fate resolved to hold them back. But in the stillness of an even tide, from a group of warriors assembled at the prow, there rose the swelling strains of the Veni Creator SpiritusCome, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire. And straightway a breath came upon them from the dying sun; the smooth, shining surface of the sea was ruffled, the cordage rattled, the sails were filled, and the vessel sped joyously over the dancing waves. Whether the story is true or not, it contains a very grand truth. Without the Spirit of Love all is dark and dead.
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire
And lighten with celestial fire.
2. This enthusiasm needs nurture. There is a danger that the wide divergences of our interests in modern life diminish and impoverish the intensity of our devotion. How did our fathers keep the fire burning? There are some words found very frequently in their letters, and diaries, and sermons, which awaken similar feelings to those aroused by types of extinct species that are sometimes unearthed from the deposits of a far-off and unfamiliar age. Here are two such words, meditation and contemplationwords which appear to suggest an unfamiliar day, when the world was young, and haste was not yet born, and men moved among their affairs with long and leisurely strides. Our fathers steeped their souls in meditation. They appointed long seasons for the contemplation of God in Christ. And as they mused the fire burned. Passion was born of thought. What passion? The passion which Faber so beautifully describes as the desire which purifies man and glorifies God:
But none honours God like the thirst of desire,
Nor possesses the heart so completely with Him;
For it burns the world out with the swift ease of fire,
And fills life with good works till it runs oer the brim.
Let us muse upon the King in His beauty, let us commune with His loveliness, let us dwell more in the secret place, and the unspeakable glory of His countenance shall create within us that enthusiastic passion which shall be to us our baptism of fire, a fire in which everything unchristian shall be utterly consumed away.
Oh then wish more for God, burn more with desire,
Covet more the dear sight of His Marvellous Face;
Pray louder, pray longer, for the sweet gift of fire
To come down on thy heart with its whirlwinds of grace.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, 224.]
The Two Baptisms
Literature
Carroll (B. H.), Sermons, 315.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, v. 277.
Harper (F.), A Year with Christ, 134.
Ingram (A. F. W.), Into the Fighting Line, 77.
Jowett (J. H.), Apostolic Optimism, 209.
Maclaren (A.), Sermons Preached in Manchester, ii. 227.
Maclaren (A.), The Victors Crowns, 207.
Martin (A.), Winning the Soul, 81.
Moore (E. W.), The Christ-Controlled Life, 39.
Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, v. 183.
Robinson (W. V.), Angel Voices, 28.
Simpson (W. J. S.), The Prophet of the Highest, 110.
Wilberforce (B.), The Secret of a Quiet Mind, 114.
Childrens Pulpit: Fourth Sunday in Advent, i. 262 (A. M. Cawthorne).
Church Pulpit Year Book, 1906, p. 156.
Expository Times, xxv. 306 (J. Reid).
Preachers Magazine, xii. 326 (A. Tucker).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
baptize: Mat 3:6, Mar 1:4, Mar 1:8, Luk 3:3, Luk 3:16, Joh 1:26, Joh 1:33, Act 1:5, Act 11:16, Act 13:24, Act 19:4
but: Luk 1:17, Joh 1:15, Joh 1:26, Joh 1:27, Joh 1:30, Joh 1:34, Joh 3:23-36
whose: Mar 1:7, Luk 7:6, Luk 7:7, Act 13:25, Eph 3:8, 1Pe 5:5
he shall: Isa 4:4, Isa 44:3, Isa 59:20, Isa 59:21, Zec 13:9, Mal 3:2-4, Mar 1:8, Luk 3:16, Joh 1:33, Act 1:5, Act 2:2-4, Act 11:15, Act 11:16, 1Co 12:13, Gal 3:27, Gal 3:28
Reciprocal: Num 31:23 – abide Deu 23:11 – wash himself 1Ki 3:9 – who is able Isa 6:6 – having Isa 9:5 – burning Mat 8:8 – I am Mat 11:11 – a greater Luk 1:32 – shall be great Luk 1:76 – thou shalt Joh 1:16 – of his Joh 1:20 – General Joh 3:5 – born Joh 3:25 – about Joh 3:28 – but Joh 10:41 – but Joh 13:6 – Lord Joh 14:26 – Holy Ghost Act 2:3 – like 2Co 4:5 – we Heb 10:22 – our bodies Rev 4:5 – the seven Rev 15:2 – mingled
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CLEANSING AND BURNING
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.
Mat 3:11
It is not too much to say that many people think and speak as if Repentance were, of itself, what they call a title to Heaven. Bui nowhere in Holy Scripture does Repentancein the sense in which we are now using the wordstand for more than the beginning of a living religion. It is always repent anddo this or do that.
I. A preparation.Repentance is not Christianity. It is only the preparation for Christianity. Look at the History. When St. John came preaching Repentance, the Jews imagined that he might be the Christ. So they sent to ask him if it were so. And what was his answer? He told themNo. That he only baptized unto Repentance: and, therefore, he was not the Christ, but only the Forerunner of the Christ: for that, when Christ came, His Baptism should be quite a different thingnamely, with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. Repentance is a great thing in its operation on the soul, cleansing it like water. But true living Christianity is a much greater thing, something keener and far more searching. Water may cleanse, but Fire burns up utterly all that has defiled:Fire and the Holy Ghost; the Fire to consume all that remains of natural corruption;the Holy Ghost to infuse a new and God-like principle of action.
II. God renews.The real work of Religion in our hearts is not any work of ours done upon ourselves, but is a real supernatural action of God upon us, making us something which we could not be without it. We repent; but God renews us, i.e. God makes us over again. And just as God is more powerful than we are, so Gods part in our restoration to goodness is a far greater one than our own. This part in our religion is a divine work and such as none but God could do. It is truly a miracle. Repenting is only our smoothing the way for Christ to come into our souls. True religion is holiness, and holiness is a supernatural work of the Living God.
Illustration
John the Baptists ministry has caused some difficulty to students of Scripture. It has seemed to stand between the two Testaments, as if it belonged to neither. Perhaps John best described his office when he spoke of himself as the friend of the Bridegroom, who stood and rejoiced to hear the Bridegrooms voice. And yet it seems to me that the ministry of John the Baptist corresponds in all its essential features to the ministry of the evangelist to-day. It is true that the ministry of the evangelist is to point to the Saviour who has come, and that the office of John the Baptist was to point to a Saviour who was coming: Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. But he preached the same message, for repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Act 20:21), may he truly termed the summary of John the Baptists preaching then, and the Christian evangelists now.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
3:11
Verse 11. There are three baptisms referred to in this verse, one administered by John and two by the Lord; the two were in the future when John spoke. The three baptisms were in different elements, namely. water, Holy Ghost and fire. and the three were for that many different kinds of subjects. The water baptism administered by John was performed upon penitent Jews and it was for the remission of their sins. The Holy Ghost baptism administered by the Lord was performed upon the apostles and it was to “guide them into all truth” (Joh 16:13). The baptism with fire to be administered by the Lord (at the judgment day) upon the unsaved and it is for the purpose of punishment. The simple pronoun you Is used by John because he knew that in his audience were men who would become apostles and hence would receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He knew also that some of his hearers would live and die in their sins because they would be too stubborn to repent, and these would receive the baptism of fire. But he spoke to the multitude as a whole and intended the two baptisms to be applied to the ones deserving . them. This explains Act 1:5; Act 11:16 where the baptism of the Holy Ghost only is mentioned because the apostles were the only ones being considered. Shoes not worthy to bear is an allusion to the customs of that time. Loose sandals were worn in foot travel and upon entering a home they were removed and taken charge of by a servant. By way of illustration John regarded himself as unworthy even to bear the shoes of the one who was soon to come after him in the work of further reformation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
[Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.] In Luke it is to unloose the latchet of his shoes; which comes to the same thing: both sound to the same import, as if he had said, ‘Whose servant I am not worthy to be.’
“A Canaanite servant is like a farm, in respect of buying: for he is bought with money, or with a writing, or by some service done as a pledge or pawn. And what is such a pawning in the buying of servants? Namely, that he looseth the shoe of him [who buys], or binds on his shoe, or carries to the bath such things as be necessary for him,” etc. These things Maimonides produceth out of the Talmud, where these words are, “How is a servant bought by service? He looseneth the buyer’s shoe; he carrieth such things after him as are necessary for the bath; he unclothes him; washes, anoints, rubs, dresses him; puts on his shoes, and lifts him up from the earth,” etc. See also the Tosaphta.
This, by the way, is to be noted, which the Gloss intimates, that all servants, of what heathen nation soever, bought by the Jews, were called ‘Canaanite servants,’ because it is said of Canaan, “Canaan a servant of servants.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 3:11. I indeed. Contrast between himself and the One he heralded. He was not the judge; the Messiah would be.
With (literally in) water. The person baptized stood in the water as the most convenient place, and may have been immersed, or the water was taken up and poured on his head.
Unto, i.e., with a view to repentance.
He that cometh after me, the Messiah; assuming his speedy appearance, and that the hearers also expected him.
Mightier. In himself stronger and about to exert that strength.
Whose sandals I am not worthy to bear. Sandals were fastened with a strap; comp. Mar 1:7, where there is a reference to unloosing this strap, here to carrying the sandals away after being unloosed. To perform for the Messiah this menial office of the meanest slave, was too honorable for one to whom all Judea resorted. This unexampled humility was stronger evidence of true greatness than the power he exerted as a preacher. A fit forerunner of the meek and lowly Messiah. Here the official superiority of Christ is spoken of, the superiority of nature is declared in the Gospel according to John, John 1.
He shall baptise you. Christ himself did not baptize (Joh 4:2). The contrast is between Johns baptism unto repentance, and the spiritual power which Christ would give (not the Christian rite), for full and entire salvation. The second baptism is figurative; hence nothing is suggested for or against the identity of Johns baptism and the Christian rite.
With, literally, in. The parallel passage (Mar 1:8), makes it doubtful whether the literal sense is to De adhered to; see below also.
The Holy Ghost. The third person of the Trinity; not a contrast between external water and internal spirit.
Fire. With is not to be supplied. Some refer this to the fire of judgment, as in Mat 3:12; but the close connection with what precedes, and the actual appearance of fire on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:13), favor a reference to the powerful and purifying influences of the Holy Spirit (Isa 4:4; Jer 5:14; Mal 3:2). In must not be pressed in either case, since the Holy Ghost is represented as poured out, and the fire on the day of Pentecost came down upon the disciples.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
In these words John declares the excellency of Christ’s person and ministry above his own.
As to his person, he owns that he was not worthy to carry his shoes after him, or to perform the lowest offices of service for him.
And as to his office, he declares that Christ should not baptize as he did, with water, but with the Holy Ghost and with fire; that is, should plentifully pour down of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit upon his proselytes, which, like fire, in their operation should purify their hearts from sin, consuming their lusts, and corruptions: but at the same time he has a fiery indignation, and flaming judgments, to destroy and burn up impenitent sinners like combustible stubble.
Where Observe, How Christ is represented by one and the same metaphor of the fire, in a way of comfort to his children, and in a way of terror unto his enemies, he is a fire unto both: He sits in his church as a refiner’s fire; he is amongst his enemies as a consuming fire: a fire for his church to tke comfort in, a fire for his enemies to perish by.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 3:11. I indeed baptize you with water I call you to repentance: and admit the penitent to the baptism of water, as a sign and token of their being washed from their past sins, and of their engaging to walk henceforward in newness of life. He answers the question put to him, Joh 1:19; Joh 1:25, by the priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem. But he that cometh after me That succeeds me in preaching and baptizing, is mightier than I Is endued with unspeakably greater authority and power; Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear That is, for whom I am unworthy to perform the humblest office of menial service: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire He shall not only administer the outward element, or sign, to his disciples, but the thing signified thereby, viz., the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which, in their operations and effects, are like fire, enlightening, quickening, and purifying mens souls, and kindling therein pious and devout affections; inflaming their hearts with love to God and all mankind, and with a degree of zeal for his glory and the salvation of sinners which all the waters of difficulty and danger, of persecution and tribulation, which they may be called to pass through, shall not be able to quench. And this baptism he will communicate in so abundant a measure, that you shall seem to be overflowed therewith. Now this promise was fulfilled, even with a visible appearance, as of fire, on the day of pentecost; and it is fulfilled without that appearance to this day, with respect to all that believe in Christ with a faith that worketh by love.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 11
The idea of the verse undoubtedly is, that John performed merely an external rite,–the symbol and pledge of repentance,–but that the reality of new spiritual life was to be bestowed by the coming Savior.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
3:11 {5} I indeed baptize you with water unto {l} repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and [with] fire:
(5) We may neither dwell upon the signs which God has ordained as means to lead us into our salvation, neither upon those that minister them: but we must climb up to the matter itself, that is to say, to Christ, who inwardly works that effectually, which is outwardly signified to us.
(l) The outward sign reminds us of this, that we must change our lives and become better, assuring us as by a seal, that we are ingrafted into Christ; by which our old man dies and the new man rises up; Rom 6:4 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
John baptized in water "in connection with" repentance. [Note: Carson, "Matthew," p. 104.] However the One coming after him, the King, would baptize with the Holy Spirit (cf. Joe 2:28-29) and fire (cf. Mal 3:2-5). The Malachi prophecy speaks of fire as a refining or purifying agent, not as an instrument of destruction. Both prophecies involve the nation of Israel as a whole primarily.
Are these two different baptisms or one? This is a very difficult question to answer because the arguments on both sides are strong. [Note: See Hagner, pp. 51-52.] In both interpretations baptism connotes both immersion, in the metaphorical sense of placing into something, and initiation.
The construction of the statement in the Greek text favors one baptism. Usually one entity is in view when one article precedes two nouns joined by a conjunction. [Note: Robertson, p. 566.] This would mean that the one baptism Jesus would perform would be with the Holy Spirit and fire together. This apparently happened on the day of Pentecost initially (Act 2:3-4).
The fire in Malachi’s prophecy probably refers to purification and judgment. The purification emphasis is in harmony with Malachi’s use. This has led many scholars to conclude that the fire baptism that John predicted is not the one at Pentecost. [Note: E.g., Edersheim, 1:272; M’Neile, p. 29; Toussaint, p. 70; Carson, "Matthew," p. 105; and James Morison, A Practical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, p. 36. See also John Proctor, "Fire in God’s House: Influence of Malachi 3 in the NT," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 36:1 (March 1993):12-13.] They believe that the time when Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire to fulfill these prophecies concerning Israel is yet future from our viewpoint in history. It will happen at His second advent. It would have happened at His first advent if Israel had accepted Him. Jesus’ baptism of His disciples on the day of Pentecost was a similar baptism, they say. However, it was not the fulfillment of these prophecies since they involved Israel and "the day of the Lord" specifically (cf. Joh 14:17; Acts 2; 1Co 12:13). [Note: See Renald E. Showers, Maranatha: Our Lord, Come! A Definitive Study of the Rapture of the Church, pp. 30-40, for an excellent discussion of "the day of the Lord."]
The context, which speaks of blessing for the repentant but judgment for the unrepentant, tends to favor two baptisms (Mat 3:8-10; Mat 3:12; cf. Act 1:5; Act 11:16). In this case the fire would refer primarily, if not exclusively, to judgment. [Note: Those who favor this view include Walvoord, Matthew: . . ., p. 32; Barbieri, p. 25; and Wiersbe, 1:17.] The baptism with the Holy Spirit would refer to Spirit baptism that will happen when Israel accepts her Messiah (Isa 44:3; Joe 2:28-32). A foretaste of that baptism occurred on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). The baptism with fire would refer to Jesus’ judgment of unrepentant Israel (cf. Mat 3:12). After Israel’s rejection of Jesus, it became clear that this national judgment will happen primarily at His second coming. This fiery judgment might also refer to unrepentant individuals when they reach the end of their lives.
All things considered it seems probable that John was referring to one baptism that took place initially on the day of Pentecost but which will find complete fulfillment at Jesus’ second coming.
The rabbis taught that, even if one was a slave, loosening another person’s sandal was beneath the dignity of a Jew. [Note: The rabbinic writing Mekilta de Rabbi Ishmael, Nezikin 1 on Exo 21:2, cited by Bock, Jesus according . . ., p. 83.] So by saying he was unworthy to unloose Jesus’ sandals, John meant that he was unworthy of even the most humiliating service of Jesus.