Justifying of God

When the pressure came upon the Lord Jesus, He quietly retired to the only place on earth He could retire to—across the river. There He abode, and many resorted unto Him there. This brings before the soul the justifying of God. The justifying in that day was the baptism of John. The baptism of John made an end of all distinctions, all the pride of the Pharisee, the Sadducee, the lawyers and the scribes. Baptism was the mark that justified God; it was this outward show of repentance that gave them a standpoint. The thing that gave the ground was not being scribe or Pharisee, lawyer or Sadducee or being this, that, or the other. What mattered here was that they came to be baptized of John, confessing their sins which justified God. That is the real thing, to justify God, and that is what God puts His seal to.
There are different ways of justifying God. I do not justify God now by baptism, but I do by confessing myself a lost sinner. In their case it was coming to John, and the result was that God was justified.
The Shepherd leaves the existing circle, being pressed out of it, and goes over the river to gather there and abides there. It is for us to abide where He abides and that is the secret for our souls, waiting the next step. In the meantime we praise His name for His goodness in gathering us over the river. That is having the sentence of death in ourselves. W. B.