124. Jesus Christ--His Baptism

Jesus Christ--His Baptism

Luk 3:21-23. Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Eli. The declared purpose of our evangelist, in undertaking to write this history, is that his most excellent friend Theophilus, and with him every lover of God and truth, “might know the certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed.” This “certainty” is demonstrable from the spirit which Christianity breathes, and from the external evidence by which its divine original was confirmed. The religion of Jesus Christ proves that it came down from heaven, from the Father of lights, by the character of the great Author and Finisher of our faith, by the example of all righteousness which he set, by the purity and heavenly-mindedness which he displayed and recommended, by the labors of mercy and love which he performed, by the sufferings which he patiently underwent, and by “the glory that followed.” To these Providence was pleased to super-add proofs that reach the understanding through the medium of sense; namely signal, supernatural, and frequently-repeated testimonies, exhibited in the presence of a cloud of witnesses, who produced a clear, concurring, consistent mass of evidence, respecting facts which fell under the personal observation of their own eyes and ears, and which were never contradicted nor even called in question. At this distance of time and place, the last mentioned species of evidence, that of external circumstances, must of necessity be transmitted to us through the channel of history, and its validity must rest on the veracity of the historian. The other sort of evidence is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. This counsel approves itself to be of God, to the conviction of everyone who seriously examines it, at whatever distance of time and place, from its indelible characters, from the universality of the field which it embraces, and from the glorious and godlike end at which it aims: in a word, from its congeniality to the feelings, to the wishes, and to the wants of human nature. Had no prediction taught the world to expect a Deliverer; had no miracle declared Him the great Lord of the Universe; had no voice from Heaven proclaimed Him the beloved Son of God, He must have stood confessed, the predicted Emanuel, God with us, in his compassion to the miserable, in his patience with the froward, in his forbearance toward the evil and unthankful, in his clemency to the guilty. The gospel breathes “peace on earth and good will to men;” its unbounded liberality diffuses its influence over the whole world of mankind; its professed aim and end are to confer all possibly attainable happiness on every human being in the life which now is, and perfect and everlasting felicity in that which is to come. The object which Christianity proposes to itself is to reform, to purify, to exalt our fallen nature, by making us partakers of a divine nature; it is to rear the fabric of present and everlasting blessedness on the solid foundation of wisdom, truth, and virtue. It penetrates and pervades every principle of our nature, and enters completely into the detail of human life and conduct: it informs the understanding, melts the heart, overawes the conscience, and brings the trembling, guilty, helpless, desponding creature unto God. If these are not the characters of a Revelation from the God and Father of all men, what characters are sufficient to produce belief? If the spirit and tendency of the Gospel work not conviction, the descent of an angel from heaven, or the return of one from the regions of the dead would be equally inefficacious. In this “doctrine according to godliness,” men and brethren, we behold genuine philosophy, not carelessly slumbering over fancied plans of improvement, not coldly suggesting ideas of reform, not bewildering herself in the peradventures of doubtful disputation, but philosophy alive, awake, and in action: philosophy doing good and diffusing happiness, the divine philosophy which brings God down to dwell with men upon earth, and which raises men from earth to heaven. In its great Author we behold not the sullen, supercilious recluse, looking with affected contempt on the weakness and ignorance of mankind, talking and arguing sagely, and effecting nothing; but the beneficent friend of man, mixing with society, looking with complacency on harmless enjoyment, stretching forth the hand to relieve distress, with patience and condescension instructing the ignorant, outrunning the expectations and even the desires of the humble, and over coming evil with good. At every period and in every condition of life, we behold Him, a perfect pattern of every possible excellence.

We have already contemplated the blessed Jesus in his original glory, before the world was, and in all the wonders of his humiliation to the level of humanity: we have beheld Him in all the affecting interest of infancy and childhood, born in a stable, laid in a manger, aimed at by the dagger of a ruffian, driven into exile, meekly retiring into obscurity, silently increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. From the age of twelve to thirty years, that is for more than half the period which He tabernacled among men, Providence has seen meet to withhold all traces of his history. Within the short space of about three years is comprised the detail of all the things which Jesus did, and taught, and suffered as the Savior of mankind. To this eventful era we are now brought forward, and we enter on the contemplation of it with mixed emotions of wonder, reverence, and joy.

Stand by, ye princes and potentates of the earth; the king of kings is about to make his public entry. What is the consecration of a prelate, the coronation of an emperor, the voice of a trumpet, the anointing with oil, compared to the majesty, solemnity, and importance of the scene displayed on the banks of the Jordan! Bend your heads and cover your faces, “ye angels that excel in strength,” He whom you are all commanded to worship is here. Behold he cometh from Nazareth of Galilee, to the baptism of John; the greater to be baptized by the less. Eighteen years hast thou now passed, Jesus of Nazareth! unseen, unknown, unregarded; under the humble appellation of the carpenter’s son, partaking perhaps of the labors of his occupation, faring simply, submitting to authority, unmortified by subjection to poverty, neglect, and reproach; and thus hast thou become a gentle and silent, but a severe reprover of the restlessness of ambition, of the thirst of distinction, of the impetuosity of appetite, of impatience of restraint. The Savior of the world, my friends, was pleased to pass through the successive stages of human life, that he might sanctify and instruct every age of man. He became an infant of days, that he might sanctify infancy, and stamp importance and respect upon it; he showed himself in the temple at the age of twelve, that he might sanctify, and instruct that more advanced period of life in the duty of frequenting the house of God, and of resorting to age, office, and experience for the lessons of wisdom. He advanced to maturity to sanctify, and instruct grown men to practice self-denial, self-government, to be content with their lot, to repress inordinate desire, to aim at eminence by learning to become useful. “He that believeth shall not make haste.” He remained thus long in the shade, that He might teach his disciples to bear obscurity and retirement, and to cease from premature aspiring. He emerges at length into the light, the season of open and beneficial exertion being come, that he might correct a spirit of indolence, irresolution, and affected humility; and to tell every man, that he is sent into the world to act an important part, that he is entrusted with talents for the employment of which he is accountable, that God and his fellow-creatures have claims upon him which he must satisfy at his peril. The approach of Jesus to Jordan is perceived and announced by the Baptist. The spirit which enabled Simeon to discern the Savior in the person of a little child, when presented in the temple, now discloses to the eye of the Prophet, who came in the spirit and power of Elias, the same divine Person on the eve of entering upon his public ministry. He suspends for a moment the employment of teaching and baptizing the multitude, in which he was engaged, to point out to them “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” “As the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not; John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”

John, at first, modestly declines the exercise of his office in a case so very extraordinary. Hitherto he had taught only the ignorant and vicious, and baptized only the impure, in the view of preparing them to receive the blessings of the approaching kingdom of heaven; self-righteous Pharisees, unbelieving, profligate Sadducees, rapacious publicans, seditious, violent, and discontented soldiers, such were the men who came to his baptism. But here the application is made by Him “who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his lips.” This, prophet as he was, confounds all the Baptist’s ideas of propriety, and he exclaims: “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” The reply of Christ unfolds his spirit, and conveys to us many a useful lesson: “Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Perfect purity can suffer no contamination from intercourse with the unclean; the impure pollute each other, and the contagion spreads. Conformity in things innocent and lawful is a duty imposed by things kindness, and regard to peace; dissent merely for the sake of dissent is a mixture of pride and bigotry, That may be admitted under peculiar circumstances, which is not to be drawn into a precedent, nor established as a general rule. A public character is concerned to study his own dignity and the propriety and consistency of his conduct. The question is not what he may do, but what it becomes him to do. “Things lovely and of good report” must be thought of together with things that are “true, honest, just, and pure.” It became Him to give public testimony to the baptism of John, the baptism of repentance, because it led directly to his own mission, and to the kingdom which he was about to establish in the world. It became him to put respect on every institution, ceremonial as well as moral, that had the sanction of divine authority, of general use, or of obvious utility. The ceremonial law required “divers washings,” and the immersion of the body in water was by no means a novel practice introduced by John, but transmitted through the succeeding ages of the legal dispensation, and compliance with it our Lord considers as part of “the fulfilling of all righteousness,” and therefore as incumbent on himself, being the great pattern of propriety. We find him, on another occasion, submitting to an arbitrary imposition, that he might not seem to give offence, in the matter of the tribute money, and performing a miracle rather than show disrespect to government. “Lest we should offend them,” says he to Peter, “go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” Thus he not only “fulfilled,” to an iota, “all righteousness,” prescribed by the law, but submitted himself to the “ordinance of man, forthe Lord’s sake.” But there was a farther view in this solemn transaction. The Messiah must be publicly set apart to the execution of his high prophetic office, and He prefers the baptism of John as the mode of performing that august ceremony. He passes through the water into the reign of Grace; the kingdom of heaven was now come, and such was his humble entry into it. But this voluntary descent is to be immediately followed by a rise into glory which eclipses all the glory of this world. Samuel anointed Saul with a vial, and afterwards David with a horn of material oil: the Prince “upon the throne of David, of the increase of whose government and peace there should be no end,” is anointed with the Holy Spirit. The numerous and sounding titles of earthly potentates are at their inauguration, proclaimed by sound of trumpet; the simple title of the King of kings, and Lord of lords is proclaimed by a voice from heaven. The eyes and ears of the spectators at once bear witness to the declaration of the Son of God. “It came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” Painters have presumed to represent this descent of the Holy Ghost under the form of a material dove. The descending, hovering motion, not the bodily shape of that bird, is surely all that the expression in the evangelists conveys to the mind. As well might art attempt to paint the dazzling luster of flaming fire, or the sound of the voice that spake, or the motion of the splendid appearance which then filled the sky, as pretend to give precise and permanent form to an apparition of Deity, which, having fulfilled its purpose, passed away.

Thus, Christians, was consecrated to the noblest work-ever undertaken, the great “Prophet that should come into the world,”--“The Prince of the kings of the earth,”--“The Apostle and High Priest of our profession.” God “also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will.” And thus was fulfilled the Scripture which saith: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots: and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with righteous ness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” And thus is the church of Christ founded upon a rock, “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Is it unworthy of remark, that this testi­mony to the Son of God, from “the excellent glory,” was given while he was praying? “As He prayed” also, on the mount of trans­figuration, a similar testimony was exhibited, “There came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and there came a voice out of the cloud saying, This is my beloved Son; hear Him.” Again, while Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify thy name;” the testimony from on high was repeated. “Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Such is the promptitude of intercommunication between earth and heaven. So rapidly ascend the breathings of a devout spirit to the throne of God; so swiftly descend the to­kens of “good-will to men.” “The effect­ual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avail­eth much.” And if the earnest prayer of an Elias had power to bind up the clouds of heaven for years together, and to smite a guilty land with thirst and famine; how much more powerful must be the prayer of the great Intercessor, that “in the wilderness waters may break out, and streams in the desert;” that “the parched ground may be­come a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water!” Therefore also “men ought always to pray and not to faint.”

Here are the “Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” “Who can by searching find out God: who can find out the Almighty unto perfection?” “Who is able to comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge?”

We have made no remark on the mode of baptism which John employed, because it might lead to controversy, which is unprofit­able, to the neglect of practical “goodness,” which “is profitable unto all things.” “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” “Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother?” “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.” Let the spirit of the ordinance be chiefly attended to: wise and good men may very innocently differ about the form. “It is the spirit that quickeneth,” the outward form is of secondary importance.

Parents, have ye devoted your infant off­spring to God, by the sprinkling with water? Remember the solemn engagements which you then voluntarily undertook to bring them up in the fear, “nurture, and admonition of the Lord.” Meditate frequently and seri­ously on the responsibility under which you are laid, to God, to your children, to the world. Your fellow-worshippers will wit­ness against you, if you trifle with, if you neglect, if you corrupt your sacred charge. These young ones look up to you for protec­tion, for instruction, for an example; they call upon you to fulfill your promise in their behalf. They ask bread of you; will you give them a stone? They ask a fish; will you give them a serpent? They look to you for the portion of goods that falleth to their share; not only “the meat which perisheth, but the meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” If you are unfaithful they are undone. On the other hand, “great is your reward” on earth, and still greater “your reward in heaven,” if you are honor­ed to become their spiritual parents, as you are parents after the flesh ; if, after having introduced them into this world of nature, you are made the happy instruments of in­troducing them into the kingdom of God; if you and they together are at length added “to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,” through Jesus the mediator of the new co­venant, and the “blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.”

Young man, thou wert in early infancy, by the piety of affectionate parents, baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The birth of nature bestowed on thee the name of thy Father after the flesh; when thou wert sprinkled with water, another name was prefixed to it, which continues to be thy distinctive appellation. Both were indeed imposed without thy consciousness or consent, but in both thou hast cheerfully acquiesced, perhaps they are a source of pride to thee. Even the ac­quisition of an estate will hardly induce a man of spirit to forego his parental designa­tion, but the Christian name is indelible.--Every time thou writest it then, every time thou hearest it addressed to thee, thou art admonished of thy dedication to God. Baptismal engagements rise into view. “I am not my own, for I am bought with a price. What, deny my name! What, sell it for a painted bauble! No, I glory in it; I will not permit it to be dishonored. What my pa­rents did in my behalf when I was a little child, I now openly avow. They have done their part, through the help of God I will do mine. The name of Christ shall not be blas­phemed through my unworthiness. My brothers bear with me the common name of our ancestors, but I will render my own distinguished among many brethren. I will never blush at being called a Christian.” My friend, thou hast passed through the water at the age of puberty. Baptism was thy own act and deed. Thou hast entered into the kingdom of God, consciously, deliberately. The vows of God are upon thee. That young person, made a Christian by the act of parents, when come to years may disallow that act, may renounce the name, but thou hast subscribed with thy hand unto the Lord.

Thou hast put the yoke of Christ upon thy own neck, and hast assumed his burden. Thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, and must not look, must not go back. Thou standest pledged to God and to the world to support the honor of the Christian name, “to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.” You feel and acknowledge the obligation; no temptation, no compulsion can induce thee to retract it. Next sacramental solemnity the vow shall be renewed, repeated. The language of thy heart is: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth:” “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

If the spirit and power of the institution, we repeat it, are thus understood and felt, let a man pass through water into the pale of the church of Christ, or procure that privilege for his child, by the rite of aspersion as conscience may prescribe, and let us be “kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another.” The evangelist, at this interval, presents us with the genealogical table of Christ’s descent from Adam downward. It brings us all to the common level of brethren. Through endless and intricate ramifications every man finds himself derived from one and the same root, “the son of Adam, the son of God.” And the Christian is “born again,” he is “a new creature,” being “begotten again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” The law of nature binds us to each other as men, the law of the gospel doubles and strengthens the cord of love. This is Christ’s “new commandment,” the badge of discipleship, “the fulfilling of the law,” “the bond of perfectness.” “A new commandment,” says our blessed Lord, “I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Has God vouchsafed to give such testimony to the son of his love? Receive it, rest upon it, improve it as a rule of life, as a source of consolation. Ye “have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we have made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ;” for though you were not “eye-witnesses of his majesty,” you have “a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts.”

Ye call Christ “Master and Lord;” and ye say well, for so He is. “It became him to fulfill all righteousness;” He put respect on the ordinances, on the house, on the word of God; “leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” “Let the name, the day, the temple, the word of the Lord be hallowed in your eyes.” “Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

“The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon Him:” when he was leaving the world, and going unto the Father, he promised his disciples to “give them another Comforter, to abide with them for ever; even the Spirit of truth.” That Comforter was to teach them all things and bring all things to their remembrance. “He showed himself” to them “alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs:” He repeated his promise; “He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wart for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.” It was accordingly fulfilled: “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house were they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them: and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Thus were they comforted for their Master’s departure; thus they received “an unction from the Holy One,” whereby they were set apart unto, and fitted for their great work; thus were they strengthened to begin and pursue a career which will be felt till time expire. The same Spirit is promised, and is given to us to “help our infirmities,” to “guide us into all truth,” to take what is Christ’s and show it unto us, to “comfort us in all our tribulation,” to show us things to come. We look not for a miraculous effusion, to enable us to speak with tongues, to prophecy, to work miracles, but we have good ground to ask and to hope that God will give us “the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” “O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles; then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.” Our blessed Lord entered on his public ministry at the age of thirty, and it was accomplished within the space of little more three years. Think how much was done in that short space. Were the things which Jesus did, as they stand on this record, and the “many other things” not recorded therein, to be “written everyone,” such would be their number and their luster, that they would to the world appear to be absolutely incredible, and therefore the world would not be disposed to receive them. Here we have an illustrious pattern of the employment, of the improvement of time. “I must work,” says he, “the works of Him that sent me, while it is day;” the duty of the season in its season. How ought we to blush at our laborious idleness, at our pompous nothings! What have we, to show for our thirty, forty, fifty, threescore years? Hardly enough to furnish a decent inscription for a tomb-stone. Were the history of the most industrious and useful life to be fairly delineated, the world would have cause to wonder at the frequent and. hideous chasms, the wild confusion, the indecent rapidity, the causeless delay which the detail would present. What a picture then must the life of the professedly idle and dissipated, of the profligate and vicious exhibit! All enters into the book of God’s remembrance, and must all come into judgment. What precious time, what invaluable opportunities of doing and of receiving good, have been shamefully neglected, have been vilely cast away!

What moment granted man without account?
What years are squander’d Wisdom’s debt unpaid?

Night Thoughts, 11. 30.

Much is irretrievably lost. Who knows how little may remain? “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: the night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day,” and “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”