John the Baptist: His Message and His Baptism of Christ

Like the prophets before him, John preached the ‘repentance-Law’ of God, calling on people to the demands of baptism. He appears in all four Gospels as the forerunner of Jesus, so that each Gospel account begins with the law proclaimed. In Matthew’s account in the first 12 verses of chapter 3, the law is preached by John with ‘fire and brimstone.’ While his message was loud, clear, and effective, resulting in many people coming to him for baptism under the stinging indictment of God’s law, nevertheless John pointed to One greater than he, “whose sandals he was not worthy to carry”(3:11). Different from his own baptism, John prophesied that this coming One would, “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:11). John models faithful Gospel preaching, which begins with the life-demanding law of God, but then always preaches and point to the life-giving Gospel of Jesus.