Search
I. The way of righteousness:
Scripture Reading:
Matt. 21:32: “John came to you in the way of righteousness.”
А. The Old Testament dispensation of law ended at the commencement of the first God-man’s ministry:
1. The law of the Old Testament dispensation charged man to do good according to the law in order that man might be justified by God according to His law (Lev. 18:5), yet men sought to establish their own righteousness, not subject to the righteousness of God — Rom. 10:3, 5.
2. The outcome of the law was that man was exposed to be sinful before the righteous God (4:15; 5:20; Gal. 3:19), and no man of the flesh could be justified by God (Rom. 3:20).
B. The New Testament dispensation, the dispensation of grace, that is, the dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, began from the preaching of John the Baptist — Mark 1:1-4:
1. John came in the way of righteousness and preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” — Matt. 3:2.
2. John charged the people to repent because of the kingdom of the heavens. The kingdom of God is of righteousness (Rom. 14:17), and the kingdom of the heavens is particularly based upon righteousness (Matt. 5:20). This righteousness is the foundation of God’s throne (Psa. 89:14).
3. When the people received John’s preaching and came to repent to him, he right away baptized them by putting them into the water to bury them, indicating that they were men of the flesh who had nothing good (Rom. 7:18) and were worthy only of death and burial.
4. Following John’s ministry, Jesus Christ came and baptized these people in the Spirit, joining them, in resurrection, to God, who saved them by justifying them according to His righteousness — 1:17; 3:21-25; 1 Cor. 1:30.
5. Furthermore, after He died judicially for these repentant people, Christ resurrected to live within them in order that they may live by Christ’s life a life of righteousness to be justified by God all the time — Rom. 4:25.
6. All these people are called “the righteous” who will shine forth like the sun in the coming kingdom (Matt. 13:43), and their righteousness will abide in the new heavens and new earth forever (2 Pet. 3:13).
7. Thus, to repent and be baptized according to John’s preaching and practice was ordained by God according to the righteous requirements of God’s eternal economy; hence, it is to fulfill the righteousness of God (Matt. 3:15) as a matter of eternity.
II. The proper and righteous base of Jesus’ baptism:
Scripture Reading:
Matt. 3:13-15: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, It is I who have need of being baptized by You, and You come to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it for now, for it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted Him.”
А. The base for Jesus to be baptized was that He considered Himself, according to His humanity, a man, especially an Israelite, who was a man in the flesh (John 1:14). Even though He was only “in the likeness of the flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3), “without sin” (Heb. 4:15), yet He was in the flesh, which has nothing good but is worthy only of death and burial.
B. Based on this fact, at the beginning of His ministry for God, He was willing to be baptized by John the Baptist, recognizing that, according to His humanity, He was One who did not have any qualification to be a servant of God.
C. As a man in the flesh, He needed to be a dead man buried in the death water to fulfill God’s New Testament requirement according to His righteousness, and He did it willingly, considering it the fulfilling of God’s righteousness. Such a base surely is proper and righteous.
In this chapter we want to give a word of definition concerning the way of righteousness and concerning the proper and righteous base of Jesus’ baptism. When I was young, I wondered why the Lord Jesus, who was not a sinner, needed to be baptized. This question has been remaining within me for about seventy years. It was not until writing the outlines for these messages that I found the answer.
Also, I would like to point out that to study the first God-man’s living is actually to study all the temptations through which He passed. The four Gospels are a record of His temptations. He was tempted, tested, by the devil Satan, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians. Even the Lord’s fleshly brothers tested Him. Wherever He went and with whomever He contacted, there were temptations. To be a Christian, in a sense, is not an easy thing. This is because God and we have an opposing party, Satan.
It is not easy to understand why God lets Satan be so free. According to Isaiah 14, God has judged Satan (vv. 12-15). Also, according to Hebrews 2:14, Christ destroyed him on the cross. God condemned him with a strong verdict, and Christ destroyed him, but why is he still so free today? I would answer this by asking another question — without Satan, how could God test us? Satan even tested God, and God even invited Satan to test Him. He said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job?” (Job 1:8). After Satan challenged the Lord, He gave Satan the permission to test Job, saying, “Here is all that he has, in your hand; only do not stretch forth your hand against him” (v. 12). Job then passed through a time of testing, which nearly no one could stand. In God’s economy He arranged to have an enemy, a testing one, who had been a cherub created by God, appointed by God, and even anointed by God.
Matthew 21:32 says, “John came to you in the way of righteousness.” In the Old Testament, Moses came in the way of condemnation. Second Corinthians 3 says clearly that the Old Testament ministry was a ministry of condemnation and that the New Testament ministry is a ministry of righteousness (v. 9). The entire New Testament is a matter of righteousness. John the Baptist does not belong to the Old Testament. Some have said that John was a transitional person who was neither in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament, but this is wrong. Mark 1 reveals that the gospel of Jesus Christ began from John the Baptist. John’s teaching was the commencement of God’s New Testament economy.
The law of the Old Testament dispensation charged man to do good according to the law in order that man might be justified by God according to His law (Lev. 18:5), yet men sought to establish their own righteousness, not subject to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3, 5).
The outcome of the law was that man was exposed to be sinful before the righteous God (4:15; 5:20; Gal. 3:19), and no man of the flesh could be justified by God (Rom. 3:20). The law did not help God’s people become righteous. Instead, it exposed them. No one could do good things to be justified by God. On the contrary, all were exposed. No man of the flesh could be justified by God. The result, the outcome, of the law was absolutely different from what the law expected.
The New Testament dispensation is the dispensation of grace, unlike the dispensation of the Old Testament, which was the dispensation of the law. The entire New Testament is the dispensation of grace, which is the dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This dispensation began from the preaching of John the Baptist. This is proved by Mark 1:1-4: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way, a voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths.’ John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.” John’s coming out to preach his gospel was counted as the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
John came in the way of righteousness and preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). The Israelites who were under the ministry of the law of Moses needed to repent because they were all practicing unrighteousness. The record of the society of Israel in Isaiah 1 shows how evil the people had become. The evils seen in Gentile society could also be seen in Israel’s society.
There was no righteousness among the Israelites, so they needed to repent. John charged the people to repent because of the kingdom of the heavens. The kingdom of God is of righteousness (Rom. 14:17), and the kingdom of the heavens is particularly based upon righteousness. In Matthew 5:20 the Lord said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.” This righteousness is the foundation of God’s throne (Psa. 89:14).
When the people received John’s preaching and came to repent to him, he right away baptized them by putting them into the water to bury them, indicating that they were men of the flesh who had nothing good (Rom. 7:18) and were worthy only of death and burial. Perhaps some people thought that there should be a good result after their repenting to John. Instead, John put them into the water to bury them, indicating that they were good for nothing. I believe this was why the Pharisees and Sadducees would not come to John. The Gospels show that there were disciples of three parties: those of John the Baptist, those of the Pharisees, and those of the Sadducees. Those of John the Baptist were a real test to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, so none of them dared to come to John.
The first thought of the New Testament dispensation of grace, the dispensation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is that all fallen men of the flesh are worthy of nothing except death and burial. This is very serious. Regretfully, many in today’s Christianity give people a wrong concept in their preaching of the gospel. We must have people preaching the gospel today who are like John the Baptist, calling people to repent.
Following John’s ministry, Jesus Christ came and baptized these people in the Spirit, joining them, in resurrection, to God, who saved them by justifying them according to His righteousness (1:17; 3:21-25; 1 Cor. 1:30). The New Testament begins with the thought of John’s preaching, that is, that men of the flesh are good only for death and burial. But this is not the thought of the entire New Testament gospel. This is just the beginning. This thought is continued with the Lord Jesus’ coming to practice another kind of baptism. He baptized people in the Spirit to join them in resurrection to God. In baptism there is the practice of burial into water and then a rising up from the water, signifying resurrection. Through death and burial we are finished, but then there is a resurrection. In resurrection Jesus joins us to God. This thought is greater than death and burial.
The first thought of the New Testament gospel is that every fallen man of the flesh is good for nothing except death and burial, and the second thought is that if you recognize this, Jesus Christ will come to baptize you into the living God, joining you to God in resurrection. This saves you by justifying you according to His righteousness. The Baptizer, Christ, joins you to God to make you one with God, who is righteousness. God would justify you only by His righteousness.
Romans 1:16 and 17 say that the gospel is the power of God that saves both Israel and the Gentiles because the righteousness of God is revealed in it. Baptism is so powerful because Jesus joins the baptized ones to God to make them God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. When a poor wife is joined to her millionaire husband in marriage, they become one. She may have been a poor girl, but at the moment they are joined in marriage, she becomes a millionaire. This is what happened when we were joined to God in baptism.
John the Baptist’s ministry is to deal with our real situation, which is that we are men of the flesh who are worthy only of death and burial. But Christ, another baptizer, came and joined us to God in resurrection. We were resurrected with Christ to be one with God. Now we are “millionaires” who are joined to another person. This is the second thought of the New Testament gospel of grace. The righteous God gave Himself to us as our righteousness, and this righteousness justified us.
Furthermore, after He died judicially for these repentant people, Christ resurrected to live within them in order that they may live by Christ’s life, a life of righteousness to be justified by God all the time. This is why Romans 4:25 says that He was raised for our justification. We do not have a dead Savior. We have a Savior who is living, and as the living Spirit, He lives in us. By His life we have a living that God has to justify all the time. This is the God-man living.
God, the righteous One, gave Himself to us as our righteousness. In the same principle, Christ is given to us as our righteousness. Christ and God are one. First Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ, who is given to us, is our righteousness. Christ also has His own righteous act. Romans 5:18 says that Christ’s one righteous act was unto justification of life to all men. By His one righteous act of dying on the cross, we all have been justified. Christ has His own righteousness, which qualifies Him to be our Savior.
Some make the mistake of confusing Christ’s personal righteous act with Christ Himself, the person. When we compiled our hymnal, we corrected all such mistakes in the hymns. Hymns, #295 by Zinzendorf says, “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness / My beauty are, my glorious dress.” We corrected this to read, “God’s Christ, who is my righteousness, / My beauty is, my glorious dress.” Christ, the person, is our righteousness.
The repentant people are called “the righteous” who will shine forth like the sun in the coming kingdom (Matt. 13:43), and their righteousness will abide in the new heavens and new earth forever (2 Pet. 3:13). The righteous are also referred to in Matthew 10:41 and Luke 14:14, and the way of righteousness is spoken of in 2 Peter 2:21. Luke 14:14 speaks of the resurrection of the righteous. Second Peter 2:21 speaks of the rebellious ones who knew the way of righteousness but turned away from God. The New Testament dispensation of grace is to produce the God-man living, and the God-man living is a life of righteousness.
Thus, to repent and be baptized according to John’s preaching and practice was ordained by God according to the righteous requirements of God’s eternal economy; hence, it is to fulfill the righteousness of God (Matt. 3:15) as a matter of eternity. To be baptized is to keep God’s New Testament ordinance, to recognize yourself before God according to His evaluation and to fulfill God’s righteous requirement.
Matthew 3:13-15 reveals the proper and righteous base of Jesus’ baptism: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, It is I who have need of being baptized by You, and You come to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it for now, for it is fitting for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted Him.”
The base for Jesus to be baptized is that He considered Himself, according to His humanity, a man, especially an Israelite, who was a man in the flesh (John 1:14). Even though He was only “in the likeness of the flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3), “without sin” (Heb. 4:15), yet He was in the flesh, which has nothing good but is worthy only of death and burial. Christ as the Word of God became flesh, and flesh is a negative term. Of course, Romans 8:3 tells us that He was only in the likeness of the flesh of sin, but He was still in the flesh. This was His standing in His humanity. John the Baptist came out to preach repentance to people in the flesh. Jesus admitted that He was in the flesh. Whatever He had according to the flesh was only good for death and burial. He was standing on that ground, and that ground became His base for Him to be baptized.
Based upon this fact, at the beginning of His ministry for God, Jesus was willing to be baptized by John the Baptist, recognizing that, according to His humanity, He was One who did not have any qualification to be a servant of God. Jesus stood according to His real situation. His real situation was that He was a man of flesh.
As a man in the flesh, He needed to be a dead man buried in the death water to fulfill God’s New Testament requirement according to His righteousness, and He did it willingly, considering it the fulfilling of God’s righteousness. Such a base surely is proper and righteous.
