BEING LESSONS FROM THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.

CHAPTER III. (Continued from page 9.)

It is plain that if it is as the unblemished lamb He is presenting Himself here, the Lord's baptism at once becomes unmistakable in its significance. In the gospel of Mark, He speaks of His baptism,* with evident reference to His sufferings. (Mark 10:38.) *In our common version it is found also in the present one (Matt. 20:22), but all the editors agree that it is an interpolation.* Christian baptism is spoken of as "baptism unto death," and in it we are "baptized unto His death" (Rom. 6:3, 4). With this John's baptism in Jordan – the river of death – is in full agreement. The words, "so it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness," receive also in this way their simplest interpretation. For those who were "confessing their sins" in such a manner, the first step in "righteousness" of which they were capable was to take openly the place of death, as what was their due. While for Him also, who, having no sins of His own, was yet there for the sins of others, the place of death which it prefigured was no less the requirement of righteousness:the blessed Substitute for sinners had of necessity to take the sinners' place.

Thus all is clear throughout; with the exception, perhaps, of how this connects with what is manifestly the great subject of the gospel – the kingdom of the heavens, and Christ the King of this kingdom. Here also, we have seen that when His birth is announced to Joseph, he is bidden to call His name Jesus, "for He shall save His people from their sins." No kingdom could there be apart from this,- no possibility if there being, in any satisfying sense, "His people." Men are sinners, and a holy God cannot ignore this. Thus when Israel came of old into relationship with Himself, though it were but external, they could only come into this place and be separated from the Egyptians by the blood of the passover:redemption would not be by power only, but – and first of all – by blood. He, therefore, who is to be King of God's kingdom, cannot without preliminary take the throne. He must suffer, that He may be glorified :He must take the crown by way of the cross.

And so when the throne is taken, the effect of this, and the character it manifests, abide. '.' He shall be a priest upon His throne." (Zech. 5:13.) He stands before God for the people over whom he reigns ; and thus while he is the true Melchizedek, "king of righteousness, " He is also the "King of Salem, "that is "King of peace." In Him "righteousness and peace have kissed each other." (Ps. 85:10. ) For His throne, like the mercy-seat of old, is blood-sprinkled ; and the cherubim of judgment gaze upon it from between their covering wings, and are at rest.

Here, at present, therefore, the Lord enters not as yet upon His kingship. It is priesthood that first must act and prepare the way. Thus, rising up out of the water, the Spirit of God descends upon Him:He becomes, not simply in title, but in fact, the Christ,' the "Anointed." As Aaron of old had by Himself received the typical anointing without blood, in order to his exercising the priesthood, so He is now declared fit for and consecrated to His sacrificial work, Priest and Sacrifice as He is in one. His perfection is as needful to the one as to the other. The white linen garments of the day of atonement, and not the robes of glory and beauty, are those in which the sacrifice is alone offered, and the priest can alone sprinkle the blood that enters the sanctuary. It is what H e is Himself that prevails in the day of unequaled agony, when the Antitype offered up to God the only acceptable offering, Himself, and was accepted in that glorious " obedience unto death," by which the many for whom He stood are constituted righteous. (Rom. 5:19.)

What the Father's voice pro claims, the Spirit seals. (John 6:27.) He comes to rest where there is a heart, a human heart, in perfect sympathy with His own, to give Him lodgment. Thus appearing as a dove, He manifests the character of Him upon whom He comes. The "dove" was one of the sacrificial birds,-the symbol, therefore, of Christ, in the very attitude in which we find Him here; and all is still in perfection and divine harmony. Father, Son, and Spirit are, indeed, for the first time, openly manifested together in the work of redemption, while it is Christ in the perfection of manhood reconstituted, and in Him brought nigh to God, to which Father and Spirit witness.

The dove, or pigeon,-the two were almost one,- was, in fact, the only bird explicitly named for sacrifice. As the bird of heaven it has, undoubtedly, its first significance. Heaven itself provides the offering by which heaven is to be appeased and opened over man. "The Second Man is the Lord from heaven." (i Cor. 15:47.) He who has sinned, as all mere men have, cannot by that fact provide the unblemished offering that will alone avail. It is God Himself, therefore, who provides it; and in this way manifests Himself in unspeakable goodness to win man's heart to Himself. This is the divine power of the gospel in reconciliation. He who required has fulfilled the requirement. He who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity has yet devised the wondrous means whereby His banished shall be restored to Him. Not only so, but for this restoration the bird of heaven shows us God become man,- a Man who is God manifest in flesh,- no temporary condescension, but eternal love made known for eternity, eternally to be enjoyed.

Christ is divine love come down, and the dove is the bird of love and of sorrow united. The love explains the sorrow, the sorrow the depth of the love. What a world to welcome the Son of God, and what welcome it gave Him! "A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief! and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." But Scripture is more definite than this as to the dove, for it points us to its "wings covered with silver, and its feathers with yellow gold." (Ps. 68:13.) And here the reference should be plain to those who are acquainted with its symbolism. "Silver" gets its significance from the money of atonement, and its meaning is well illustrated in passages familiar to us. The wings are wings of redemption, for this it is that has put divine love in activity toward us; while in the feathers is the gleam of gold, the display of divine glory! This is how Nature itself bears witness to Christ.

The Hebrew word for the dove is Jonah; and however little the prophet of the name may have exemplified in his own character the spirit which this implies, we cannot but remember the Lord's comparison of Himself:"As Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days, and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Ch. 12:40.) Whatever road we take here leads us to the great mystery of redeeming love. All witnesses combine to assure us of the meaning of what is here before us in the gospel.

The Father proclaims His Son. The apostle tells us that "no man taketh this honor [of the high priesthood] unto Himself, but He that was called of God, even as Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art my Son." (Heb. 5:4, 5.) This, then, was the Lord's induction into His office, as having (of course, in an exclusive sense) the relationship which is acknowledged here. Yet it is not as the "only-begotten Son," or in His deity, that He is addressed, as is plain, for it could not be added then, as in Hebrews, "to-day I have begotten Thee." Nor could His full divine glory be the foundation of a priesthood which, of necessity, is human. It must be, therefore, as born into the world by the power of the Holy Ghost, as in Luke the angel says unto Mary, "therefore that Holy Thing, that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Here He is Son of God in His human nature,- Man, but a unique Man. And the connection of this with His priesthood is not hard to trace. True man, without taint of the fall,- the Son of God, as once more coming (like Adam, but another Adam) fresh from the inspiration of God. Thus He begins another creation, though out of the ruins of the old. Thus He is the Representative-Head of a new race of men, standing for them before God, with God, the true Mediator-Priest of the new humanity.

No wonder that heaven opens to own and induct into His place this glorious Person! '' Therefore doth my Father love Me," He says elsewhere, "because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." And here, where He is (as it were) pledging Himself to that death for men, the Father's voice breaks out in all its fullness of joy in Him:'' This is my beloved Son, in whom I well pleased." F. W. G.

(To be continued.)