I. (Chap. 3:1-6.) The herald of the kingdom. It is striking that only in Matthew is John seen as proclaiming the kingdom. Outside of Jerusalem and her religious service, his place in the wilderness, in dress and food apart, he baptizes to repentance in the river of death, preparing the way of the Lord. The people return to him, not he to them.
II. (Ver. 7-12.) His testimony. In the Pharisees, religious pretension asserted itself among a people in spiritual ruin; in the Sadducees, open unbelief. To these, the leaders of the people, John declares the ax at the root of the fruitless tree. They must not claim to be Abraham's children,-for a Jew, the loss of all his privileges,-and God would nevertheless act in power to raise up children to Abraham, as it were out of the stones. The Lord before whom John went would baptize with the Holy Ghost, but also with the fire of judgment, and thoroughly purge Israel, His floor.
III. (Ver. 13-17.)The proclamation and anointing of the King. Then the Lord comes to take His place in death for those He finds there, not as one whose due it is, but to "fulfill righteousness."It is His pledging Himself to that more solemn " baptism " to which for the people of His love He must needs stoop. And He who could give an argument to the Father's love in thus laying down His life (Jno. 10:17) is thereupon owned by the Father as His Son, in whom He has found His delight, the Spirit as a dove anointing Him for His work. The bird of heaven, the bird of love and sorrow, in whose silver wings-for redemption brought Him down-is the sheen of the gold, the display of divine glory, is His fitting type.
IV. (Chap. 4:i-2:) His proving in the wilderness. Thus proclaimed and anointed, He is exposed to the tempter, led up of the Spirit, not of His own will. The Second Man, blessed contrast to the first, is tempted in a wilderness, not in a garden, fasts to meet the devil, for complete exposure, not, as others, to meet God. His forty days' proving, not fed with manna, but hungry, reveals Him perfect in the knowledge which in forty years of lessons Israel had failed to learn. He answers Satan out of Deuteronomy, in which the moral of their wanderings is declared, taking ever the place of man in dependence, out of which by the truth of His divine glory Satan would seduce Him.
The flesh, in Him sinless, is the first point of attack. Here is found, in One come into the world only to do God's will, no motive in the hunger of a forty days' fast to provoke a will to satisfy it. Man lives by the word of God, not bread; so He in dependent willlessness.
The second temptation is as Messiah, to whom the promise quoted confessedly belonged. But the devil mutilates it, for the blessed word of God could not in any honest usage be a means of temptation. He would lead the Lord aside from His " ways," to prove (as if He needed proof) that God was for Him. But if Israel had thus tried God, He, perfect in faith, could not do so.
Finally, and at once, all the kingdoms of the world are set before Him, by the sudden dazzle to throw Him, if possible, off His guard, if but for a moment, and seduce His heart from its allegiance to God. But here Satan has disclosed himself, and being disclosed, is defeated. He departs, and angels come and minister to the Conqueror.
V. (Chap. 4:12-7:) The principles of His kingdom.
(1) 4:12-25. The proclamation of the kingdom by the King. And now, according to Isaiah's prophecy, the light shines in Galilee. The King Himself proclaims the kingdom, gathers around Him those who are to be the heralds of it, and exhibits the power by which evil shall be banished from the earth under Messiah's sway.* *"The powers of the world to come " (Heb. 6:5):The word " powers " being one commonly used in the plural for miracles; and "the world to come," the regular phrase for Messiah's kingdom (upon earth).*
(2) 5:1-16. The character of the heirs of it. Thus manifesting His title to the kingdom, in the presence of the multitude He instructs His disciples in the characteristics of it. This is the " sermon on the mount." The kingdom here, we must remember, is that which the prophets of the Old Testament had announced, in which Jerusalem shall yet be, more gloriously than ever, "the city of the great King" (5:35), and "times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; " not as now, the kingdom in the time of His absence. Yet in principle the Lord's words apply to us often with more force on that account, as we may easily see, if we apprehend the difference of dispensation.
He begins with describing the character and blessedness of the heirs of the kingdom, a character formed by the hope of that they see not yet, as given in four beatitudes (10:3-6), and displaying the more specific divine lineaments which are found in all God's children, given in three (10:7-9). "Poor in spirit," because their heart is set upon what is beyond; "meek," as claiming nothing in the present (see Ps. 37:); "mourners," as their Lord was, in a world of sin and its attendant misery; "hungering after righteousness," as feeling the divorce between it and judgment now (see Ps. 94:15). These are the first four. The merciful and the pure (in heart, not externally merely,) answer in measure to the divine character as "love" and "light;" while the third and last of these final beatitudes shows the activity of these, and hence the "peacemakers shall be called the children of God."
Two beatitudes follow of those who incur the opposition of the world for their practical conduct and for their testimony. Persecuted for righteousness' sake, they are yet the " salt of the earth," and for Christ's sake, they are its light. They are to let that light (their testimony to Him,) shine before men, that they may thus see their good works, and glorify their Father.
(3) 5:17-48. The law maintained and perfected. Next, the law is maintained in its integrity, not a jot or tittle removed. It is to be written on Israel's heart according to the terms of the new covenant (Jer. 31:33). The Lord's "fulfilling" it means that He brings out the fullness of it. He applies it to the thoughts and intents of the hearts, and completes it by the repeal of what had been of old time suffered for the hardness of them. By the manifestation of love even to enemies they are to show themselves the sons of their Father in heaven.
(4) 6:1-18. Righteousness before the Father. Three special characters follow of a righteousness* which is to be before God, not men:alms, as practical righteousness manward; prayer, the evidence of dependence Godward; and fasting- mortification-selfward. *"Alms" (5:1) should be as in the margin, "righteousness."*
In the first case, it is important to note that mercy, from those who are the simple recipients of mercy, is simple righteousness (comp. 18:32, 33). And not only are deeds of mercy not to be blazoned before the world, but to be done as if were in unconsciousness to ourselves of their being- done (comp. 25:37-39).
In the second case, the prayer our Lord teaches the disciples is not in His name (Jno. 16:24), nor from the stand-point of Christianity. It could not yet be. But it is the perfection of prayer in the place in which they then stood. The thought of divine government runs through the whole, but the most complete subjection of heart to Him who is on the throne, who is the Father. The first petition is that that name may be hallowed; the second, that His kingdom come; the third, to which this necessarily leads, that His will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. How blessed the condition of soul in which such like desires seek foremost utterance before its own personal need! Then how simply and beautifully is this expressed! The owning of dependence, without desire to escape out of the place of it, looking for daily bread-no more. The sense of sin needing forgiveness from God, leading to the manifestation of a spirit of forgiveness toward others. Lastly, a sense of infirmity which deprecates trial and the evil it may elicit.
In the third case, fasting, it is well to remember the apostle's word to us, " If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Of this, fasting was the expression, though in a form of sorrow unsuited to the joy of the Bridegroom's presence (9:15). And it still remains as this expression in times of solemnity and trial and exercise of soul before God (chap. 17:21; Acts 13:2).
(5) 6:19-34. The eye and the object. Now the Lord goes deeper, and lays bare the heart, detected in that which governs it. As the eye is the inlet of light to the body, so faith to the soul. Here heaven contains our treasure, and our one Master is God. To admit another object means divided service (in which God is not really served at all,) and a darkened eye. On the other hand, as to all here, our Father's care leaves us without the need of care to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness alone.
(6) 7:1-12. Meting the measure we would receive, A principle of divine government is now insisted on. By the hands of men God metes men their own measure. Therefore beware of harsh judgments, and the measure you mete; while nevertheless you must not loosely abandon spiritual things (as men have the so-called "sacraments,") to those incapable of valuing them. So may you look for God to give you what to you shall be of value; and what you want to have done to you you must do.
(7) 7:13-29. Practical treading the path pressed, and building upon the Word. Finally, entering in is pressed, a practical treading the path, though narrow, and refused by the mass. False prophets would come also, deceiving souls. Mere lip-honor to Christ would avail nothing in the day which was coming to test all; nor any thing but such acquaintance with Himself as would be shown by practical building on His words. Here alone was true wisdom, as would then be fully proved.