"Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."
Today's lesson is continued from the quote from Luke 3:1-6.
Yesterday we determined that the "the baptism of John" was much more that just a ceremonial water bath, although water baptism according to the Law of Moses was definitely a part of John's obligation to his Jewish brethren in preparing them for the coming of the Lord.
Water immersion was definitely a part of "John's baptism", however, the most important element of that "baptism" was the message John was divinely inspired to to teach to his Hebrew brethren. That message being "repentance for the remission of sins". "And he came into all the country about Jordan, PREACHING THE BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS".
The ultimate purpose of John's message was to, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord". Therefore, in order to prepare the Jews for the coming of the Lord, John was obligated to assure that under the rules of the Law, the Jewish brethren were appropriately cleansed, both in body and in spirit.
The baptisms John the Baptist administered were done in accordance with the the Law of Moses which demanded that before entering into any religious action such as prayer, fasting or the offering of a sacrifice etc, every Jew was to first clean their bodies with clean flowing water and to cleanse their spirits by repenting their sins so as to present themselves, before God, un-defiled by the filth of the earth.
As we continue our bible study, it is very important to remember that the phrase "the baptism of John" concerns much more than simple water immersion or sprinkling. When our study is complete, this knowledge will us to understand that much of what has been taught about "baptism" has been distorted by the misunderstanding of what the term actually implies in any given context.~
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