in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, [the] word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he came into all the district round the Jordan, preaching [the] baptism of repentance for [the] remission of sins,
Luke fixes John's ministry to a date and a place: the country around the Jordan. Why does his preaching centre on repentance, and how could a baptism be "for the forgiveness of sins" while that forgiveness was still to come?
The careful dating in the opening verses is not decoration. It shows a nation whose order had collapsed, and that collapse shapes what John says.
They show that things were completely out of course. Government was in the hands of the Gentiles. Even in Israel things were in confusion, for there were two high priests instead of one. So repentance was the dominant note in his preaching. Earlier prophets had reasoned with Israel and called them back to the broken law. John no longer does this, but demands repentance.
That ruin is exactly the setting God chooses to work in.
Nothing would interfere with the purposes of grace. Not changes in the world. Not the lowering of the Lord's people. Not the strange pairing of priests. Not the carving up of the land by foreigners. On the contrary, grace loves to take up men and things at their worst, and shows what God is towards the needy.
Repentance marks John out, yet it is not the word that best describes what came after him.
Repentance was what characterised John's preaching. That does not mean repentance was ever less than binding; it always binds every sinful soul that comes to the knowledge of God. Christianity does not lessen repentance; it deepens it. Yet you could not call repentance characteristic of Christianity — faith is much more so... In John the Baptist's preaching it was the emphatic word that described the character of his message.
The place carries meaning. Going down to that river was an admission, not an achievement.
The way of the Lord is prepared only by bringing the mountains down and filling up the valleys. That brings all flesh to a common level before God, so that all may see the salvation of God. So the baptism is to Jordan, the river of death. Men's sins bring them there, not their goodness — but there they find forgiveness.
So what did the phrase mean at the time John preached it?
Still, it was for forgiveness — "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." That forgiveness was not present yet, so the baptism could not be a testimony of sins already forgiven. It looked ahead to the One coming, whose forerunner John was.
Set John's task beside what Peter preached later.
His business was to take the nation up on the ground where it stood and call it to repentance. In fact he formed a remnant to receive Christ. Forgiveness of sins was in view for those he baptised... When Peter preaches, he preaches Jesus rejected and exalted, made Lord and Christ... the baptism was to the forgiveness of sins, because the work that gives it fully was now done.
Submitting to this baptism separated a person from the crowd he belonged to.
Through John's baptism the godly remnant took separate ground from the nation as a whole, waiting for the Messiah to come. They judged themselves, and cleared themselves of the sinful condition of the nation. John baptised the Lord too, and so He took His place among the repentant in Israel — not confessing sins, but fulfilling righteousness.
So is John's baptism the same thing as Christian baptism?
Scripture is just as plain that John's baptism is quite distinct from Christian baptism. Some disciples had already received John's baptism, yet they had to be baptised to Christ when they received the full truth of the gospel (Acts 19)... Confessing a coming Messiah is a far cry from confessing His death and resurrection. That difference is the root of differences that carry weighty consequences.
- Ruin first. Two high priests, foreign rulers, a nation off course. Into that mess the word of God comes, because grace takes up men and things at their worst.
- Repentance first. John does not call people back to the law. He demands repentance — the note that marks his whole message. Faith marks what comes after him.
- Jordan first. Sins bring people to the river of death, not their goodness. Mountains come down and valleys fill up, so all flesh stands on one level.
- Forgiveness afterwards. The baptism was for forgiveness, not proof of it. It waited for the One coming to do the work that gives forgiveness fully.
- A prepared people. Those who went down to the water separated themselves from the nation's condition. The Lord Himself stood among them — not confessing sins, but fulfilling righteousness.
as it is written in [the] book of [the] words of Esaias the prophet Voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of [the] Lord, make straight his paths.
John's ministry begins with a quotation, not a fresh idea. Luke grounds it in words Isaiah wrote centuries earlier. The verse then answers two questions: who is this man, and whose road does he clear?
The word of God came to John. Luke then tells us what that word was: a passage from a book.
In chapter 3, we have the testimony of a man who was full of the Holy Spirit from his birth. Our Lord said of him, "Among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist." We read that at a certain time "the word of God came to John." What word of God? "As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet," and so on (verses 2, 4).
People pressed John to say who he was. His answer was a sound, not a title:
They were determined to have an answer, and he gives them one. They would force him to speak of himself, and he does. But notice his answer! Who or what was he? Nobody. He was only "a voice." Here was a man of real power and dignity, one of Christ's most remarkable servants, holding the very highest position. His preaching had stirred the hearts of thousands. Angels had announced his birth, and prophets had foretold his ministry. He was the herald of the kingdom, the friend of the King. Yet this remarkable man, when forced to speak of himself, can only be brought to say, "I am a voice." Not even a man, but only a voice.
Luke has just listed the emperor, the governors and the high priests. The cry goes up outside all of it:
Everything was in the most perfect order, as far as man could judge, and as far as man's wisdom could achieve it. You find the emperor in his place, and the priests in their place. Government and religion are all in their due place and order. That is how the chapter begins. It shows you the outward condition of things in this world. There was everything men could value. There was all that could delight the heart of man. There was nothing to shock or offend people. Still all was a wilderness as far as God and light and truth were concerned.
That location changes John's preaching. Earlier prophets called a nation back. This voice speaks where return is no longer on offer:
This is why John the Baptist does not appeal to the people as a whole, as the prophets before him did. He says, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." Israel was a wilderness for God. From now on the prophet's appeal rests on their ruin beyond repair. The older prophets always appealed on the assumption that the nation could still return to Jehovah.
The words come from Isaiah 40, which calls for a road for God Himself:
These chapters show us our Lord Jesus Christ in His humiliation. So it is no surprise that the first of them (Isaiah 40) hides a testimony to His deity. The voice of one is heard crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way!" This is the voice of John the Baptist. But whose way is being prepared? All four Gospels answer this important question in perfect harmony, and so does Isaiah 40:3. It is the "way of THE LORD," a "highway for OUR GOD."
"Make His paths straight" asks people to give up the routes they chose for themselves:
John's earlier history is passed over. It was the message he brought, and the right response of his hearers to it, that was all-important. In preparation for receiving Jehovah their King they were to make His paths straight. As His people they were to walk in His paths and not in paths of their own choosing. The demand was for reality and the evidence of it, not natural claim and empty profession.
Matthew ends the quotation sooner than Luke does. The difference has a reason:
The range of Luke is wider… I ask, why is that quotation carried further there? It is all the more striking because Luke, unlike Matthew, does not often quote from the Old Testament. How is it that Luke departs from his habit in this one case? The reason is obvious. His task was to show the grace of God that brings salvation, and that has appeared to all men.
- Word — What came to John was Scripture; his preaching was Isaiah's words handed on, not his own invention.
- Voice — The greatest man born of women reduced himself to a sound. He kept no title for himself — not even a man, only a voice.
- Wilderness — Empire, government and priesthood were all in perfect order. God still called it a desert. The message had to be preached outside the system it exposed.
- Way — John clears the road of Jehovah, and all four Gospels agree on who came down it. The verse quietly states who He is.
- Wideness — Luke runs Isaiah's quotation further than the other Gospels. He writes of grace that reaches past Israel to all.
Every gorge shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked [places] shall become a straight [path], and the rough places smooth ways,
John speaks like a road-builder, and he takes the picture from Isaiah: a way made ready for someone's arrival. So who is coming, and what landscape has to change?
The road-building language makes sense only because of who is coming.
So God's testimony is not tied to His ordinances at Jerusalem, though the righteous do keep them. Nor does the prophet call them back to faithfulness on the ground where they already stood. It is His voice in the wilderness, making His paths straight. So He may come, as from outside, to those who repented and prepared themselves for His coming. And since Jehovah Himself came, His glory would not stay inside the narrow limits of Israel... It is the presence, the coming of God Himself, that here characterises everything.
The landscape is not soil and rock. Each feature stands for people and the way they live.
Valleys would be filled. That is, people who are lowly by choice would be lifted up. But mountains and hills — people who exalt themselves — would be brought low. The crooked stands for twisted principles that people commonly accept, and these would be made straight. Rough ways are the paths where sin has caused trouble and sorrow, and these would be made smooth, for sin would be judged. ... The salvation this prophecy speaks of is accomplished only in the One whose way John was preparing.
So the verse asks each reader which place to take.
These were words of encouragement to everyone to take a low place now. Those who exalt themselves now will be brought low in the day of judgement. The Bible is full of this sentiment. The Lord Jesus "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name" (Philippians 2:8-9). Paul says to us all: "Have this mind among yourselves." The lesson from the valley is humility.
Flattening land removes every difference of height. The same happens to people before God.
Luke insists more strongly on the way of the Lord. It is prepared only by bringing down the mountains and filling up the valleys. That brings all flesh to a common level before God, so that the salvation of God may be seen by all. So the baptism is to Jordan, the river of death, to which men's sins bring them; and not their goodness, but there they find remission.
The length of the quotation matches the reach of Luke's Gospel.
Now we have John the Baptist acting here according to Isaiah the prophet... Only the Spirit of God in Luke takes care to give it the greatest possible breadth. "...and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." We do not have this last line anywhere else. In Matthew, Mark, and John the quotation stops short of it. But Luke, though he begins with the Jew, does not end with him. He goes right out to all the nations. So the Spirit adds expressions here that give the message its largeness and reach.
Did all of this happen when John preached? One writer says only part of it did.
John's testimony was a call to repentance in view of Messiah's coming... For Israel as a whole was blind and deaf. The testimony was interrupted, and the people refused the Messiah. So it was applied only in part. Their unbelief cut across the thread of God's ways and broke it off. Yet His purposes stand unbreakable. Through that very unbelief they were accomplished in the cross, as they could never otherwise have been. The way of Jehovah was not yet prepared, nor was there a straight highway in the desert for God. God left man to his own responsibility. Man heard the cry and only sinned more. But in time to come God will make everything good in grace by His own power.
- Coming — the road-building is preparation, not scenery. God Himself arrives from outside the old religious order. He does not simply call it back to where it stood.
- Levelling — valleys are the lowly, lifted up. Mountains and hills are the self-exalting, brought down. Crooked ways are twisted principles. Rough places are the trouble sin has caused.
- Common ground — flattening leaves no differences of height. God brings all flesh to one level, and it is sins, not goodness, that bring people to the place of forgiveness.
- Breadth — Matthew and Mark stop the quotation earlier. Luke carries it to "all flesh," reaching past Israel to the nations.
- Waiting — the nation's refusal made the fulfilment partial. God will finish this levelling later, by His own power.
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
John's cry in the wilderness ends with a line that reaches far past the crowd in front of him. It reaches past Israel, to every human being on earth. Why does only Luke carry Isaiah's prophecy this far? And what does it mean to see a salvation that belongs to God?
Matthew quotes Isaiah at this same point in the story, but stops earlier. One writer asks why Luke, who quotes the Old Testament less than Matthew, goes further.
In Luke you will find that the prophecy goes farther down. Luke gives us more than the words we have here... The range of Luke is wider... I ask, why does that quotation go farther there? It stands out all the more because Luke usually does not quote much from the Old Testament, compared with Matthew... The reason is clear. His task was to show the grace of God that brings salvation, and that has appeared to all men. The Holy Spirit leads him therefore to fasten upon those words that display the universal range of God's goodness to man.
The reach of verse 6 depends on who is coming.
Note how this quotation from Isaiah speaks of Jehovah coming, and how Jesus clearly fulfils this coming of Jehovah... The One who was about to come was no less than Jehovah. So verse 6 shows that the salvation He would bring would not stay inside the narrow borders of Israel. It would go out to "all flesh." Grace was about to come, and it would overflow in all directions. This grace is one of the special themes of the Gospel of Luke.
Other places where Scripture uses the phrase fix its meaning.
As He is the Father, so He is "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Num. 16:22, Num. 27:16). Here, as in many other places, "all flesh" means "all men." It simply describes them by what is only their lowest part. So before the flood we read that "all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth" (Gen. 6:12), and in Luke 3:6, "all flesh shall see the salvation of God." In both cases it means all mankind, and only these.
Verse 6 ends a road-building picture. The levelling just before it is moral.
Valleys would be filled. That is, people who are willingly lowly would be lifted up. But mountains and hills — people who lift themselves up — would be brought low. The crooked, meaning twisted principles that people widely accept, would be made straight. Rough ways, the paths where sin has caused trouble and sorrow, would be made smooth, for sin would be judged. He speaks of not only Israel seeing the salvation of God, but "all flesh"... This promised salvation is accomplished only in the One whose way John was preparing.
Isaiah does not say all flesh will hear about salvation. They will see it. One writer ties that seeing to a Person.
Salvation is inseparably linked with the Saviour. There is no salvation without a Saviour. We may think about the truth of salvation. But we only understand it when we look at the glory of the Saviour. Long ago Simeon took the child Jesus into his arms, blessed God and said: "my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:30). John the Baptist saw Jesus at the start of His public service, and quoted Isaiah's words: "all flesh shall see the salvation of God"... The work of salvation was not yet accomplished, but the one who would accomplish it had appeared.
Was this fulfilled when Jesus came? One writer, commenting on the Isaiah passage John quotes, says the proclamation began at the first coming but did not finish there.
It appears to me that... the cry "all flesh is grass" (Isaiah 40:6) was fulfilled at the first coming, just as much as any part of the proclamation in verses 3-5. It is even plain that this proclamation had only a beginning of fulfilment in the past. Israel's unbelief stopped it.
- God comes. The prophecy announces Jehovah Himself arriving, and that arrival is fulfilled in Jesus.
- So the borders fall. The Coming One is God. His salvation could not stay inside Israel's narrow borders; grace overflows in every direction.
- The ground is levelled. The proud are brought low, the lowly are lifted up, and sin is judged.
- The salvation is a Person. Simeon held it in his arms; John pointed to it. There is no salvation apart from the Saviour who accomplishes it.
- The seeing is not finished. Israel's unbelief stopped the proclamation. It had only a beginning in the past, so more is still ahead.