Produce therefore fruit worthy of repentance.
John speaks these words to Pharisees and Sadducees who had come out to the Jordan with the crowds. His demand is blunt: prove the repentance you claim. Two questions decide the verse. What is repentance, and what fruit counts as proof?
Two groups had come out to John. One commentator says the ground both stood on was gone.
He insists that the day of religious ceremony, or of claims by birth, was completely past. The Pharisee might rest on his religion; the Sadducee on being a child of Abraham. The wish to escape wrath and to share in the kingdom might be no more than nature. Humbled souls suit the kingdom.
So what is repentance? One writer clears away three wrong answers before he gives his own.
It is not simply a conviction of having done wrong... It is not sorrow for sin... Nor is it the same as conversion... But it is a change of mind, a judgment of self, ways, and sins, which shows itself in a change of life. It is God's gift, bestowed by the risen and ascended Christ. It is fruitful; for there are works worthy of repentance.
So what fruit could these men bring? One writer says John recognised only one.
Notice here that the only good fruit John recognises as the way of escape is honest confession of sin, made through grace. Only those who make this confession escape the axe. There were really no good trees except the ones that confessed they were bad.
Another writer reads the fruit here as something plain and everyday:
In Matthew 3:8 we read of fruit in keeping with repentance. This no doubt referred to the general walk and behaviour.
One writer asks what a loaded fruit tree proves, and what it does not.
Anyone can tell that the tree is alive and healthy, because of the crop it is bearing. Its life comes out in fruit. If there were no fruit the tree had better be cut down as something taking up space. But there is fruit. It is the necessary evidence of the life. The fruit does not produce the life, but the life the fruit. You might decorate the tree with fruit, but that would not give it life.
Reverse that order, and the command becomes impossible. One writer answers that mistake with a picture from a garden.
You might as well say to the crab-apple tree: "Stop growing crab apples. Never grow another one. From now on grow good apples. Do that, and the gardener will come and make you an apple tree." Any gardener who does not know this is a poor gardener: before that tree can bear anything but crab apples, someone must graft a new nature into it — apple nature... No, there must be repentance before there can be the fruits of repentance.
These men had an answer ready: Abraham was their father. One commentator shows what John did with that, and points to a matching test in James's letter.
He knew they would boast of being in the proper line of descent from Abraham. So he knocked that prop out from under them, and showed that it would not count with God. Nothing would do but repentance. His baptism pointed to that. But it had to be genuine, and it had to show itself in fruit that was suitable. James, in his letter, insists that faith, if it is real and living, must express itself in suitable works. Here John calls for exactly the same thing in regard to repentance.
The demand is not a recipe for salvation. One writer marks the difference.
He is not explaining here how a sinner is to be saved, or how God forgives sins. He is saying that if people take the stand of having to do with God, there must be what suits His presence.
- Root: Repentance is a change of mind, a judgment of self, ways and sins. It is not just regret, and it is not the same as conversion.
- Gift: No one grows that root in himself. It is God's gift, given by the risen and ascended Christ.
- Fruit: The first fruit John accepts is honest confession of sin. There were no good trees except those that admitted they were bad.
- Order: Fruit is evidence of life, never its cause — decorating a tree with fruit gives it nothing.
- Urgency: Descent from Abraham propped up nobody. Only those who confessed their sin escaped the axe.
And do not think to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for [our] father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
John's hearers had a defence ready before he even spoke: their descent from Abraham. This verse takes that defence away. It raises a sharper question: who does God count as belonging to His people?
Two rival parties in the nation came out to John's baptism. He refused to treat either as safe.
The Pharisees were, religiously, the most influential in Israel. The Sadducees were the loose, worldly, self-indulgent class. The Pharisees stood very firm for what they considered the truth. Yet when John sees them both coming to his baptism, he says, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance" — fruits of the same kind. He maintains that the day of religious ceremony, or of birthrights, was completely past. The Pharisee might rest on his religion; the Sadducee on his being a child of Abraham. The desire to escape wrath and to have a part in the kingdom might be no more than nature. Humbled souls suit the kingdom. Descent from the fathers, the law, even the promises, may be turned into a right against God. He will not allow that, and He can raise up children to Abraham out of the stones.
Their claim was true. They really were Abraham's descendants. John denies that this gives them any standing with God.
Man's self-righteousness and his pride lead him to hide his own state from himself. He does this in order to take advantage of a religion handed down from his ancestors… It is God who works as He pleases, and in His own power, to create children for Himself. God takes no account of all your claims as Jews and descendants of Abraham. He works in that supreme power in which He is able to raise up children for Abraham, even out of stones. That is why He takes no account of your righteousness: He must first have sinners.
This confidence was not one man's mistake. The whole nation rested on it.
The religious trust of the Jews was in their pedigree. They boasted that they were direct descendants of Abraham (John 8:33, 39) — an idol that John the Baptist set out to smash… Here the Lord declared what shows a living relationship with the King in the kingdom of God. It is not nationality. It is personal obedience and individual loyalty.
Commentators differ on what John pointed at. Some take the stones as a picture of what every believer once was.
These stones are what we were: stones without life, lifeless. But now we are children of Abraham, children of promise, counted as a seed. In Romans 4 Abraham is the father of all those who believe, even though they are not circumcised.
Others read it as a gesture toward the very people standing in the water, the ones the leaders despised.
God could, and would, do without those who were only related to Abraham by nature. He could raise up children to Abraham "from these stones." Does he not mean the people John was baptizing? They confessed themselves dead in sins, as lifeless as stones. God could give life on the simple principle of faith: only those who are of faith are true children of Abraham (Gal. 3:29; Rom. 4:16).
John names something God is able to do. God has since done it among the nations outside Israel.
To boast in the privileges of their nation, or of their fathers, was worth nothing before God. He required what His very nature, His truth, demanded. What is more, He was sovereign; He was able out of those stones to raise up children to Abraham. This is what His sovereign grace has done, through Christ, for the Gentiles.
John's warning does not stop with the men standing in front of him.
"Offspring of vipers!" — this is how the Holy Spirit declared their true character through John, the forerunner. What a strong and cutting word it is! It applies not only to the Pharisees and Sadducees, but to all religion of ritual and all unbelieving criticism… When they came, they were far from taking that true place of repentance and death. And so John demands of them that they bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. He uncovers their false claims. No natural birth and no religious attainment would deliver them in the day of wrath.
- Pedigree. The Pharisee leaned on his religion. The Sadducee leaned on his ancestry. John told both that the day of birthrights was past.
- Pretension. God takes no account of inherited claims or of self-righteousness. Before He can save, "He must first have sinners."
- Power. What descent cannot supply, God creates. He raises children for Abraham out of stones, giving life on the principle of faith.
- People. That sovereign grace has since gone out through Christ to the Gentiles, who had no ancestral claim at all.
- Proof. God accepts one proof: fruit worthy of repentance. No natural birth and no religious achievement will shelter anyone in the day of wrath.
And already the axe is applied to the root of the trees; every tree therefore not producing good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.
John the Baptist says these words to the leading Jews of his day. The axe is not on its way, he tells them. It is already at the root. Two questions come out of the picture. Why the root and not the branches? And what fruit can stop the blow?
Everything hangs on the words "even now." John is not warning about something far off.
Here then was a stern rebuke for the leading Jews. But John adds more than that: "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees" — that is to say, judgment is just at hand.
Another writer names what has ended, and who stands under the axe.
The axe was laid to the root of the trees. It was not warning and forbearance — the time of divine dealing had come. Judgment was there at the door. If a tree did not bear good fruit, it was to be cut down and thrown into the fire. This was individual.
Trimming a tree leaves it standing. Striking the root ends it. That is the difference John draws. One writer fills out the picture from the forest.
In a forest, the trees to be cut down are marked with a hatchet. In the same way, the objects of judgment had already been marked out. But it was no longer a question of cutting off branches, or even the trunk — the root was bad.
So reform will not help. Improving the outside of a bad tree does not change what its fruit shows.
The axe was laid to the root of the trees (v. 9): no amount of self-improvement on Israel's part would be recognised by God. If the tree was bad, as its fruit showed, the tree would be cut down — not only some of its branches — and thrown into the fire.
These men had every religious advantage, including descent from Abraham. John turns each advantage against them.
John the Baptist addresses the Jews, demanding repentance and righteousness as its fruit. He shows them that if they were nearer to God outwardly as Jews, they must expect judgment all the sooner. If the Lord was coming, He must have what suited the Lord. … Repentance or wrath — which? The Lord would allow no plea of descent from Abraham if their ways contradicted Abraham. He must have righteousness.
Everything then depends on what "good fruit" means. For John it is not a list of achievements. It is one honest admission.
Notice here that the only good fruit John recognises, as the way of escape, is the sincere confession of sin through grace. Only those who make this confession escape the axe. There really were no good trees except those that confessed they were bad.
An axe at the root does two things. It brings the tree down, and it shows what is inside.
If an axe is laid to the root of a tree, down it must go. So in a way John foretold the ruin of the nation. And if the axe were laid to the root of the tree, it would also show what was inside — it might be rotten to the core. When the axe of God's Word lays open the heart of man, as it does, it shows it to be rotten to the very core.
The picture is not left in the past.
All this applies to the day in which we live. Once more the axe is laid at the roots, to cut off and throw into the fire whatever has not borne fruit.
- Already — "Even now" means the blow is not far off. Warning time has ended, and judgment stands at the door.
- Root — the axe goes past the branches to the root. Pruning and self-improvement cannot save a bad tree.
- Fruit — descent from Abraham counts for nothing. Being nearer to God only brings the reckoning sooner.
- Confession — one fruit turns the axe away — honest confession of sin. The only good trees were those that admitted they were bad.
- Today — the same axe still lays the heart open, and the same test falls on whatever bears no fruit today.
*I* indeed baptise you with water to repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not fit to bear; *he* shall baptise you with [the] Holy Spirit and fire;
John the Baptist stands at the Jordan and draws a line between his own work and the work of the One coming after him. He names two baptisms — one with the Holy Spirit, one with fire — and the verse turns on whether they are one gift or two opposite ends.
John's baptism was real, but it was only preparation.
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance to prepare people for the coming Lord. So it was a purification — a "baptism of repentance". It marked out and separated a remnant from the rest of the people, so that they would escape the coming judgment... The crowds came to his baptism, confessing their sins. He baptized them in the Jordan, the river of death. In this they owned that all was over with them as to any natural claim, and that only divine mercy in a Saviour could meet their need. So they are baptized unto the forgiveness of sins, waiting for it in hope, though they have not received it yet.
Matthew, Mark and Luke each report John's words about the sandals a little differently.
He said, as we read in Matthew 3:11, "He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry." In Luke 3:16 it is, "whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." In Mark 1:7 it is, "the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie." What a completely self-effacing appreciation of his Master! And what rare humility!
Both halves come from the same Christ, but not to the same people.
He baptized with water. But the Christ would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. That is, He would give the fullest blessing, and carry out judgment as well — for fire here stands for judgment, as John went on to explain: the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire... He was addressing a mixed crowd, and he spoke to them of both. But the saints of God share only in the one, and those who do not repent share only in the other. For to baptize with the Holy Spirit is to give the fullest blessing that saints can enter into on earth. There is nothing beyond the gift of the Holy Spirit, and becoming members of the Body of Christ by the baptism of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13).
The Spirit given to a person also works in him.
He baptizes also with the Holy Spirit. That Spirit is given to a man who has been made alive, redeemed and cleansed in the blood of Christ, and He acts in divine energy in him. He brings him out from the influence of everything that works on the flesh, and sets him in connection and communion with all that is revealed of God.
Does the fire in this verse mean power?
Many people think the fire means power. Not so! A fire has no power except to destroy... Fire is always the symbol in Scripture of judgment.
So what is the fire, and when does it fall?
I understand it to be the unsparing divine judgment which the Lord will carry out on all evil when He appears. The righteous are for ever separated from it. John the Baptist presented the work of Messiah as a whole. The cross separated the two baptisms. One followed His first coming, when He went up on high and baptized in the power of the Spirit. The other awaits His second coming... So in Acts we hear nothing of baptism in fire: this is to be when the Lord comes.
Commentators differ over Pentecost. Some see the tongues of fire there as a partial form of the fire baptism.
The baptism with fire certainly points forward, as the context shows, to the final judgment of sinners. Yet even now the Spirit of God brings the truth of judgment home to the soul. So, anticipating judgment, the soul bows to the sentence of God and accepts His salvation. There is in this way a modified baptism of fire at Pentecost, indicated by the tongues of fire.
Others hold that the fire baptism did not occur at all that day.
But were there not divided tongues as of fire seen in the upper room? Unquestionably. Was that the baptism of fire? We firmly believe not. The Lord in Acts did not mention it; and Peter never referred to it.
- Water — John's baptism separated a remnant who owned death as their due and waited in hope for a forgiveness not yet given.
- Worth — John measured himself against the Coming One by the sandals he felt unfit to carry.
- Spirit — the higher baptism gives the fullest blessing available on earth. It brings a person into the Body of Christ and out from the pull of the flesh.
- Fire — the same sentence carries judgment. John explained it himself: the chaff burned with unquenchable fire. Fire destroys; it is not power.
- Divided — the cross split what John announced as one. The Spirit's baptism has come; the fire waits for the Lord's appearing. Commentators differ on whether Pentecost was a partial form of it.
whose winnowing fan [is] in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his threshing-floor, and shall gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
John the Baptist ends his preaching with a scene every farmer in Israel knew: grain tossed into the wind, the good seed kept, the husks burned. It raises three questions: whose floor is this, when does He clear it, and how final is that fire?
The "winnowing fork" was a tool for sorting grain, not for destroying it. Older translations call it a fan. Farmers depended on the weather to make it work.
This was done in the open air, by throwing up the grain with a shovel or a fan (really a kind of shallow basket); the wind carried away the chaff. Boaz winnowed his barley in the evening, when there would be more wind... It is now a day of grace, a sowing time, but the harvest will come, and the winnowing will surely follow.
John calls the floor His. It belongs to the One who was coming, and commentators ask which people that floor stood for.
Whatever could not stand the fire would be burned up... God's floor was Israel; there He was getting His wheat, if any were to be found. But His fan is in His hand; He is going to make short work.
Two verses earlier John spoke of an axe at the root of the trees. The new picture shows a more thorough dealing.
There is a difference between the axe and the fan. "Already" the axe was at the root of the useless trees, but you might suppose the good ones would be left standing. But when the Lord came, He would clear His floor completely. He dealt with the floor, so to speak: He gathered the wheat into a barn of His own, and burned the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Verse 12 explains the "fire" John named a verse earlier. Readers have long disagreed over what that fire stands for.
The Baptist predicts of the coming One — the Lord Jesus — that He would have a ministry of a double character. He would baptize with the Holy Spirit, that is, blessing, and with fire — judgment. Now, many people think the fire means power. Not so! A fire has no power except to destroy, and that is not what you want. You do not want destructive energy. Fire is always the symbol in Scripture of judgment.
John names the Spirit and the fire in one breath. One writer explains that the gap between them was hidden from him.
There he brings together the two grand features of the first and second comings of Christ. He did not know but that both would go on together. All that might lie between the two was hidden from his eyes... We know that the baptizing with the Holy Spirit is the power of God's blessing in the kingdom of heaven as it now is. The baptism of fire is what will accompany the kingdom of heaven as it will be when Christ comes again. Nowhere does the word of God call what happened at Pentecost a baptism of fire. Baptism with fire is God's judgment applied to men; the day of Pentecost was the outpouring of His grace and the giving of the Holy Spirit to live in His people.
The same hand that burns the chaff carries the wheat home. The verse is as much a promise as a warning.
The figure of the threshing floor is used here to illustrate the sovereign work of the Lord Jesus in grace and in judgment. For not a grain of wheat will be lost, but gathered into His granary; while the chaff, all unbelievers, will be burned with unquenchable fire. This blessed, holy One will have total authority in these matters of enormous importance.
Chaff burns away to nothing. Some argue that the verse therefore teaches that the lost stop existing. One writer answers that a picture and the thing it pictures are never the same.
It is a figure of judgment that leaves no hope for those condemned as "chaff." People who say the lost are wiped out of existence would naturally claim it as a figure of utter destruction, and so it is. But a figure and the thing it stands for are as different as the "chaff" here is from the men it pictures. This is what these writers keep ignoring. Material destruction is not a figure of material destruction. It must stand for something else.
- Floor. The threshing floor is His own. Commentators read it first of God's dealing with Israel, the nation standing in front of John.
- Fan. The axe of verse 10 cut down fruitless trees one by one; the fan clears the whole floor at once, sorting everything on it.
- Wheat. Nothing that belongs to Him is lost. Every grain goes into His barn, so this verse is a promise before it is a threat.
- Fire. Fire in Scripture stands for judgment, not power. The baptism with the Spirit belongs to His first coming. The baptism with fire belongs to His return.
- Now. Today is still the sowing season. The winnowing is coming, and only the wheat goes into the barn.