Repentance and forgiveness

Read Matthew 3:4-6

.

For 400 years there had been no prophet in Israel and Jewish people were now under the rule of Rome. So the emergence of someone dressed in a prophet’s clothing (4; 2 Kgs.1:8) and announcing that the Kingdom of God was near (2) caused great excitement and a spiritual revival (5-6).

.

The Jews believed themselves to be the special people of God and so thought that it was the Gentiles – not they – who were under God’s judgment and who needed to repent. But John “rejected all ideas of nationalistic or legal righteousness and required a moral-religious turning to God. He refused to assume a righteous people. Only those who repent, who manifest this repentance in changed conduct, will escape the impending judgment” (G.E.Ladd).

.

Baptism was used by John as a sign of that repentance (6; Lk.3:3). It's the repentance - not the baptism - that results in forgiveness. At that time, baptism was already in use as a Jewish initiation rite for Gentiles, but by baptising Jews John indicated that they too needed to turn back to God. Jesus would make this same emphasis, that God is not interested in outward religious respectability but in a true righteousness of the heart (Mt.23:23).