The Holy Spirit and fire

Read Matthew 3:11-12

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Many people admire Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount without knowing much about the Teacher. But if we think of Jesus as a kindly dispenser of good moral living we will never understand that sermon or be able to live by it. John declared that the one who is coming after him is truly awesome, with the power of life and death.

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John baptised people with water as an outward sign of repentance but Jesus “will baptise you with the Holy Spirit” (11) – he is the one who will bring the promised new age of the Spirit (Ezk.36:25-28; Joel 2:28). Water can only be a symbol (whatever the quantity). Christian baptism is a baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus, so that through faith in him “we may live a new life” by the life of his Spirit within us (Rom.6:4).

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This baptism is also “with fire” (11) and the context makes clear that this is the fire of judgment. John has just spoken of fruitless branches being thrown into the fire (10) and that thought is now expanded (12). This is so that the good harvest (the wheat) can be gathered in (cf. Mt.13:36-43). The image underlines the awesomeness of Jesus. No wonder John says, “He must increase and I must decrease” (Jn.3:28-30).