John the Baptist preached a message of “baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.” Though his tone for the verses before us may strike us as severe, Luke calls it the “gospel,” good news (v 18). Why is it “good news”? Because it promises the “forgiveness of sins.” Because it’s the announcement of Messiah’s arrival and the ministry of the Holy Spirit (vv 16,17). Moreover, the message that John preached, though preparatory, was the same message that Jesus preached, and the same one the Apostle Paul preached. When Jesus preached, His message was “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mt 4:17; cf. Mk 1:15). As John called for the fruit of repentance (v 8), so did Jesus (Mt 7:17-20), and so did the Apostle Paul, who insisted that Gentile converts “should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance” (Acts 26:20b).

John’s message is the gospel, good news literally and ultimately, yet a costly one for those who would be its beneficiaries. John shows particular concern that repentance be genuine, that it not be counterfeited by mere words and rituals. He insists on specific, concrete acts of repentance for sin. If one wishes to understand the gospel as preached to the earliest Christians, we could do no better than to begin here with John’s proclamation of it.

Human condition

He therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Lk 3:7)

John is an unusual person. He lives in the wilderness. Mark tells us that he was clothed with camel’s hair, wore a leather belt, and his diet was locusts and wild honey (Mk 1:6; Mt 3:4). Yet, the most unlikely of things happens. “Multitudes” go out to the “wilderness” or desert to be baptized by John. He becomes something of an attraction, though he did nothing to make himself attractive. Indeed, he is “deliberately harsh,” explains Marshall. Why? Marshall continues, “so as to awaken them to a sense of the realities of the situation.”[1] What situation?

John presents to them the reality of the human condition. We are a “brood of vipers,” he says. Yet his harsh words seem to resonate. What is the need that the gospel addresses? Or to put it another way, where do we stand with God? Not what do my neighbors think of me; or my partners in employment; or my family and friends. What does God say? John says that we are a “brood of vipers” and under the wrath of God. Let’s look more closely at his meaning.

First, John identifies the problem of human nature. “You brood of vipers,” he said to the multitudes who come out to hear him, “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” This is not a theme calculated to “win friends and influence people.” He calls them a “brood” or the “offspring” of “snakes.” This is the equivalent of calling them children of Satan, the “serpent of old” (Rev 12:9; 20:2). What John says to the multitudes Jesus will say to the religious leadership. “You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father” (Jn 8:44).

From the time that Eve listened to the Serpent in the Garden, Satan has been our master, and we have taken on his nature. In this sense we are his “brood,” his offspring, “children of the devil” (1 Jn 3:10). He is a murderer, we are murderers (Jn 8:44). He is a liar and the father of lies, and we are liars (Jn 8:44). He is a deceiver, and we deceive. All those who practice sin, says the Apostle John, are “of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8). Even where the overt acts of the devil (murder, adultery) are wallpapered over with religion and morality, underneath are the attitudes that lead to the acts: hatred, lust, covetousness, envy, jealousy, pride, selfishness, and so on (see Mt 5:22ff). We bear the image of the Father, but the nature of the devil. You “brood of vipers.”

If we are to understand the gospel, it is crucial that we understand this first point. John announces God’s verdict regarding our nature. We are corrupt. We are fallen. We are idolaters. Our depravity is pervasive. We may have become quite proficient at masking it. We may possess a veneer of civilization and culture. Yet underneath lies a seething hatred of God and all that He represents, and a twisted, degraded nature (Rom 1:21-25).

Second, John identifies human destiny. He speaks of the “wrath to come.” We are not only children of the devil, but we are also “children of wrath” (Eph 2:3). The “wrath of God” is defined by Morris as “the continuing divine hostility to all evil.”[2] J. I. Packer describes it as “a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.”[3] God’s hostile reaction to evil will culminate in the “day of wrath” (Rom 2:5). “The wrath of God will come,” the Apostle Paul assures us (Col 3:6; cf. 1 Thess 1:10). People will cry out to the mountains and rocks to bury them and hide them from “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev 6:16). There will be a day of judgment, when some will be cast into the “eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). Humanity is destined for a “furnace of fire,” which Packer describes as “the agonizing awareness of God’s displeasure.” It will be a place where “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:42,50; 8:12), perhaps meaning “self-condemnation and self-loathing.” There, “the worm never dies and the fire is not quenched,” “an image, it seems,” says Packer, “for the endless dissolution for the personality by a condemning conscience” (Mk 9:44,46,48).[4] The “outer darkness” into which the damned are to be cast represents “knowledge of the loss, not merely of God, but of all good, and everything that made life seem worth living.”[5] Sin against an infinitely holy God brings infinite guilt resulting in infinite wrath. The universe finally will be purged of all evil.

So certain is this our destiny that we must “flee” from it. We are born into it through Adam. We compound it through our own transgressions. The Bible even speaks of those who remain stubborn and unrepentant as “storing up wrath . . . in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom 2:5). In hell the damned will bitterly lament every sin they ever committed, as each sin compounds the guilt and so compounds the wrath. This is our destiny. From this we must flee if we are to be spared – not merely “remove ourselves from,” or “withdraw from,” or take a step back from, but “flee.” John’s words are urgent. One flees from imminent danger – a burning building, an approaching hurricane, or a falling tree. A tidal wave of wrath is about to break on our beach. Move. Run. Sprint. Go!

Escape

How are we to flee? Through repentance (vv 8-14). To repent is to forsake our dishonorable and offensive ways and turn to God. This is to be done in connection with the One who comes after John, whose baptism of the Spirit, through the cross, will cleanse and pardon sin (vv 16,17). The baptism to which they were submitting symbolized that repentance, and its resulting cleansing and inward renewal, would be realized fully in Christ, of whom John is the forerunner. This is what John preached. Repent and be baptized.

However, John does not trust the motives of his listeners. He is concerned that their repentance be genuine. Isn’t it enough that they’ve gone out to the wilderness and submitted to baptism? Apparently not. It would seem that they were placing too much confidence in the external acts of repentance (as in baptism). His question, “who warned you to be free?” probably means “who led you to believe that you could escape the judgment merely by the external rite of baptism?” He is pushing them to examine their hearts.[6] Is the alleged repentance genuine? The problem that John is addressing is the human propensity to trust in outward identity and ritual. Some trusted in their ethnic identity as sons of Abraham, thinking they didn’t need baptism at all (v 8b). Others, says Marshall, submitted to baptism but “assumed their baptism itself could save them from coming judgment without the evident fruits of repentance.”[7] Don’t put confidence in the services and ordinances of the church. The condition of the heart is the crucial thing. Sincerity is vital. Baptism can only represent that which must be true of the heart. There must be a thorough and genuine forsaking of sin and turning to God if one is to escape the wrath to come. “Penitence expressed in words counts for nothing,” says Calvin, “unless it is proven in real action.”[8]

The authenticity of repentance is demonstrated by what the Bible calls the “fruit” of repentance. John continues,

“Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” (Lk 3:8)

John demands not just repentance, but the fruit of repentance. “Bring forth fruits in keeping with your repentance.” Words are cheap. John wants signs that there is a substance behind the words. John had become something of a spectacle. Going out to see John seems to have become the thing to do. He is concerned that the repentance of the multitudes is superficial. It doesn’t go deep enough. They are still thinking that they are basically good people. “We have Abraham for our father,” they are still saying. They continue to trust in their descent from Abraham, their racial and ethnic heritage. John pulls the rug out from under their national pride. “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” Ultimately “we stand before God as individuals,” as Morris points out.[9]

Fruit, then, is seen as the sign that repentance is genuine. The “fruit of the Spirit” is the sign that the Spirit dwells within (Gal 5:22). Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruit” (Mt 7:20). One’s behavior reveals the condition of one’s heart. “To say that we are sorry for our sins is mere hypocrisy,” says J. C. Ryle, “unless we show that we are really sorry for them, by giving them up.”[10] If there is no change of behavior, there is no real repentance; if no real repentance, then one has not fled and one has not escaped the wrath. The situation is urgent. One must get this right.

“And also the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Lk 3:9)

The axe is a symbol of God’s judgment. God is preparing to judge His people, root and branch (cf. Mal 4:1). “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees.” God is going to uproot fruitless trees, not merely prune them, not merely trim a branch or two. He will completely destroy them, pulling them up by their roots. Only trees with “fruit” will be spared, that is, the fruit of repentance, the behavioral signs of true repentance. Those lacking such will be judged, “cut down and thrown into the fire,” the fire of God’s eternal judgment. Sound harsh? Jesus teaches the same thing in Matthew 7:19:

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Repentance is always urgent. Judgment is always imminent. We don’t know how long we have to live. We don’t know when Christ will return, despite the fools who keep trying to predict. Today is the day (Heb 3:12-19). Now is the time. Seek the Lord while He may be found (Is 55:6,7). The situation is urgent.

Details

John then makes detailed applications of what it means to repent and bring forth fruit, that none need be misled. In this context of concern for self-deception, for counterfeit repentance, His stress is upon specificity. Vague, generalized expressions of regret will not do. He requires particular, concrete repentance for particular sin.

And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?” (Lk 3:10)

This is exactly the right question for us to ask. “What shall we do?” They ask without conditions. They place no limits on God’s requirements. Lord, whatever You want me to do, I’ll do it. This is what the Apostle Paul was told on the Damascus road: “it shall be told you what you must do” (Acts 9:6). Just tell me. This is the voice of repentance and submission to God. Whatever God wants, I want. Whatever God commands, I’ll do. Wherever God sends, I’ll go. John tells them what they must do in verses 11-14. His directions are the practical outworking of repentance.

All true repentance consists of three elements: the intellectual, the emotional, and the volitional. With our minds we “say the same thing,” the literal meaning of the Greek word “to confess” (homolegeo), agreeing with God’s verdict regarding our conduct; with our affections we grieve and mourn our wrongdoing, for the harm and heartache that it has caused; with our wills, we turn away (metanoia), we alter course, we change direction. It is the latter aspect that John is most concerned about. They already say the right things.

And he would answer and say to them, “Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.” (Lk 3:11)

John’s answer is, change of behavior. Has one been uncharitable towards the poor and needy? Has one been greedy? Then share what you have. Got an extra tunic?[11] Then give it to someone who lacks one. Have extra food? Share it with those who lack food. In a Jewish understanding, these are “works of love,” and as such, are the fruit of conversion. The “fast” that God chooses for His people, according to the prophet Isaiah, is “to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him” (Isa 58:7). The truly pious one “gives his bread to the hungry, and covers the naked with clothing” (Ezek 18:7b).

And some tax-gatherers also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.” (Lk 3:12,13)

Have you cheated people of what is rightfully theirs? Tax-gatherers, have you collected more than “ordered” to collect? Cease and desist. Only require what is due. The system was one where the Romans sold tax-collection rights to the highest bidder. The successful bidder would then pay the Romans the agreed upon amount and pocket whatever extra he collected. The temptation was to not merely cover expenses and make a legitimate profit, but to plunder the people with excessive taxes. The remarkable thing is that tax-gatherers, universally despised and regarded as unclean, are listening to John and will listen to Jesus (see 7:29, and particularly Mt 21:31ff).

And some soldiers were questioning him, saying, "And what about us, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages." (Lk 3:14)

Next John addresses military men, probably soldiers of Herod Antipas rather than Roman or Jewish auxiliaries used in Judea for policing functions. They are men with power. They can intimidate and coerce money out of the innocent. They too must change their behavior. They must cease and desist. They are no longer to take money “by force” or “accuse falsely,” so as to blackmail, and they are to be “content with (their) wages,” which, typically, were very low. No one is asked to leave his or her jobs. Rather they are asked to act honestly and with integrity within their jobs. They are to avoid the sins of their profession.

In addition, there is an obvious concern with wealth. “Running through all these counsels,” says Milne, is the theme of “the dangerous attraction of wealth and possessions.”[12] Money, as the Apostle Paul says, is the root of all sorts of evil (1 Tim 6:10). Repentance, Milne says, “always affects a changed attitude to wealth and its uses.”[13]

What can we say about John the Baptist’s ministry and his message? “His head was not turned by popularity. He cared not who was offended by his words,” Ryle observes.[14] “Desperate diseases need strong remedies,” he continues.[15] “To be silent on the subject (of hell) is positive treachery to men’s souls.”[16]

“Let us find out our own peculiar corruptions. Let us know our own besetting sins,” urges J. C. Ryle.[17] What are we to do? We are to repent and forsake them. Let us not be content with vague expressions of “I’m sorry” or generalized admissions of regret. Let us name our sin and forsake it. Let us flee from the wrath to come. Let us flee to Christ, whose cross is our salvation, and whose Spirit is our sanctifier (vv 16,17).