Matthew 3:7 - Meaning and Application

John preached repentance because the kingdom of heaven was near, and here we see how he applied that message. Good preaching must be applied to people’s lives, and that is what John did. He spoke differently to different hearers. To many, he simply said, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near.” But when he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he knew he must speak more directly.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were two of the main Jewish groups at that time. A third group, the Essenes, is not mentioned in the Gospels because they kept apart from public life. The Pharisees were very strict about ceremonies, church power, and the traditions of the elders. The Sadducees went to the other extreme, and were little better than unbelievers, denying spirits and life after death. It is surprising that they came to John’s baptism, but curiosity may have brought them to listen, and some may even have been baptized. Still, most of them rejected John’s message, just as Jesus later said, “The tax collectors justified God, and were baptized by John, but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they were not baptized by him” (Luke 7:29-30). Many people come near to religious practices, but never come under their power.

John spoke to them with complete honesty. He addressed the crowd in a plain and searching way, as one who came not to impress them, but to reach their consciences. Though he had been educated in private, he was not timid in public. He did not fear human opinion, because he was full of the Holy Spirit and power.

He began with a strong word of warning. He did not flatter them or give them the titles they liked. He called them, “You brood of vipers.” Jesus used the same language later (Matthew 12:34; Matthew 23:33). They looked respectable, but inwardly they were poisonous and full of hatred toward everything good. They were a family of serpents, showing the same evil spirit as those before them. They boasted that they were Abraham’s children, but John showed them that they were really like the serpent’s seed, in contrast with the promise in Genesis 3:15, and like those Jesus described as children of the devil (John 8:44). Though they were enemies to one another, they were united in wrongdoing.

A wicked generation is a generation of vipers, and it should be named for what it is. Christ’s ministers should be bold enough to show sinners their true condition. John then asked, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” This showed that they were in danger of judgment. Their hearts were so hardened, the Pharisees by empty religion and the Sadducees by unbelief, that it seemed almost impossible to do them any good. His words were like saying, “What has brought you here? What fear has stirred you to seek the kingdom of heaven?”

There is a wrath to come, not only the judgment already seen in the world, but future wrath kept for later. It is every person’s great concern to flee from that wrath. It is also great mercy that God warns us so clearly. He warns through his Word, through ministers, and through conscience. Sometimes those warnings shake even people who seemed very secure in their sin and self-confidence.

John then gave them a direct call: “Produce fruit that shows repentance.” Since they were warned to flee from coming wrath, they should let that warning lead them into a holy life. Or, because they claimed to repent and had come for the baptism of repentance, they should prove that their repentance was real. Repentance lives in the heart like a root, but it is empty to claim it if no fruit appears in a changed life. True repentance means a full turning from sin and a clinging to what is good. Such fruit is fitting for repentance.

People are not worthy to be called repentant, or to enjoy repentance’s blessings, if they say they are sorry but keep on sinning. Those who profess repentance, as all baptized people do, should live like repentant sinners and never do what does not fit that calling. A repentant person should be humble, thankful for small mercies, patient under great troubles, watchful against sin and even the first steps toward it, faithful in every duty, and charitable in judging others.

John also warned them not to trust in outward privileges and use them as an excuse to avoid repentance. He said, “Do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” Human hearts often talk this way inwardly to avoid the searching power of God’s Word. Ministers should expect such hidden thoughts and deal with them before they harden the conscience. John’s words mean, “Do not suppose, do not claim, do not comfort yourselves with this idea. Do not lull yourselves to sleep with it.” God notices what people say within themselves, even when they would never say it aloud. He knows every false comfort the soul clings to.

Many hide the lie that destroys them, as if it were a secret treasure. They keep it to themselves because they are ashamed to admit it, and by doing so they remain under the devil’s influence. John first exposes their excuse: “We have Abraham as our father.” In other words, “We are not like the Gentile sinners. They may need to repent, but we are Jews, a holy nation, God’s special people. What does this warning have to do with us?” The word of God does us no good if we refuse to hear it as spoken to us.

Do not think that because you are Abraham’s children, you do not need to repent, or have nothing to repent of. Do not think that your link to Abraham, and your share in the covenant God made with him, makes you so holy that you do not need to change your mind and your way of life. Do not think that you will do well enough even if you do not repent, or that this will help you at the judgment and protect you from the coming wrath. God will not overlook your unrepentant heart just because you are Abraham’s descendants.

It is foolish to trust that good family ties will save us if we are not good ourselves. What if we came from godly ancestors, had a religious upbringing, lived in families where the fear of God was honored, and had good friends who advised us and prayed for us? None of that will help if we do not repent and live as people who keep repenting. They said, “We have Abraham as our father,” and so they thought they had the covenant privileges given to him. As his descendants, they saw themselves as children of the church, like those who said, “The temple of the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:4). Many people still stop short of heaven by resting in the honor and advantages of visible church membership.

This claim was foolish and empty. They imagined that because they were Abraham’s seed, they were the only people God had in the world. They thought that if they were cut off, God would have no church left. But John showed them how wrong that was. He said, in effect, whatever you may say to yourselves, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones. John was baptizing in the Jordan at Bethabara, “the house of passage,” where Israel had crossed over, and where Joshua had set up twelve memorial stones, one for each tribe (John 1:28; Joshua 4:20). John may have pointed to those stones, since God could make them, more than in memory alone, like the twelve tribes of Israel. Or he may have been thinking of the words in Isaiah 51:1, where Abraham is called the rock from which they were cut. The same God who brought Isaac from that hard place can do it again, for nothing is impossible with him.

Some think John may have pointed to the Gentile soldiers who were there, warning the Jews that God would build a church among the nations and give them Abraham’s blessing. In the same way, when our first parents fell, God could have let them perish and raised up another Adam and another Eve from stones. Or the point may be this, that stones themselves would be counted as Abraham’s seed before such hard, dry, barren sinners as these. This lowers the confidence of sinners in Jerusalem, but it also strengthens the hope of God’s true people. Whatever happens to the present generation, God will never be without a church in the world. If the Jews fall away, the Gentiles will be grafted in (Matthew 21:43; Romans 11:12).

Here is also a warning for the careless and secure Pharisees, religious teachers who stressed strict law-keeping, and Sadducees, a Jewish group that denied some truths, and for others who did not notice the signs of the times or the day when God visited them (Matthew 3:10). Now the kingdom of God is near, so they must wake up and feel the seriousness of their danger. Their trial was short and severe. The axe was already laid at the root of the tree, which means their time was almost up, and they were standing under judgment. God was about to deal with them more quickly than before, and judgment would begin at the house of God. Where God gives more light and more means, he allows less time. Christ said, “I am coming soon.”

If they did not respond, their doom would be severe. The axe at the root shows that God meant what he said. Every tree, no matter how high in gifts or honor, and no matter how green in outward religion and good deeds, that does not bear good fruit, the fruit that belongs with repentance, will be cut down, rejected as no true tree in God’s vineyard, and thrown into the fire of God’s wrath. That is the proper place for barren trees. If they are not fit for fruit, they are fit for fuel. This likely points to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Unlike other judgments, which only cut branches or the trunk and left the root to sprout again, this would be a total, final, and unrecoverable ruin of that people. All who remained unrepentant would perish in it. God would bring a full end, and wrath would come on them to the very last.

John also spoke about Jesus Christ, because all his preaching centered on him. Christ’s ministers do not preach themselves, but him. John first shows Christ’s dignity and how far above he is. He says, “I baptize you with water,” which is the most I can do. Sacraments do not get their power from the person who administers them. The minister can only give the sign, but it is Christ’s right to give the thing signified (1 Corinthians 3:6; 2 Kings 4:31). “He who comes after me is mightier than I.” John had real power, for he came in the spirit and power of Elijah, but Christ has more. John was truly great, even great in the sight of the Lord, and no greater man had been born of a woman, yet he counted himself unworthy even of the lowest servant’s place with Christ, not fit to carry his shoes.

John saw how mighty Christ was compared with him, and how small he himself was compared with Christ. That is a great comfort to faithful ministers. Jesus Christ is mightier than they are, and he can do for them, and through them, what they cannot do themselves. His power is made complete in their weakness. Those whom God honors are often made very humble in their own eyes. They are willing to be brought low so that Christ may be honored, to be anything or nothing, if only Christ may be all.

Christ’s coming also had a purpose: to make a clear division. John had said that after him the Lord would suddenly come and sit as a refiner, one who purifies metal by fire (Malachi 3:1-3). After Elijah’s coming, the day would come that burns like an oven (Malachi 4:1). Christ would come to separate people by the powerful work of his grace. “He will baptize you,” that is, some of you, “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” It is Christ’s special right to baptize with the Holy Spirit. He did this in the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit given to the apostles, and Christ himself applies John’s words to that gift (Acts 1:5). He also does this in the graces and comforts of the Spirit given to those who ask him (Luke 11:13; John 7:38-39; Acts 11:16).

People who are baptized with the Holy Spirit are also baptized with fire. The seven spirits of God appear as seven lamps of fire (Revelation 4:5). Fire gives light, and so the Spirit brings understanding and spiritual insight. Fire also warms, and so the Spirit makes hearts burn within them. Fire consumes, and so the Spirit of judgment, as a spirit of burning, burns up the dross of our sinful habits. Fire also makes whatever it touches like itself, and it rises upward, so the Spirit makes the soul holy and draws it toward heaven. Christ says, “I came to send fire” (Luke 12:49).

This also points to Christ’s final judgment, as in Matthew 3:12, where “his fan is in his hand.” His ability to judge rightly comes from his eternal wisdom as the Father’s Son, who sees everything in true light. His authority to judge comes from the fact that all judgment has been given to him. That fan in his hand means he will separate what is true from what is false (Jeremiah 15:7). Now he sits as a refiner, like one purifying metal.

The visible church is Christ’s threshing floor, “my threshing, and the corn of my floor” (Isaiah 21:10). A temple, which pointed ahead to the church, was built on a threshing floor. On that floor there is a mixture of wheat and chaff. True believers are like wheat, solid, useful, and valuable. Hypocrites are like chaff, light, empty, useless, and carried about by every wind. For now, good and bad people are mixed together under the same outward profession and in the same visible church.

A day is coming when the floor will be cleaned, and wheat and chaff will be separated. Some of that separation happens in this life, when God calls his people out of Babylon (Revelation 18:4). But the great winnowing day will be the last judgment. Then doctrines and works will be fully shown for what they are (1 Corinthians 3:13), and people will also be separated (Matthew 25:32, Matthew 25:33). Saints and sinners will be parted forever.

Heaven is the barn, or garner, where Jesus Christ will soon gather all his wheat, and not one grain will be lost. He will gather them as ripe fruit is gathered in. Death, like a sickle, is used to bring them home to their people. In heaven the saints are brought together and are no longer scattered. They are safe and no longer exposed. They are freed from sinful neighbors around them and sinful desires within them, and there is no chaff among them.

They are not only gathered into the barn (Matthew 13:30), but into the garner, where they are fully cleaned and made pure. Hell, by contrast, is the unquenchable fire that will burn up the chaff. That will surely be the fate and punishment of hypocrites and unbelievers, their everlasting destruction. So life and death, good and evil, are set before us here. As we are now in the field, so we will be then in the floor.