Passage Read: Matthew 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:8-12
Thought
John called people to repent in preparation for the coming kingdom of God. He emphasized that repentance meant a change in life, producing the fruit of repentance. The religious leaders came for baptism, and he just about refused them. It wasn't enough for them to be religious, to look and act spiritual, or to depend on their relationship to Abraham; they needed real change of life. John only baptized with water, as if to wash away the old and dirty to reveal the clean, new man. And he expected change with nothing more. Jesus, however, would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, filling a man with God Himself who would burn away the sin and purify completely. There's no question that when Jesus baptized a new believer that that believer could live a new life in keeping with repentance. And Jesus was coming to sort the truly righteous from the wicked. Chaff is just the outer covering for the wheat, and it's unwanted, so the outward appearance of salvation is useless. Jesus is looking for the real thing, and will burn up the rest.
Application
Jesus is looking for real change in me, submission to Him as Lord and God, walking in obedience to His commands. It does me no good to claim a relationship to Him if I will not honor and obey His wishes. That's not repentance but the appearance of salvation, which is useless. In the same way, the message I bring needs to be one of repentance and producing the fruit of repentance, a life that shows submission to God and the adoption of His ways. Without that turning from the old to the new, there is no salvation.