Matthew 3:1-2.
In those days comes John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judæa, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
How in those days? For not then, surely, when He was a child, and came to Nazareth, but thirty years after, John comes; as Luke also testifies. How then is it said, in those days? The Scripture is always wont to use this manner of speech, not only when it is mentioning what occurs in the time immediately after, but also of things which are to come to pass many years later. Thus also, for example, when His disciples came unto Him as He sat on the Mount of Olives, and sought to learn about His coming, and the taking of Jerusalem: and yet ye know how great is the interval between those several periods. I mean, that having spoken of the subversion of the mother city, and completed His discourse on that subject, and being about to pass to that on the consummation, he inserted, Then shall these things also come to pass; not bringing together the times by the word then, but indicating that time only in which these things were to happen. And this sort of thing he does now also, saying, In those days. For this is not put to signify the days that come immediately after, but those in which these things were to take place, which he was preparing to relate.
But why was it after thirty years, it may be said, that Jesus came unto His baptism? After this baptism He was thenceforth to do away with the law: wherefore even until this age, which admits of all sins, He continues fulfilling it all; that no one might say, that because He Himself could not fulfill it, He did it away. For neither do all passions assail us at all times; but while in the first age of life there is much thoughtlessness and timidity, in that which comes after it, pleasure is more vehement, and after this again the desire of wealth. For this cause he awaits the fullness of His adult age, and throughout it all fulfills the law, and so comes to His baptism, adding it as something which follows upon the complete keeping of all the other commandments.
To prove that this was to Him the last good work of those enjoined by the law, hear His own words: For thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Now what He says is like this: We have performed all the duties of the law, we have not transgressed so much as one commandment. Since therefore this only remains, this too must be added, and so shall we fulfill all righteousness. For He here calls by the name of righteousness the full performance of all the commandments.
- Now that on this account Christ came to His baptism, is from this evident. But wherefore was this baptism devised for Him? For that not of himself did the son of Zacharias proceed to this, but of God who moved him — this Luke also declares, when he says, The word of the Lord came unto him, that is, His commandment. And he himself too says, He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said to me, upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. Wherefore then was he sent to baptize? The Baptist again makes this also plain to us, saying, I knew Him not, but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And if this was the only cause, how says Luke, that he came into the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins? And yet it had not remission, but this gift pertained unto the baptism that was given afterwards; for in this we are buried with Him, and our old man was then crucified with Him, and before the cross there does not appear remission anywhere; for everywhere this is imputed to His blood. And Paul too says, But you are washed, but you are sanctified, not by the baptism of John, but in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. And elsewhere too he says, John verily preached a baptism of repentance, (he says not of remission,) that they should believe in Him that should come after him. For when the sacrifice was not yet offered, neither had the spirit yet come down, nor sin was put away, nor the enmity removed, nor the curse destroyed; how was remission to take place?
What means then, for the remission of sins?
The Jews were senseless, and had never any feeling of their own sins, but while they were justly accountable for the worst evils, they were justifying themselves in every respect; and this more than anything caused their destruction, and led them away from the faith. This, for example, Paul himself was laying to their charge, when he said, that they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own, had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And again: What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness; but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained unto the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works.