A survey of John the Baptist’s gospel message from the synoptic Gospels shows a mixed emphasis on both eschatology and soteriology:
God’s kingdom is coming down from the sky soon.
The world is not ready for that kingdom, so people must make it ready.
People need to repent of their sins to make the world ready for the kingdom.
People need to prove that their repentance is genuine.
Water baptism and righteous living are proofs of genuine repentance.
The Messiah (Christ) will baptise the truly repentant with the Holy Spirit.
The Messiah will destroy the unrepentant with fire.
In other words, the gospel is all about Jesus, and how he is going to restore creation by redeeming the repentant from their sins, and destroying the unrepentant on judgement day. If we read only the synoptic Gospels, however, we might assume that John expected Christ’s first coming to immediately begin with the judgement day.
Fortunately, there is another witness to John’s message. This is John’s story according the John the evangelist (the writer of the fourth Gospel):
6 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who have received him — those who believe in his name — he has given the right to become God’s children 13 — children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God. 14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory — the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. 15 John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.'” 16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known. 19 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed — he did not deny but confessed — “I am not the Christ!” 21 So they asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not!” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No!” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Tell us so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 John said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.” 24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 So they asked John, “Why then are you baptising if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptise with water. Among you stands one whom you do not recognize, 27 who is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal!” 28 These things happened in Bethany across the Jordan River where John was baptising. 29 On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’ 31 I did not recognize him, but I came baptising with water so that he could be revealed to Israel.” 32 Then John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. 33 And I did not recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining — this is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have both seen and testified that this man is the Chosen One of God.” 35 Again the next day John was standing there with two of his disciples. 36 Gazing at Jesus as he walked by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When John’s two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
Before examining the unique message about Christ found in John’s Gospel, perhaps it is best to establish that John the Evangelist does not refute or contradict the eschatological/soteriological gospel message that is indicated in the synoptics. So, let’s review each element of that message and compare it to the text in John’s Gospel.
God’s kingdom is coming down from the sky soon.
John’s message was summarised by Matthew as “Repent, because the kingdom from the sky has approached.”1 This is such a good summary of John’s message because it includes both the soteriological element (the call for repentance) and its eschatological motivation (the coming sky kingdom). For John the Baptist, these two elements are essential.
Matthew had linked that message with scripture by indicating that John preached because he was the ultimate fulfilment of the prophecies about the forerunner.2 Mark had linked John the Baptist to the prediction that the forerunner would build a road for the Messiah to take as he returned to set up God’s kingdom on earth.3 Luke indicates that the road would consist of the a revival among the Israelites initiated by repentance in expectation of their coming Messiah.4 He warned, however, that many of the Israelites would not share in that revival road, because they would not genuinely repent.
John’s Gospel summarises these statements by the following interchange:
22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Tell us so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 John said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”5 John the evangelist actually uses the term “kingdom” very sparingly in his Gospel,6 but his readers would have already been familiar with the idea of the coming kingdom. He also uses the term much more often in his Revelation.7
The world is not ready for that kingdom, so people must make it ready.
People need to repent of their sins to make the world ready for the kingdom.
People need to prove that their repentance is genuine.
Water baptism and righteous living are proofs of genuine repentance.
Neither of the synoptics gave any indication that the coming kingdom was to be entirely eschatological. Instead, they picture John the Baptist as encouraging the people of God to change their ways in order to build that revival road. There is very little in John’s Gospel about this call for change. The reason seems to be that John the evangelist wants to emphasise the fact that Jesus Christ himself is the key element in that change. This makes sense, given the fact that the synoptics were recording the history of a message about a coming Christ, but John the evangelist was reflecting back on a message about Christ after he had already appeared. In other words, in the synoptics, the call is to get your life in order because the Messiah is coming. In John, the message looks back on the appearance of Christ himself. Christ is described not as a coming king but as the promised light and Lamb of God.8
However, neither of these images of Christ is entirely eschatological. If Jesus Christ is the light come down from God, then God’s people are expected to walk in that light. If Jesus Christ is the promised Lamb, the one sacrificed in order to initiate a new covenant of righteousness, we would expect those who follow Christ to live lives appropriately changed.
So, what John does is rephrase the soteriological aspects of John’s message for a different audience: a people who are now living in the kingdom as inaugurated by the revelation of the new covenant by Christ, and by his sacrificial death on the cross. This is not to imply that the words are not those of John the Baptist. Instead, John the evangelist chose those aspects of John the Baptist’s message that best fit his purposes.
The Messiah (Christ) will baptise the truly repentant with the Holy Spirit.
The synoptic authors (particularly Luke) emphasised the Holy Spirit’s role in changing the ways of those who joined the revival.9 But it was clear that the Jesus would be the person responsible for this. Jesus would baptise those baptised in water in the substance and person of the Holy Spirit as well. The Holy Spirit’s regeneration would be simultaneously applied when the sinners repent, and what we now refer to as conversion would happen.
John the evangelist does not disagree. Instead, John fills in the story a little. He tells the story of Christ’s baptism, and details how John the Baptist witnessed this Holy Spirit descending from the sky and landing on Jesus at that time. Then, John explains “I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. 33 And I did not recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining — this is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have both seen and testified that this man is the Chosen One of God.”10
The Messiah will destroy the unrepentant with fire.
The synoptics also indicate the “bad news” part of the good news – the fact that not everyone will live forever. Many theologians insist that every human being is essentially indestructible, possessing an immortal soul that even God cannot destroy. Not so, says the gospel. Instead, the good news is that every human being is immortable – capable of being made immortal by God’s grace and our repentance. But any person who does not experience that change will be like a tree that is cut down, thrown into the fire, and burned up.11
John the evangelist sees no reason to reproduce the bad news portion of the good news in his description of John the Baptist’s ministry, but there are many indications in his Gospel that he affirmed it. For example, John describes believers as having received eternal life,12 but the alternative – those who do not believe are described as perishing.13 But – just to make sure some future generation does not try to redefine perishing as some form of negative eternal life of suffering, John clarifies the issue by saying that there are two kinds of people:
11 “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life.”14
So, what are the distinctive elements that John the evangelist adds to the presentation of the gospel by his account of John the Baptist? They can be summed up in one statement: Jesus is the Messiah. He is the “true light, who gives light to everyone”15 The “world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him.”16 Those who believe that, and receive him, he has given the right to be born again as God’s children.17
John the evangelist adds his own testimony to that of John the Baptist. He says that both of them saw the glory of the unique Word of God when that Word became flesh and took up residence among them.18 John the Baptist was adamant that he – as a prophet – could not even be compared to Christ.
John also introduced a new phrase into scriptural language which has forever changed the way we think of the Messiah. He called him the Lamb of God.19 The kingdom has approached because the Lamb has arrived. The kingdom is possible because the Lamb was slain.
Thus, the whole message of John the Baptist can be summarised with only one addition to the synoptic summary:
God’s kingdom is coming down from the sky soon.
The world is not ready for that kingdom, so people must make it ready.
People need to repent of their sins to make the world ready for the kingdom.
People need to prove that their repentance is genuine.
Water baptism and righteous living are proofs of genuine repentance.
The Messiah (Christ) will baptise the truly repentant with the Holy Spirit.
The Messiah will destroy the unrepentant with fire.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Jesus is God’s light, revealing the possibility of deliverance from sin. Jesus is God’s Lamb, making deliverance possible by sacrificing himself on the cross for sin. God’s light can be rejected, and those who reject him will live in darkness. God’s Lamb can be rejected, and if so, those who reject him will have to pay for their own sins by perishing in Gehenna.
But the good news is that God’s light can be accepted, believed in, obeyed, received. God’s Lamb can be accepted and applied by faith by those who enter into the new covenant. All these foundational gospel truths of Christianity were presented first by the forerunner, John the Baptist.
Other Articles:
- Hell No! | Part 4 – Paul and Hell
- Abraham’s Refusal
- How Conditional Immortality Succeeds
- q&a: the ascension of Christ
References
- Matthew 3:2. [↩]
- Matthew 3:3. [↩]
- Mark 1:2-3. [↩]
- Luke 3:2-15. [↩]
- John 1:22-23 NET. [↩]
- John 3:3, 5; 18:36. [↩]
- Revelation 1:6,9; 5:10; 11:15; 12:10; 16:10; 17:12. [↩]
- John 1:4,5,7,8,9,29,36. [↩]
- Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16,22. [↩]
- John 1:32-34 NET. [↩]
- Luke 3:9,17. [↩]
- John 3:15,16,36; 4:14,36; 5:24; 6:27,40,47,54,68; 10:28; [↩]
- John 3:16; 10:28. [↩]
- 1 John 5:11-12 NET. [↩]
- John 1:9. [↩]
- John 1:10. [↩]
- John 1:12. [↩]
- John 1:14. [↩]
- John 1:29,36. [↩]
About Jefferson Vann
Jefferson Vann is a teacher, Bible translator, and avid blogger. "My hope is that everyone who reads my writings will have an opportunity to understand the gospel, and will know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior." He has written books on theology and Bible commentary. You can read more of Jeff's writing at Devotions | Jefferson Vann | Commands of Christ | Learning Koine Greek Together
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