He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Luke 3:7)
Worldlings love to challenge God’s right to be exclusive even though (by very nature of being the only true God) there is no one else in the club! God alone created the heavens and the earth, so he alone has the right to claim them as his.
God being God not only means there is no other. It also means that he alone is the measure of what is right in his creation. His goodness is the plumbline of what is good, and that same goodness calls what is off-plumb bad.
The thing I keep seeing is the difference in people in relation to calling out their sin. I don’t mean pointing at someone and publicizing their secret sins. I mean when we read God’s word about sin, we see our sins on the page, we know God is calling us out on them, and… well… which group of people are we in?
Not which group of people are we in, the ones who do X-sin or the ones who do Y-sin? But which group are we in, the ones who humbly admit to our sin or the ones who pridefully deny the sinfulness of our sin?
When I first attached to the scripture about God’s kindness leading us repentance, I was mesmerized by the glory of that picture. Haters deny sin so that people remain under eternal condemnation. God keeps confronting our sins in kindness because he wants to bring us to repentance so we can be forgiven.
What was the result of John the Baptist calling people out about their sins in such a direct way? “And the crowds asked him, ‘What then shall we do?’” (Luke 3:10). Tax collectors and soldiers were included in this crowd of people coming to be baptized by John. They not only were repenting, but also wondering how they were to live in light of God’s kindness about their sin.
Luke then summarizes John’s ministry, “So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people” (vs 18). How is it good news for someone to call us a “brood of vipers”? Because we are being called to a “repentance” that is for “the forgiveness of sins”. And when someone wants us to be forgiven so he can adopt us as his children, doing whatever it takes to destroy our self-justification and humble us to repent is the greatest kindness in the whole wide world.
© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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