“ True Believers Like Wheat ” and “ The Wicked Like Chaff ” “John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire’” (Luke 3:16–17). Let us meditate on this passage and receive its spiritual lessons: (1) When the people, who had long awaited the coming of the Messiah, began to wonder in their hearts whether John the Baptist might be the Messiah (Luke 3:15, Modern Translation ), John testified clearly that he was not the Messiah, but that the One coming after him was. (a) John 1:8 says: “He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light” ( Modern Translation : “He was not the light himself but came only to bear witness to the light”). (i) The purp...
“What then shall we say?” [Romans 9:14-29] We have already meditated on Paul's heart for the Israelites, centered on Romans 9:1-13, under the title of “Inseparable love.” We learned that because of God's inseparable love, Paul had "great sorrow" and "unceasing anguish" toward his brothers, the people of Israel, his kinsmen according to the flesh. Why did Paul have great sorrow and unceasing anguish when he thought of the Israelites? The reason was the unbelief of the Israelites who refused to believe in Jesus. Even though there were privileges that God gave only to the Israelites, they did not accept the only begotten Son as their own Savior. Therefore, Paul had great sorrow and unceasing anguish. However, in the meantime, there was something that comforted his heart. It was the word of God's covenant that could not be failed (v. 6). The core ...