Matthew 3:13 through 4:11 reveals how the Lord began to live in His ministry, which commenced when He was thirty years old (Luke 3:23). Christ’s ministry is not just to save sinners or to do good things but to accomplish God’s eternal economy. When He became thirty, God established Him to carry out His ministry for the purpose of accomplishing God’s eternal economy.
The end and the ultimate issue of the sixty-six books of the Bible show us the conclusion of God’s eternal economy. Genesis ends with Joseph in a coffin, but Exodus ends gloriously with the glorious God in the tabernacle. In the last two chapters of Revelation, which are the end of the entire Scriptures, is a holy city, the New Jerusalem. The Bible, especially the New Testament, has been studied, interpreted, and taught for nearly twenty centuries. We are standing on the shoulders of many who have gone before us and have seen many parts of the divine revelation. Today our interpretation of the Bible is not based upon our narrow view. It is based upon the corporate view of the Body.
When the expositors of the Bible came to the New Jerusalem, it was difficult for them to say whether the New Jerusalem was a literal city or a sign. Revelation 1:1 clearly says that Christ made His revelation known to John by signs. The Lamb, who was Christ, is a sign. The lampstands are signs. For eternity Christ in Revelation is called the Lamb, the Lamb has a wife, and the wife is the city. Revelation 21:9 speaks of the city as the wife of the Lamb. How could a city be a wife? Surely, based upon the principle of the book of Revelation, the holy city is also a sign, signifying the composition of the totality of God’s redeemed saints throughout the generations, who have been regenerated, transformed, and glorified. It is not a material, lifeless city but a corporate living person as the bride, having Christ, such a wonderful person, as her Husband. This holy city is the ultimate consummation of God’s economy.
As the first God-man, Christ lived on earth in a particular way for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy which ultimately consummates in the New Jerusalem. The very center of the four Gospels is Christ. Matthew 1:18 and 20 say that this God-man’s conception was of the Holy Spirit. The God-man was one person, but of two sources. The first source is divine, and the second source is human. He was one person of two natures—human and divine.
The section from the end of Matthew 3 through the beginning of Matthew 4 shows us how this God-man lived and ministered. This one section covers three things: Christ being baptized, Christ being anointed by God, and Christ being tempted by the devil. He was tempted by the devil, but He was led by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil, Satan. Have we ever realized that Christ’s temptation was led by the Holy Spirit? In other words, it was the Holy Spirit who put Him into the temptation of the devil. We need to see the intrinsic significance of His being baptized, anointed, and tempted.
Christ started His ministry when He became thirty years of age, the full age God required for anyone to serve Him. All the priests in the Old Testament had to be thirty years of age (Num. 4:3). If you were twenty-five, you could be only an apprentice, a learner, not a full priest. Luke 3 tells us that when Christ became thirty years of age, He came out to minister. Then He was baptized by a man, John the Baptist, anointed by God, and tempted by Satan. Man, God, and Satan were all involved at the beginning of the God-man’s ministry.
When John the Baptist came, God gave up the Mosaic law. The law was over. John the Baptist came with only one way, the way of righteousness. In Matthew 21:32 the Lord said, “John came to you in the way of righteousness.” We have to pay attention to this expression the way of righteousness. Moses came to Israel with many commandments, statutes, and ordinances. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy cover all of them. But John the Baptist did not bring anything of the law. He came only in the way of righteousness. The way of righteousness is to recognize that you are good for nothing except death and burial.
John’s preaching was the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1). He declared, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). When people repented, he would put them into the water to bury them. John baptized people with water, indicating that man in the flesh is good only for death and burial. But then the Lord Jesus came to put people into the Spirit to have life (v. 11). This is the New Testament.
Christ’s ministry commenced by His baptism (vv. 13-17). Before He carried out any part of His ministry, the first thing He did was to be baptized to fulfill the righteousness according to the way of righteousness brought in by John (v. 15; 21:32). This means that even though Israel had all the laws of Moses, they were altogether unrighteous before God. Righteousness became bankrupt among Israel. Moses’ law did not help them to be righteous, so God had a new start by sending another man by the name of John. He was different from Moses. Moses was full of culture and education, but John was uncultured and uneducated. He ate wild food and wore wild clothing. Such a one was sent by God to preach the New Testament gospel at the very beginning. He preached by telling people to repent of all their unrighteousness. No one was righteous, so they all had to repent. When they repented, John baptized them, indicating that they were good only for death and burial. After this burial, they were led to One who would come after John. This One would bury them into the Spirit to give them a new life.