What News?
Matthew 3:15 And Jesus responding to him (John the Baptist) said, “You must resign yourself at this present juncture for what is proper under such circumstances is for us to consummate righteousness in all respects.”
Isaiah 53:7 (from Acts 8) And because He had been afflicted, did not open His mouth; as a sheep upon the slaughter, He was led, and as the sacrificial he-lamb, in the presence of the sheep shearer, He became thus, not opening His mouth.
What does Isaiah 53:7 quoted in Acts 8 and Matthew 3:15 have in common? Somebody’s getting baptized at the conclusion. The big question is, what does baptism have to do with what Phillip explained to the Ethiopian? A lot had already happened between the time of Jesus’ baptism and Phillip’s message to the eunuch. While Jesus set the tone for consummating Righteousness, Phillip was able to explain a lot more, filling in the blanks that John wasn’t around for, being murdered too soon to find out.
Acts 8:35 And Phillip opening his mouth and beginning from the writing, he addressed the good news, Jesus, to him (the Ethiopian eunuch).
The Greek word for ‘good news’ or ‘gospel’ is transliterated, evangelism, in the English translations. But the term was already in use. Greco Romans in the first century specifically reserved this good news for Caesar. The New Testament writers reached over into the Empire and borrowed their language, most likely on purpose, to proclaim someone else as the good news…Jesus. Maybe not a new sheriff, but there was a new king in town.
Jesus is quoted as using the term Himself right before the big sermon: Matthew 4:23 Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the (here it is) good news of the kingdom.
What’s the good news? Jesus hadn’t died yet, so He wasn’t referring to His own death and resurrection. His good news was being proclaimed like a herald selling newspapers on the street corners in the roaring twenties. “Hear ye, hear ye, there is a new covenant, a new wine, Twenty Commands to bridge the gap of holiness. Why was this good news?
The Ten Commandments had become stale, no longer serving the purpose for which they were created: to make a holy nation separate from all the other nations around. The message of the Twenty Commands was the big news being peppered all over Galilee. Why not Jerusalem? That news would not be good, not for the Jewish rulers.
But this was the good news Phillip shared with the Ethiopian. The Twenty Commands are life-giving ordinances. Why the baptism? To consummate Righteousness in all respects. Paul solves this mystery in the letter to the Galatians 3:27 (with a dash from the letter to the Romans), that under the watery grave of immersion, the former self dies and is then implanted with all the spiritual characteristics of Christ – His very own spirit-fruit seed – and is raised to a new life, ready to produce the fruit!
Keeping strict Twenty Commands (the last bit of the great commission) consummates Righteousness in all respects. Consummated Righteousness looks like generous concern, joy, peace, clemency, virtue, goodness, benevolence, faithfulness, and self-restraint. And the bit about the lamb to the slaughter? How is this good news? Jesus remodels the message:
Matthew 16:24 “If you want to come behind Me, he renounced himself, his cross is raised, and imitate Me.”
A sheep in Jesus’ flock will stand silent before the sheep shearer as well, ready to be sacrificed on said cross to imitate Jesus. The first cross, Jesus bled on. More good news? The second cross doesn’t require blood.
Paul redefined worship by accessing all this good news: Romans 12:1 raising the cross to imitate Jesus is a living sacrifice, a spiritual act of worship. Jesus had already mentioned to the woman at the well that God desires worshipers who worship in spirit and truth; spiritual fruit-producers with the truth of the Twenty Commands. But first, baptism is necessary to consummate this sort of Righteousness.
