Luke 3:8 Commentary and Bible Study

Repentance is the key. This was the step which every one of them needed to take. As Jews, many of them felt that it was unnecessary to repent. What would they repent of? They did not see themselves great sinners. Rather they looked down on the Gentile nations and said to themselves, they do not have our advantages. They are born into a nation that is far from God. But we are the chosen nation. We have Abraham as our father – salvation by ancestry. That was never God’s intention. Ishmael was also born to Abraham, but he was cast out, and he is a type of all who are born to Abraham of the flesh, but do not have faith, do not walk in the footsteps of Abraham who loved God. The nation of Israel that came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was blessed by God in the material realm with earthly blessings, but these did not include eternal salvation. The sacrifices of the law gave the people a ceremonial cleansing from sin, but did not actually remove their guilt and justify them. That ceremonial cleansing allowed them to continue to be part of the national covenant, accepted as members of the nation of Israel in good standing under the law, but it did not give them eternal life and blessings in heaven. Israel was only a type of the church, a typical people. It is those alone who are born of God who belong to the kingdom of heaven. They should have understood that. Abraham was circumcised as an adult after he believed in God in recognition of his faith and his forgiven and justified status. His descendants were circumcised on the eighth day from birth in anticipation of their faith in God at some future point. Few in fact believed, but they were born into the nation in hope, and given all the outward privileges and instruction that were able to bring them to faith. And yet few understood this. It was preferable for them to think that they had special status before God without ever needing to seek the Lord personally, but John tells them they are relying on something that is not real, and they must come personally in repentance to God. This was not some new doctrine never heard before; it was understood by all the Old Testament saints.He puts this very bluntly when he says, ‘God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.’ They counted themselves better than others, but John says that God can take the very stones lying at your feet and turn them into children of Abraham. There are those who are children of Abraham by physical descent only, and there are those who are children of Abraham in truth because they follow in his footsteps; they believe with all their hearts as he believed. John undermines their derisory disregard for the Gentiles and their sense of superiority over them, by pointing to the bare rocks and dust of the earth out of which God formed man in the first place – of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). From these God is able to create children of Abraham. Yes, children of Abraham are precious in the sight of God, but true children, not mere physical descendants. The unrepentant are trusting in a delusion. Of course, strong words are needed to dislodge such a long-held misconception.