Matthew Henry Commentary Matthew 3:1-6

"And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight. Now John himself had his raiment of camel`s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about the Jordan; and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." — Matthew 3:1-6 (ASV)

After Malachi, there was no prophet until John the Baptist came. He appeared first in the wilderness of Judea. This was not an uninhabited desert, but a part of the country not thickly populated, nor much enclosed. No place is so remote as to shut us out from the visits of Divine grace. The doctrine he preached was repentance: Repent ye. The word used here implies a total alteration in the mind, a change in judgment, disposition, and affections—another and a better bias of the soul.

Consider your ways, change your minds: you have thought amiss; think again, and think aright. True penitents have different thoughts of God and Christ, sin and holiness, of this world and the world to come, than they had before. The change of the mind produces a change of the way. That is gospel repentance, which flows from a sight of Christ, from a sense of His love, and from hopes of pardon and forgiveness through Him.

It is a great encouragement to us to repent; repent, for your sins shall be pardoned upon your repentance. Return to God in a way of duty, and He will, through Christ, return to you in the way of mercy. It is still as necessary to repent and humble ourselves, to prepare the way of the Lord, as it then was. There is a great deal to be done to make way for Christ into a soul, and nothing is more essential than the discovery of sin and a conviction that we cannot be saved by our own righteousness.

The way of sin and Satan is a crooked way; but to prepare a way for Christ, the paths must be made straight (Hebrews 12:13). Those whose business it is to call others to mourn for sin and to mortify it, ought themselves to live a serious life—a life of self-denial and contempt of the world. By giving others this example, John made way for Christ. Many came to John's baptism, but few kept to the profession they made. There may be many eager hearers where there are few true believers.

Curiosity, and a love for novelty and variety, may bring many to attend good preaching and to be affected for a while, who are never subject to its power. Those who received John's doctrine testified their repentance by confessing their sins. Only those are ready to receive Jesus Christ as their righteousness who are brought with sorrow and shame to own their guilt. The benefits of the kingdom of heaven, now at hand, were then sealed to them by baptism.

John washed them with water, as a sign that God would cleanse them from all their iniquities, thereby intimating that by nature and practice all were polluted and could not be admitted among the people of God unless washed from their sins in the fountain Christ was to open (Zechariah 13:1).