THE GOSPELS
In this section:
MATTHEW 19:16-22; MARK 10:17-27; LUKE 18
MATTHEW 21:28-31
MATTHEW 19:16-22; MARK 10:17-27; LUKE 18
The historical context of the passage we are examining is that Jesus is on His typical task of traveling throughout the region of Israel. He has been announcing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and He is continuing to do so. Jesus is also teaching principles of His Kingdom reign as the God-man Messiah King that He actually is. Jesus has been speaking in mysteries, exaggerations, and in metaphoric parables. Much of what He has been talking about in His pre-cross ministry has been prophetic teaching that reveals the New Covenant to come--both in its establishment, and various details concerning what it is like to live in it. In the meantime, we find that Jesus is still in the Old Covenant period in Matthew 19. At the beginning of Matthew 19, we read where Jesus just finished with teachings that we went over in previous segments that dealt with Christ's teaching going into chapter 18. After finishing His teaching, Jesus departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. The Pharisees, (which are the leadership of the strictest legalistic sect among the Jews) come to him to try to trap him with some questions on divorce. Jesus sets them straight, and then some children are brought to Him so that He can lay hands on them and pray. Jesus departs from there, and that is where we come to our passage where we read starting in verse 16,
"And someone came to Him and said, 'Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?' 17 And He said to him, 'Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.' 18 Then he said to Him, 'Which ones?' And Jesus said, 'You shall not commit murder; you shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 20 The young man said to Him, 'All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?' 21 Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.' 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property." (Matthew 19:16-22)
According to the typical NEST interpretation concerning this passage, Jesus is teaching that for anyone to be saved in New Covenant salvation, they must keep the ten commandments of the Mosaic Law (the decalogue). Believers in the NEST philosophy focus upon the first part of this section, at verse 17, where Jesus says to the rich young man "that if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments," and then into verses 18 and 19 where Jesus actually identifies only 6 commandments from the first ten commandments of the 613 statutes of the Mosaic Law.
The NEST is wrong, so we will look at the whole context to get the full picture of what Jesus is saying, and in doing so, the reason why the NEST interpretation is erroneous will become starkly evident.
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As a first consideration, this interaction is taking place under the Old Covenant, between the promised Messiah, and an Old Covenant Israelite. The Old Covenant Israelite here is a wealthy young man, who according to Luke 18:18 is also "a ruler." All Israelites, including this young ruler, were commanded to keep the Mosaic Law in all of its codes. The only problem was that keeping the commandments does not make one "good,"
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which leads to our second consideration. Our second consideration is that the young man asks,
" ... what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?" (Matthew 19:16)
According to the full context, there is no good thing that the man can, by his own self determination, do, at this time, so that He may obtain eternal life. Jesus makes this known at the outset by answering the man with the definition of what is good. Jesus makes it clear that what is good is a person. It is the personhood of God, which is Jesus, the eternal Son, as one of the three persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit as One God); God manifested in the flesh. So, Jesus says to the rich young ruler,
"Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good;" (Matthew 19:17)
Jesus is making a very important point at this time in the conversation, but since Jesus knew what was in man, Jesus knew that this conversation, and the lessons from it, were far from over. Additionally, Matthew did not record every detail. We find other nuances of this meeting in the gospel chronicles of Mark, and Luke. In Mark, we have a few more details concerning the dialogue, where Mark records,
"... a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' 18 And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.'" (Mark 10:17-18)
In these extra details, we see that the young man calls Jesus a "good teacher" when asking Jesus about what he shall do to inherit eternal life. Again, we see that Jesus is explaining that no one is good except for God alone. Additionally, Jesus is recorded, in Mark and Luke, as pointing out that this rich young ruler knows the commandments.
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This leads to a third consideration, and that is that the rich young ruler believed that he had already been keeping the particular commandments of the Old Covenant Mosaic Law that Jesus quotes, yet evidently the ruler's particular Law keeping was not making him perfect. His view of his accomplshment was not enough to earn salvation. It is the great truth that is explained in more detail after the New Covenant is established, and Paul the apostle defines the theology in more detail from God's unfolding revelations to Him. It is the New Covenant work of Christ that makes one perfect. On the other hand, working to meet the requirements of the Old Covenant Law is not able to make anyone perfect; for two reasons: The first is because nobody can keep the commandments perfectly, and secondly, keeping the commandments does not fix the root problem of original sin that is inherited from Adam.
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This leads to the fourth consideration. The fourth consideration is that the rich young ruler, though a law keeper, still lacked what would make him perfect, so Jesus tells the man what he personally needs to do to become perfect. It is a high demand that actually reflects some of the commandments Jesus already said the man must keep. Jesus resolutely makes it in three points of necessity. Jesus says,
"If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." (Matthew 19:21)
In Mark we read,
"21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, 'One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.'" (Mark 10:21)
This is what God demands. This is a very high price. This is a big price to pay for a rich young ruler. Such a demand, even under the Old Covenant, must have taken the rich young ruler completely off guard. Not only that, but remember, Jesus just told the young man what all of us who understand the great doctrine of being Once Saved In Eternal Spiritual Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, through our "good" Christ alone, recognize, and that is that "no one is good except God alone." (cf. Mark 10:18). Our lack of being good, is because we are all conceived and born in sinful corrupted flesh because of the fallen nature of humanity in Adam and Eve. All humans have inherited the bad sinful nature of Adam and Eve, and so all humans are not good. It is called the sinful nature of the flesh. This is why Paul the apostle reveals the shortcoming like this,
"I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." (Romans 7:18)
Jesus knows, Paul knows, and every Christian needs to know, that nobody born in the image of the sinful flesh of Adam and Eve is good. Even an old covenant rich young Israelite ruler who could keep all the 613 commandments of the Old Covenant Law perfectly, is not good. God alone is good. But, nevertheless, the straightforward fact of the matter is that we must be good to be saved. Anything that is not good, does not inherit the perfect eternal kingdom of heaven. Additionally, we must be perfect to be saved. Jesus knew that the rich young man must be perfect to be saved, but Jesus also knew that such perfection only comes by Him, out of Him, and through Him. So, Jesus told the young man to do three extra things:
1) sell everything,
2) give to the poor,
3) come follow Jesus.
Following Messiah in faith is the key to all of this. If this rich young Israelite man would have done this, then he would have demonstrated by his own actions, at that very moment, the actions of one of God's elect; he would have demonstrated, in that instant, that the actions of one who is effectually called. In doing so, he would have shown that he had taken the steps toward the perfection that was coming soon in the New Covenant. This does not mean that this ruler was not saved later under the New Covenant, but instant action would have demonstrated apparant Old Covenant fruit that suggests that he may persevere with the students to be saved under the New Covenant. The perfection that was needed was coming in a matter of days through Messiah's crucifixion and resurrection. It is the perfection that all of Messiah's set apart ones attain in Him, as is expressed later on in the New Covenant document of Hebrews, where we read,
"For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are set apart." (Hebrews 10:14)
The one offering is the sacrifice of the good God-man Christ Jesus. The rich young ruler, and also the rest of Israel, including Messiah's students, did not yet understand this in the historic time frame of Matthew 19. But Jehovah's New Covenant was coming soon, and once accomplished, it is the essence of perfecting people for all time, and making people once saved in eternal salvation in the crucified and resurrected Messiah. The mystery at that moment, was that this perfection comes after this dialogue between the rich young man and Messiah in His pre-cross ministry. We must not miss this vital truth; perfection only comes for anyone through Christ's execution (sacrifice), which atones and propitiates; and the resurrection, which is the triumph of life. Later we read in Hebrews,
"because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us [which are Hebrew children of God under the New Covenant] they [which are Hebrew children of God who died under the Old Covenant] would not be made perfect." (Hebrews 11:40)
This rich young Israelite ruler who was loved by Jesus (cf. Mark 10:21) really wanted to inherit eternal life. This is why he, a ruler, came and humbly kneeled before Jesus. It is why the same man leaves grieving. Something, at that point, was lacking. The man lacked something that he needed for going the next step in following Jesus in the pre-cross aspect of His kingdom. This man (though a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), is not good. He is imperfect, and the reason is because, even though a child of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, he is also a child of Adam and Eve. He is born in sin, and further, he volitionally does sin. He is sinful, and just like you, me, and everyone else, he is in desperate need of the Savior. He needs a savior even though he is a keeper of the six commandments Jesus quoted from the Law.
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This leads to the fifth consideration, which has to do with the rest of the details in the passage that the NEST leaves out. The rest of the details have to do with the verses directly after verse 22, where the young man leaves in a sorrowful state. The rest of the details are the key to the whole point. We will look at the full details so that we will not build a faulty analysis;
"23 And Jesus said to His students, 'Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'" (Matthew 19:23-24)
This is an amazing statement that is made by Jesus, because, as we are going to see in verse 26, Jesus just explained, by way of analogy, that it is "impossible" for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven by his own humanistic self efforts. In the details given in Mark, we see that Mark brings out the fact that Jesus actually gives the prophetic tense that looks to the future New Covenant, and looks to the future kingdom in what He is saying. Notice what Jesus says;
"23 ... ' How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!'" (Mark 10:23 emph. mine)
It is hard for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God in Christ's pre-cross Old Covenant ministry. It will be hard for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God in Christ's post sacrifice, and resurrection ministry of the New Covenant. In fact, it is so hard, it can not be done by our own un-good, imperfect, humanistic, self generated efforts; also called works. When we realize that whenever we want to do something on our own, and it is impossible to do it on our own, then it is indeed hard to do. To further get across the impossibility of this, Jesus gives one of His stark illustrations that leaves his students in astonished, helpless, uncertainty about what to do. Jesus looks at His students and says that it is actually easier for a giant camel to go through the tiny eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. This was a shocking statement for those students to hear. One reason why it was shocking is because in the Old Covenant period, to be rich, was considered to be a sign of God's favor of blessing. Further, this rich young man was a ruler, (cf. Luke 18:18) and evidently he was a ruler who was a pious keeper of God's Old Covenant Law. Rich people were considered to have been in good standing with God. To be a rich Israelite was to be considered to be strong proof that you had God's special blessing on your life. Thoughts along these lines were probably already running through the Israelite student's minds as they wondered about how unattainable Jesus was making salvation seem to be. If seemingly impossible for a rich young Israelite ruler who was keeping all the 10 commandments, then who can be saved? Additionally, there is a clearly apparent impossibility to this statement that Jesus made.
At this point we need to be careful to try not to break down this analogy like an engineer, and do something unnecessary like try to figure out how to get the molecules of a camel through the eye of a needle. Further, we absolutely must not attempt to explain the eye of a needle as the gate into an ancient Jewish city, or something like that, (which many sincere people believe because they have heard, or read the explanation proposed somewhere, but it actually has no historical substantiation whatsoever; see DA Carson's comments in footnote number 1 below). What we need to do is look at what the students say in response to this analogy, and we need to look at what Jesus answers back to them. When we do this, something starkly evident presses itself to the forefront of our analyzation. We read,
"25 When the students heard this, they were very astonished and said, 'Then who can be saved?' 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" (Matthew 19:25-26)
Verses 25-26 above demonstrate the importance of context in a starkly dramatic way. With these two verses, we finally have the full picture. This section demonstrates that salvation has nothing to do with anything that is possible by our own humanistic self efforts. With people, salvation is completely impossible, even when it seems like someone really wants to be saved. Messiah's point is that in the natural realm, camels do not go through the eyes of needles. In the supernatural realm, such a thing is an easy task for God to accomplish. Notice again, "When the students heard this, they were very astonished and said, 'Then who can be saved?' And looking at them Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" The students were not thinking about a gate to a city, and stripping items off of a camel in an act that makes it possible to enter through such a gate. The point is that by necessity, there must be divine intervention into the heart, and it must come from the only truly good, and truly perfect, being. The intervention comes from God, and it comes in the form of a miracle, where God, who transcends His creation, (meaning that He is not His creation) in His grace, purposely disrupts the lost sinful un-good nature of one of His creatures in a great act of cosmic rescue. He effectually calls out His creature unto eternal spiritual salvation through another miracle, which at that moment of our historic context in Matthew 19, is the soon coming accomplishment of redemption through the cross and resurrection of Christ.
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This leads us to the final consideration. In Mark, we see that Christ is said to have loved (Gk. agapao) the young Israelite ruler. Though the rich man left in the very next moment, grieved, the fact that Christ explains that it was impossible for the rich man to be saved on his own, suggests that at that moment, God had not yet made it evidentially possible, in an immediate effectual call, for the rich man to be saved. Nevertheless, the fact that Jesus loved the man, leads some, who believe in the NEST, to think that the young man was already saved when he met Jesus. It is then said that when the man left grieved, he supposedly lost his conjectured prior state of salvation. The text does not state this, nor is such a concept found anywhere in the Scriptures (as is being demonstrated in this book). What is found in the Scriptures is that those who God loves unto eternal spiritual salvation, will be saved before they die. The timing of salvation is God's business. What we know, aside from conjecture, is that at this particular point, the cross has not yet taken place, and the rich young man has not yet died. If the rich young man was, in fact, loved in such a manner as demonstrating that he was of the elect (which is to be loved unto salvation) then we surmise that he was eventually eternally spiritually saved in Christ, thus fulfilling what was impossible for man, but possible for God to accomplish. To say that the rich young man was saved already, then lost salvation, and then later died lost, is merely a specious speculation that is based upon a false definition of salvation. Further, it does not take into account that Christ's summary teaching point concerning what had just transpired had to do with the impossibility of man to attain, or secure, his own salvation. Finally, there is no one who believes in the NEST who believes that to be loved by God necessitates salvation, which is demonstrated in the way the NEST uses John 3:15-16 to suggest otherwise.
Therefore, based upon all these considerations, along with the fullness of the rest of the Scriptures, we recognize that this passage does not remotely teach that one can lose one's spiritual salvation, gain spiritual salvation through meritorious works, or keep it secure by humanistic self effort.
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FOOTNOTES:
(Footnote 1) Notice DA Carson's comments from the Expositor's Commentary,
"The camel was the biggest animal in Palestine (a similar proverb in BD {the Babylonian Talmud} [B Berakoth 55b] prefers "elephant” to "camel” because elephants were not uncommon in Babylon). Attempts to weaken this hyperbole by taking "needle," not as a sewing needle, but as a small gate through which an unladen camel could just squeeze and only on his knees are misguided. This conjecture may come from some of Jerome’s allegorizing (cf. Broadus)."--DA Carson
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MATTHEW 21:28-31
Before analyzing Matthew 21:28-31, we must first take a look at the contextual flow. Going into chapter 20, Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom reign of heaven being like a landowner. The main point in the kingdom parable is that unexpectedly, the least shall be the first, and the first shall be last, verse 16. Then, just before Jesus is about to go up into Jerusalem, at the time that we know as Palm Sunday, Jesus foretells His death and resurrection. Jesus and the students are about to journey up to the city of Jerusalem, and so Jesus lays out the details that simply do not make sense to anyone but Him and the Father. It is the great necessity that must come to pass according to God's eternal plan. Jesus says,
"18 Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up." (Matthew 20:18-19)
Jesus is in control, and Jesus is talking about the mystery of His plan to establish His New Covenant. Nevertheless, Jesus' students apparently did not understand what He was talking about, and so soon, the mother of two students began asking Jesus who would be the ones who will sit on each side of Him in His kingdom reign. Once again, Jesus explains principles of His eternal kingdom, and in so doing, He speaks of both His pre-cross Old Covenant ministry, and His New Covenant ministry that is about to unfold, saying to those true followers of Him,
"26 ... whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:26-27)
At this time, Jesus is operating as the great servant who will sacrifice Himself for those whom He loves. He will give His life as a ransom for "many." Christ will not effectually purchase "everyone," the "whole world," or "all people everywhere" on the cross in salvation, as the false doctrine of universalism asserts, but, Christ will, in fact purchase a great multitude which no one, as we read in Revelation 7:9, (see Revelation 5:9-10 for clarification of Certain Redemption) can apparently count, and He is going to do it in the greatest act of service that can be imagined. Later in His resurrection, and ascension where He sits at the right hand of the Father, He will rule and reign over His eternal spiritual Kingdom as the exalted, and glorified, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Continuing, we notice that as Jesus is approaching Jerusalem, He heals some blind people who recognize that He is, in fact, the prophesied Messiah who is the covenant son of David. Coming into chapter 21, we see that many Israelites of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus as the Son of David and the famous prophet from Nazareth of Galilee, (Matthew 21:9-11). One of the first things that Jesus did after entering Jerusalem was go to the temple and violently clear out the money changers. The Pharisees became indignant at these things, according to Matthew 21:15, and so we see the stage being set for Messiah's final rejection by the Jews, His betrayal, and His bloody execution. Yet it all had to happen. It was predetermined to happen, and Jesus knew it. Apparently Jesus left Jerusalem, and then on the next day, Jesus and His crowd returned to Jerusalem, where once again, they proceeded to the temple for more confrontations with the Pharisees, (Luke 20:1); "chief priests and the elders of the people" (Matthew 20:23). The chief priests and the elders of the people, questioned Jesus' authority, and so this is where we enter into Matthew 21:28. We find Jesus telling a parable to the chief priests and the elders of the people,
"28 But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.' 29 "And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, 'The first.' Jesus said to them, 'I tell you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you ["you" here is the chief priests and the elders of the people, verse 23, so Jesus says "tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of "you"] into the kingdom of God! (NET, also see footnote 1 below) 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not later change your minds and believe him.'" (Matthew 21:28-32)
According to the typical NEST interpretation concerning this teaching about the hard hearted Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, the man in Messiah's parable who says, "I will sir," but does not go do the will of His father, is a Christian under the New Covenant who has been saved, but decides not to be saved later on.
The NEST is wrong, and we will see why as we recognize that this is actually an affirmation of eight words that kill the false doctrine of conditional security in Christ. It is the same eight words that prove that there are people who, though religious, are actually NASAAT, which means they were, are, and will be, Never Actually Saved At Any Time. As a first consideration, Jesus is not talking about people who are saved later on under the New Covenant in His blood. That covenant event does not take place for many hours after this confrontation. No, Jesus is talking to a specific group about the same specific group. He is talking to those rejecting Pharisees about those rejecting Pharisees, and amazingly, He gives the explanation of the parable right there in the context. The reason why it is amazing, is because certain people who believe in the NEST, somehow choose not to recognize it! A careful look at the passage reveals that both sons in the parable are representative of two types of children of Abraham. Jesus describes one son as those Israelites who are being disobedient to God's Law in prostitution in the sex trade, and, who are extracting money from Israelites for pagan Rome as tax gatherers. Prostitutes and tax gatherers are represented in the parable as one son who does not really want to do the will of the father at one time, but then later on, decides to do the will of the father, and then does it. Israelite prostitutes, and tax gatherers, are highly despised by Pharisees, yet the ones of this analogy will go on before these rejecting Pharisees and will get into the kingdom of God. Though the tax gatherers and prostitutes demonstrated that they did not follow the reign of God by obeying Him in His Old Covenant Law codes, many of them, according to Messiah, in repentance, will follow God's decrees. On the other hand, the other son represents those Pharisees, those scribes, those chief priests, as elders of the people who went through the pious rituals of keeping the written Law codes, and claimed all along that they were serving Jehovah, and acting like they were wanting the Kingdom reign of Messiah. They were saying with their mouths, "Yes, we will go," but, with their actions, they demonstrated that they were lying. In fact, they had actually heard the way of righteousness about three years beforehand through John the baptist, but, they did not believe him. So, now Jesus reminds them of this fact, but, they are not believing Jesus either. At this point it is important for us to recognize that John the baptist preached to tax gatherers, prostitutes (cf. Matthew 21:32), and also to the Pharisees, whom he called a "brood of vipers," (cf. Matthew 3:7). John the baptist, preached that Messiah had arrived in Israel, and so the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel were being urged to turn to Messiah, as we read,
"7 But when he [John the baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?'" (Matthew 3:7)
The context of the warning of "the wrath to come" to the Sadducees and Pharisees is that John is quoting from Malachi that God is about to bring His wrath destruction on the sinful religious leaders of Israel, which found its consummation at the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the wiping away of the apostate Old Covenant priests in 70 AD. Remember, Jesus reminds them in chapter 21 about this prior announcement. John the baptist goes on,
"8 Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance [turning]; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham." (Matthew 21:8-9)
John the baptist, who Jesus says is Elijah in Matthew 11:14, quotes Malachi 4:5 on the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the rejecting Sadducees and Pharisees, and along with it, the coming blessing of those saved through His New Covenant. God warned through Malachi in the prophecy 300 years beforehand to apostate Jerusalem,
"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Jehovah." (Malachi 4:5)
God was talking about John the baptist as Elijah. Elijah had been taken into heaven long before Malachi was written. Further, John the baptist does not come until long after Malachi was written. He does not come along until after the 300 year period between the last book of the Old Testament section, and the Gospel chronicle time period of the coming of Christ. This is both fascinating, and pertinent, because according to Christ,
"14 And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come." (Matthew 11:14)
Jesus does not mean that John the baptist is the exact same man who ascended into heaven in the Old Covenant. Jesus means that John the baptist was Elijah of Malachi 4 who came in the spirit and power of Elijah, as we read the clarification in Luke where John the baptist is described by Jesus,
"It is he [John the baptist] who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:17)
With this in mind, we recognize that John the baptist continues preaching "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17) what was said he would preach three hundred years prior through the prophecy of Malachi. John the baptist, as Elijah, (cf. Matthew 11:14) puts it straight and hard as he drives the arrow deeper. He cries out to Israel,
"10 The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 As for me [John], I baptize you with water for repentance [for turning], but He [Messiah of the Davidic promise] who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 21:10-12)
The baptism with the Holy Spirit that John is preaching about, does not come until three more years, at the establishment of the New Covenant when the Pharisees that Jesus is being confronted by in Matthew 21 deliver Him up to be crucified, and then He is resurrected. John, as Elijah, that Jesus says he is, is announcing what he was prophesied to announce in Malachi 4:1,
"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says Jehovah of hosts, 'so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.'" (Malachi 4:1)
Additionally, Jesus does not thoroughly clear His threshing floor at the outset of His New Covenant. At the end of one generation, He gathers His wheat into His barn, and He burns up all the chaff that remains of the Old Covenant, its obsolete trappings, and those apostate Jewish rejectors who propped up the obsolete Old Covenant system during the first generation of the resurrected Messiah's New Covenant reign. By His sovereign hand, in His godhead, He completely annihilates Jerusalem in exactly 40 years--one generation after He started his pre-cross ministry at the age of 30. This is what He said He would do, and He did it. But there are further details that we must see in John the baptist's preaching. It is preaching that tax gatherers, prostitutes, and Pharisees, all heard,
"29 The next day he [John the baptist] saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)
This aspect of John the baptist's sermon was also fulfilled in the rejection and crucifixion of Christ, in the establishment of the New Covenant in His blood, and in His resurrection. It is what Paul meant when he declared, to the Ephesians, the importance of the necessity for Christ to be crucified,
"7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." (Ephesians 1:7)
It is what Paul meant when he explained to the Corinthians the importance of the necessity that Christ raise from the dead,
"if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins." (1 Corinthians 15:17)
The point is that most of the Pharisees did not believe what John the baptist was announcing, but on the other hand, the clearly law breaking prostitutes, and tax gatherers who previously showed no interest in following the rule, and, authority of God's kingdom reign in His Old Covenant, did believe John the baptist. Many of them, as lost sheep of the house of Israel, began turning back to God in repentance, and yet, the Pharisees, even after witnessing this great repentance, did not follow suit in their own repentance to Messiah. In fact, they not only reject their promised Messiah in His rightful rule and reign as King, but they even work to try and keep other Israelites out of Messiah's kingdom, as we read Jesus stating when He says,
"13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." (Matthew 23:13)
Messiah is about to be delivered up by these same rejecting, hard hearted Israelites as a ransom for many, and among that many, that are of the great Israelite harvest of the first generation, there will be, (to the surprise of the religious Pharisees) both tax gatherers, and prostitutes. Consequently, most of the Pharisees continued to reject Messiah all the way up to their horrifying dooms in their last breaths, but a few entered the kingdom of God as per Christ's sovereign and effectual call of His truly elect ones.
Therefore, this passage does not remotely suggest that one can lose one's eternal spiritual salvation in the New Covenant, gain eternal spiritual salvation by meritorious effort, or maintain keeping eternal spiritual salvation secure by meritorious effort.
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FOOTNOTES:
(Footnote 1) "For the first time Jesus openly makes a personal application of one of his parables to the Jewish leaders. "I tell you the truth" (v.31; see on 5:16), he solemnly begins, ""the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom of God--and you do not"--for so the verb proago must be translated here, rather than "are entering ... ahead of you" (NIV; cf. Bonnard; Jeremias, Parables, p. 101, n. 54; TDNT, 8:105, n. 158; BDF, par. 245a [3]).--DA Carson, ibid.
