AT THE BEGINNING of the gospel of John, Jesus is described in the most exalted of terms: he is the eternal Word; all things were made through him; he is the light of all mankind (John 1:1-5). Later, as Jesus teaches in the temple courts, he will tell the people that he is indeed the light of the world, but the Pharisees and others will challenge him.

Not surprisingly, a debate ensues, spiraling downward as neither side budges. Jesus insists that he is only doing and saying what his Father has taught him—and that they, in their refusal to listen, are following their father too. They claim first that Abraham is their father, and Jesus disagrees, for they don’t conduct themselves as Abraham did. Then they double down and say that their only Father is God himself. Jesus’ response is unsparing:

If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God. (John 8:42-47, NIV)

It doesn’t end well. Jesus has said that those who are challenging him are children neither of Abraham nor of God; they’re children of the devil. They then call him demon-possessed; he makes a claim to divinity; they try to stone him for blasphemy; and somehow, he slips away. Not the most successful sermon ever preached.

But of course, not everyone takes it well when they’re called children of the devil.

. . .

JOHN THE BAPTIST’S language is similarly severe. His pulpit is the wilderness surrounding the Jordan; his message is that the people need to repent and be baptized. Jews used water to ceremonially cleanse themselves from ritual uncleanness, but they did not practice baptism among themselves; that was reserved for Gentile converts to Judaism, to symbolize their being cleansed of sin. Thus, in some ways, John’s ministry of a baptism of repentance wasn’t new.

What was new, however, was his insistence that even Jews needed to repent and be baptized. Here’s what he said:

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9, NIV)

This passage is nearly identical to the one in Matthew 3:7-10 (though interestingly, there’s no parallel in Mark). Matthew tells us something that Luke does not: the crowds coming out to hear John included some Pharisees and Sadducees. It’s to them that John directs his condemnation: “You brood of vipers!”

This isn’t some random insult. John the Baptist already knows their hypocrisy, the self-righteousness for which they will also be condemned by Jesus. The Old Testament prophets had long predicted the coming wrath of God against sin. God’s people had already had an undeniable taste of it in the Babylonian exile; in a few short decades, Jerusalem would again by destroyed and the temple burned; and a final judgment still awaited, destined for some unknown time in the future.

John speaks as if that judgment was right around the corner. He uses the image of fire, a prophetic symbol of divine wrath and judgment (see, e.g., Isa 4:4; 9:19; 29:6; and especially 30:27-33). Trees that don’t produce fruit will be cut down and burned, and the ax is even now at the ready. People who don’t live the way God intended, in other words, will be judged by divine fire.

I imagine some people in the crowd wondering, “Wait—you mean, right now? Today? Tomorrow? A week from Thursday?” But that’s not the proper response. The day of God’s judgment isn’t something to put on the calendar like a dentist appointment, for the temptation would then be to hold off on repentance until the night before. Rather, John’s message of coming judgment was meant to stir people to repentance now, and to live in a fruitful and godly way consistent with that commitment.

John knows that not everyone listening to him was sincere. Again, Matthew tells us that there were Pharisees and Sadducees in the crowd; more specifically, the gospel of John tells us that priests, Levites, and Pharisees had all been sent out from Jerusalem to investigate (John 1:19-28). They weren’t there to listen to a message of repentance. Their stance was, “Who do you think you are?”—because they were there to judge whether John the Baptist even had the right to preach such a message.

Thus, in his words, John anticipates the defensive response that Jesus himself would later encounter. Some of the Jews, and particularly the Jewish leaders, assumed that they weren’t subject to God’s wrath because they were descendants of Abraham. No, John insists. You think you’re safe because you’re children of Abraham. But I’m telling you that you’re the children of vipers and need to repent.

They knew what he was saying. Vipers were poisonous snakes that would latch onto you and not let go. And the Jews in the crowd could hardly have missed the suggestion that they were children of the serpent in Genesis 3, the one who tempted Eve and got the first couple kicked out of Paradise for their own good.

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WE’LL SEE HOW the crowd responded to John’s preaching next. For now, it’s important to remember that we can’t take our standing before God for granted. It’s not enough to say we’re Christians or grew up in a Christian household. We’re not exempt from judgment just because we go to church, or read our Bibles, or pray, or tithe regularly. It is solely by the grace of God that we are saved from the fire of judgment—and it’s in gratitude for that grace that we seek to live fruitful lives.

What kind of fruit? Glad you asked. Because John has something to say on the subject.