John’s baptism rejected all ideas of nationalistic or legal righteousness and required a moral-religious turning to God. He refused to assume a righteous people. Only those who repent, who manifest this repentance in changed conduct, will escape the impending judgment. It will be futile to rely on descent from Abraham as a ground of experiencing the messianic salvation. Unfruitful trees will be cut down and burned up, even though they are, according to contemporary belief, the planting of the Lord.