The Baptism of Jesus
- Mike Rydman
- Oct 30, 2007
The Baptism of Jesus
After a year's absence, I have again initiated reading through my Bible in a year's time. For years I read through the Scriptures each year, sometimes straight through; sometimes separating Old Testament and New Testament readings into each day's reading. This past year I gave myself a respite from this reading regimen in order to immerse myself in Paul's Letter to the Romans. I wanted to really read and reread the gospel, that the gospel of Jesus would permeate deeper into my soul. I also read a chapter of Romans each day over the past year in order to be better prepared to convey the Apostle's thoughts (and God's inspiration for those thoughts) in our recently completed sermon series.
But now, I am back to reading an Old Testament and New Testament passage each day, and I am enjoying it very much. On one hand, I can again take in the ‘whole counsel of God." And on the other hand, I can explore certain passages that pose questions or hard statements I cannot ignore. One of these questions popped up for me today.
Matthew's Gospel tells us in chapter 3 of Jesus coming to his cousin John (he of the interesting choices of clothing and diet) to be baptized. It had never really struck me to ask the question, "Why"? Why did Jesus feel it necessary to be baptized? Evidently, John the Baptist himself thought the same when he said to Jesus, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" (Matthew 3:14). John only consented to baptize Jesus after Jesus had responded to John's question with this (in verse 15): "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."
Now, I do know, going back to my early days in Sunday School that Jesus was without sin; He never did anything wrong or contrary to the holiness of God. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Hebrews 7:26 carries this same, consistent theme of the sinlessness of Jesus in saying, "For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens."
Add to this my inability to find anything in the Old Testament Law given to Moses that included the requirement of being baptized. So why was it Jesus compelled to be baptized by John in a narrow, slow-moving river?
Jesus was sent by God to do several things. He showed us the character and holiness of God the Father. He evidenced the power of God, and the great compassion of God. Jesus was and is God to us, and He allowed us to see God in more human terms. Jesus also came to be our substitute on the shameful Cross, our atoning payment for our sins, and the propitiation for our God Who is angry over sin of any kind, including our own sin.
John was baptizing people as a sign of their confessing, repenting from and renouncing their sins, (Matthew 3:6, 8, 11). These baptisms in themselves were never intended to "forgive" anyone's sins, but instead were to be a sign of identification with the opinion God has toward sin, and the sinner's need for salvation. In fact, one definition of "baptism" is "to identify with," and John's baptism was intended to draw those being baptized into identification with those eagerly awaiting the salvation promised in the coming Messiah.
So why did Jesus then need to be baptized?
Again, Jesus responded to John's question by saying, "Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." What was Jesus saying? Jesus was identifying himself completely with sinful mankind. Isaiah had prophesied that He would be numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53:12.) To be our substitute Jesus had to be connected with us; identified with us. He had no need to repent of any wrong, but He was baptized to completely identify with all humanity.
Jesus was baptized also to indicate His coming death. Water baptism is symbolic of death, and He even asked James and John if they were "able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" (Matthew 20:22). Christ's death was a baptism. He willingly entered into death for us.
Jesus was baptized also to evidence His role and office as our High Priest. The Holy Spirit came upon Him for this priestly ministry, to empower Him to "represent the people to God, and God to the people." Second Corinthians 5:21 again tells us that "...so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." In Jesus, we are given the righteousness of God. In Jesus we have a new standing before God, not on our own limited, sinful merit, but on the unlimited, holy and righteous merit of God through Jesus Christ, Himself.
Jesus' baptism resulted in the heavens opening, the Holy Spirit like a dove descending and resting on him, and God's voice declaring, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Oh, that my own identification with my Lord Jesus Christ would result in that kind of an astonishing and wonderful response from the heavenly host!