Matthew 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
When Jesus comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by John, John tries to prevent Him. John preached “a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Luke 3:3) and Jesus had no sins for which He needed to repent! John, being conscious of his sins and his sinful flesh, acknowledges that he needs to be baptized by Jesus. Jesus tells the Baptist to permit it at that time—that is, during His humiliation as He earns the world’s redemption—because it is fitting for them to “fulfill all righteousness.” When Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens open. The Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove and remains on Jesus, and God the Father says from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
What does it mean that Jesus is baptized to fulfill all righteousness? Christ earns perfect righteousness for all people by His sinless, righteous life lived under God’s law. He earns the forgiveness of sins by His innocent, bitter sufferings and death. By being baptized, Jesus sanctifies baptism as the instrument for applying the forgiveness and perfect righteousness He acquires in His life and death. By His baptism, He hallows baptism as “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” for us (Titus 3:5).
Jesus’ baptism also reveals Him as the divine Son of God. God the Father testifies in an audible voice that this man Jesus is His true Son. The Holy Spirit descends and rests on Jesus, testifying to the fact that Jesus possesses the Holy Spirit not only according to His divine nature but His human nature as well. The presence of the God the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—at Jesus’ baptism also testifies that the Triune God is present in our baptism. When we are baptized with water in the name of the Triune God, God the Father applies the forgiveness and righteousness Jesus earned to us, adopts us as His beloved sons, and gives us His Holy Spirit. Being His beloved children by baptism, we are well-pleasing to God.
Let us pray: Help us, O Lord, to live in your baptismal promises each day, so that with sins forgiven and righteous in your sight, we may live righteously by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
