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The GLORY of the King in baptism!
Last week we had made mention of the fact that the first two chapters of Matthew were used to introduce the subject of his gospel: Jesus is the promised King.
Last week we saw how the King’s coming was announced by John the Baptist.
The required response is repentance (3:2).
We really cannot overstate the importance of John the Baptist.
Some activities are so routine that we expend no conscious effort on them.
We hardly think at all when we turn on a car radio or reach for a pillow.
By contrast, we think hard when we try to navigate our way through the center of an alien city.
We think a little about other things, such as what to eat as a nighttime snack.
In that spirit, most Christians think a little about baptism,
but Matthew’s account of John’s baptism of Jesus
bids us to give baptism more sustained attention.
The MISSION OF THE GLORIOUS KING.
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
"But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”” ()
We are told that Jesus came all the way ‘from Galilee to the Jordan’ in Judea to be baptized, showing how important this was to him—necessary, as well as ‘proper’ (3:15).
Why, then, did John try to refuse his request?
John says this because he knows who Jesus is—that he is the sinless Messiah and therefore need not repent.
Jesus himself will “baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (3:11).
John protests the prospect of baptizing Jesus for three reasons.
First, John is a lesser person.
How can he, the lesser, baptize Jesus, the greater?
Second, he offers a lesser baptism.
He offers water, the symbol of purification, but Jesus offers the Holy Spirit and fire.
Fire burns away impurities.
The Spirit indwells believers and empowers them to break with sin.
Third, Jesus has no need of water baptism.
John preaches a baptism of repentance, but Jesus has not sinned and therefore need not repent.
Jesus offers forgiveness (26:28), he does not need it.
Why should John give Jesus a baptism he does not need?
Here’s Jesus’s reply in "Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Then John allowed him to be baptized.”
()
It was not because he knew Jesus was the Messiah, for shows that John only realized this afterwards.
Jesus had to live a life of perfect obedience to God in order to earn righteousness for us.
He had to obey the law for his whole life on our behalf so that the positive merits of his perfect obedience would be counted for us.
Sometimes this is called Christ’s “active obedience,” while his suffering and dying for our sins is called his “passive obedience.”
Paul says his goal is that he may be found in Christ, "...not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.”
()
It is not just moral neutrality that Paul knows he needs from Christ (that is, a clean slate with sins forgiven), but a positive moral righteousness.
And he knows that that cannot come from himself, but must come through faith in Christ.
Similarly, Paul says that Christ has been made “our righteousness” ().
And he quite explicitly says, "For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
()
This fulfilling all righteousness wasn’t for Jesus’s sake.
He had no need to live and earn this for Himself.
He had shared love and fellowship with the Father for all eternity and was in His own character eternally worthy of the Father’s good pleasure and delight.
He rather had to “fulfill all righteousness” for our sake; that is,
for the sake of the people whom he was representing as their head.
Unless he had done this for us, we would have no record of obedience by which we would merit God’s favor and merit eternal life with him.
Moreover, if Jesus had needed only sinlessness and not also a life of perfect obedience,
he could have died for us when he was a young child rather than when he was thirty-three years old.
It is no accident that the keyword ‘righteousness’ is used.
It is no accident that the keyword ‘righteousness’ is used.
Jesus was not a sinner needing to repent and be cleansed.
Nor was righteousness just a good thing to do and be seen doing.
Receiving baptism was the righteous act of a true Israelite.
The ‘now’ reminds us that the day of the Messiah had arrived and that, therefore, John must set aside his otherwise valid objection.
It was as Messiah that Jesus would undergo baptism.
The use in of the quotation from showed that he was to be regarded as the true Son of God, the true Israel.
So here he identified himself with his people and their sin, making clear that, as
God’s obedient and righteous Servant,
He would do whatever was necessary to provide a righteousness for them and for their salvation.
So I wonder.
Who’s life long record of obedience would we rather rely upon for when we stand before God? Christ’s?
or our own?
As we look through the life of Christ in Matthew’s gospel, we ought to ask ourselves, was it good enough to deserve God’s approval?
And are we willing to rely upon His record of obedience for our eternal destiny?
His mission was to secure our right standing with God, which He accomplished through His life.
The ANOINTING OF THE GLORIOUS KING.
The ANOINTING OF JESUS.
However, John was no doubt aware of a great difference between himself and his cousin, sufficient to persuade him that the roles should be reversed.
Grudem, W. A. (2004).
Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (pp.
570–571).
Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub.
House.
The ANOINTING OF JESUS.
Jesus persuaded him to go ahead with the baptism ‘now’ and so ‘fulfil all righteousness’ (3:15).
What does this mean?
The ANOINTING OF JESUS.
"When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water.
The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.”
()
Jesus was not a sinner needing to repent and be cleansed.
Nor was righteousness just a good thing to do and be seen doing.
Receiving baptism was the righteous act of a true Israelite.
The ‘now’ reminds us that the day of the Messiah had arrived and that, therefore, John must set aside his otherwise valid objection.
It was as Messiah that Jesus would undergo baptism.
The use in of the quotation from showed that he was to be regarded as the true Son of God, the true Israel.
So here he identified himself with his people and their sin, making clear that, as God’s obedient and righteous Servant, he would do whatever was necessary to provide a righteousness for them and for their salvation.
The descent of the ‘Spirit of God … like a dove’ and the ‘voice from heaven’ are clearly the consequence of His submitting to baptism.
In fact, we have here all three persons of the Trinity involved in a significant stage in the work of salvation.
Anointing with oil in the Old Testament had the double significance of setting apart and also equipping for the service of God.
The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, anointing him as God’s Servant in fulfilment of and 61:1 and endowing him with all the necessary gifts for his work (; ).
‘He saw’ in verse 16 refers to Jesus, who was thus given assurance of all this before entering on His ministry, and especially before the temptations,
but John also was assured that this was truly
the one whom he had come to herald,
the one who would baptize with the Spirit and fire (3:11; cf. ).
the one who would baptize with the Spirit and fire (3:11; cf. ).
The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus to empower him for ministry.
Life ebbs and flows.
We stumble through one day and soar through the next.
One day we can hardly tumble out of bed, the next we leap to the floor and grab a pen to write down all the answers that came while we slept.
I doubt that Jesus experienced swings like ours, but even for him, one day differed from the next.
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