The Baptism of Jesus
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
The situation was entirely different when Jesus came to John to be baptized. John had refused to baptize those Pharisees and Sadducees because they showed no fruits of repentance. He was reluctant to baptize Jesus because Jesus had no sins to confess, nothing of which to repent. We cannot say how well John knew Jesus at this time. He certainly knew of Jesus. Their mothers were relatives, and Jesus’ mother, Mary, had visited John’s mother, Elizabeth, before John and Jesus were born. There is no biblical record of any contact between Jesus and John during the next 30 years. John tells us, “I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33,34).
Jesus did not disagree with John’s statement about his need for Baptism and forgiveness from Jesus. It was true that John was a sinner and Jesus was without sin. But Jesus told John to baptize him anyway. The only explanation he gave was, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” But what did he mean by that? It was not a legal requirement like Jesus’ keeping of the Ten Commandments, because Baptism is gospel, not law. Jesus was simply saying that this was what the Father wanted them to do, and that was enough explanation for John.
Jesus’ baptism identified him with the world of sinners. Paul describes Christ’s substitution for sinners by telling us, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He certainly placed his stamp of approval on John’s baptism and indicated that he also wants us to receive the blessings of Baptism. Jesus’ baptism and the testimony of the Father and of the Holy Spirit publicly identified Jesus as the Lamb of God, who had come to take away the sin of the world.
The baptism itself is not described. Matthew simply states that it took place. The manner in which John applied the water to Jesus is not indicated, and this again tells us that we are not limited to any one particular method of applying the water when we baptize today. Jesus’ coming “up out of the water” simply means that he stepped up onto the bank of the river and does not give us a clear indication of exactly how John applied the water to Jesus in his baptism. The opening of the heavens after Jesus’ baptism was much more than the parting of clouds so that the sun could shine through. It was more like the experience of the
prophet Ezekiel: “The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1). Or we think of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. “‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” (Acts 7:56). We cannot say whether only Jesus saw heaven open or whether John saw it too.
But John did see the Holy Spirit come down on Jesus in the form of a dove (John 1:32). Martin Luther believed this was a natural dove used by the Holy Spirit, but that is more than the Bible actually states. All we can say for sure is that the Holy Spirit assumed the visible form of a dove. This may be comparable to the occasions when angels appeared in human form. They did not become human beings or borrow the bodies of human beings; they simply assumed that visible form. They appeared and disappeared.
The bodily form of a dove was appropriate for the Holy Spirit, for the dove is used in Scripture as a symbol of innocence and peace. This dove reminds us of the dove Noah sent out from the ark. That dove returned carrying an olive branch, a symbol of peace. Peter calls the waters of the flood a symbol of Baptism (1 Peter 3:21). The church father Chrysostom made the observation that the dove (Holy Spirit) coming down upon Christ symbolized that the deluge of God’s wrath over sin had ceased and peace was being extended to man. May every dove we see bring such comforting thoughts to our minds.
Jesus was not without the Holy Spirit before this. After all, he had been conceived by the Holy Spirit before he was born of the virgin Mary. At this time the Holy Spirit bestowed upon Jesus the special gifts he would need to carry out the responsibilities of his office as the Messiah. The prophet Isaiah had foretold what these gifts would include: “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:2). In Isaiah 61:1 Christ speaks to us personally: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” In the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus quoted these words and applied them to himself, stating, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Then the Father spoke from heaven, acknowledging Jesus as his beloved Son. About three years later, near the end of Jesus’ ministry, the Father spoke similar words from heaven on the Mount of Transfiguration (17:5). The Father was pleased with everything his beloved Son did and endured for our salvation. So we may be certain that we are reconciled to God and are heirs of everlasting life for Jesus’ sake.
Jesus’ baptism is one of the occasions when God revealed himself as triune. It is true that the Bible never uses the words triune or Trinity, but the Christian church has long and properly used them to express what the only true and living God has revealed about himself in the Scriptures, namely, that he exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three distinct persons are one God. They share equally in all the works and all the attributes of God. Nevertheless, we properly speak of creation as the special work of the Father, redemption as the special work of the Son, and sanctification as the special
work of the Holy Spirit. In these truths all Christians agree.