“The Baptism of Jesus”
Luke 3:21-38
When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. – Luke 3:21
Why was Jesus baptized? That is a good question. Remember that John came with a baptism of repentance. But what did Jesus have to repent of? His way was always the right way. He needed no change of direction. He was sinless as the Scriptures record; He was the Perfect Man.
John had the same question. “I need to be baptized by You, and You are coming to me?” [Matt 3:14] But Jesus responded: “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “Then he allowed Him.”
Jesus was baptized publicly “to fulfill all righteousness.” That was His answer. Jesus [never ceasing to be God] became a man to be baptized and fulfill all righteousness. He identified with you and I [sinners]. As God He could not identify with sinners, but as a Man He could.
In fact, He became the sin offering for all mankind at the Cross of Calvary. But that could only be done through the Man Jesus. Jesus as the Perfect- Man became the Perfect Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” [2 Cor 5:21 – NIV]
And that is why Luke recorded Jesus’ lineage right after. Jesus had a lineage [as a Man], and Luke records that lineage all the way back to Adam. However, Jesus [as God] is without lineage. He is “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life,” [Heb 7:3]. His lineage as a Man, however, is listed right after His baptism [ref. Lk 3:23-28].
You see, the God Who’s Right Hand spans the universe identifies with us in the Person of Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, God relates to us, sinners, who totally miss the mark. We are sinners saved [and set apart] by His grace alone.
The key observation, though, is that the Son was baptized in water to identify with us, so that we might be baptized [in the Spirit] and identified with God. Ponder that for a moment. It is true; we can identify with God only because Jesus identified with us. And that is why He was baptized.
