Matthew 3:13-17: 'Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad Him, saying, 'I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?'

John's voice had cried in the wilderness for the way of the Lord to be made ready and His paths straight.

His ministry was at the full height of his activity - he seemed to be the popular preacher of the day! It was exactly at about that time, when Jesus appeared. He had spent His earlier years in Nazareth, growing up under his parents' wings and now, the time was fully come for Him to inaugurate His work and assume His office.

When he came, His first order of business was to come, also,  to John to be baptized. 

When we consider what John's message and meaning was - that of the baptism of repentance - we immediately must ask the question of 'Why?' - Why did Jesus seek out John's baptism as His first work among the people?

His life was a sinless one, from birth to death. He 'Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth' (1 Pet 2:22), He 'knew no sin' but was the One Who was '...made to be sin for us...'. (2 Cor 5:21) 

John had seen many, many people come to him for baptism - men from all over the countryside, men sent from the Jerusalem headquarters, people from Judea, some from many of the regions around the Jordan River - scores and scores of people followed John's teaching and preaching. 

And, in the lives of many of these baptismal converts, John saw their need of repentance - he saw their sinful ways, he saw their need to change certain habits - he saw their need to change their conduct. 

But - why would Jesus come to him for baptism. Jesus, the One Who was to take away the sin of the world, the One Who was looking at him through absolutely pure and sinless eyes - why should He be in need of the baptism of repentance?

If Jesus were also sinful, as we are, then this message of the Gospel is really nothing more than a good story - is that not so?

All the value of His death, of His resurrection, and of His ascension and exaltation depends on the sinlessness of His life here among us.

What place, then, did John's baptism have in the life of Jesus?

Let us forget, just for a moment, that He is the Son of God, that He was sent by God from His eternal position to fulfill His mission of salvation, and look at Him as a man - a man who appeared before us as any other man - with a history in his birth and in his growth and development.

If Jesus were also sinful as we are, then this message of the Gospel would amount to nothing more than an interesting story - is that not so?

All the value of His death, of His resurrection, of His ascension, of His exaltation depends on the sinlessness of His life here among us - for what good does the blood of a sinful man do as an atonement for other sinful men?  - Nothing - absolutely nothing! It has no value! Only sinless, divine blood can cover and cleanse sinful man.

It is no wonder that John stopped short when he looked into the face of Jesus who was standing before him seeking to be baptized!  

'What! Will You, - the true and real 'Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world' - come for baptism to me?

You are the One Who was before me, You are the One Whose sandal straps I am unworthy to untie, You are the actual salvation of God Who stands here in front of me, You are coming to me, a sinner, for baptism!

How can I bring myself to do such a thing? 

He felt compelled to say to Him, 'I have need to be baptized of Thee and comest Thou to me?'. 

John was overcome with the consciousness of the absolute perfection and sinlessness of this Man standing before him to be baptized.

He was checked right in the middle of his work. There was no way he could lay hands on this Man, Jesus, and immerse him in the waters of the baptism of repentance? 

There was nothing in him to carry out such a task!

And, of course, John was right in feeling that way about Jesus - the baptism of repentance had no place in the life of Jesus. He had nothing to repent of, no sin to be put away.

Why, then, did Jesus submit Himself to John's baptism?

Jesus gave the answer to the question. He said, 'Suffer it now: permit it now: for thus it becometh, or it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.' (Mt 3:15)

Yes, John, this baptism has an exceptional character attached to it. You are right - it is different from all the others, but there is a special purpose for this to take place.  

Yes - there seems to be an inconsistency about this baptism of repentance - it is startling - it is strange - but just go on - just let it pass for now.   

It is right for you to act with Me and it is right for Me to act with you so that the fulfillment of righteousness by doing the revealed will of God takes place.

Yes - there is the reason! This is why Jesus came to be baptized.

This was all in line of fulfilling the righteousness outlined in the salvation plan by the Divine Counsel.

Jesus was affirming that it was God's will for John to baptize Him and John and Jesus were fulfilling that will, that divine, righteous design by going through with it.

He was to suffer, die, and rise again to redeem mankind from sin and He was doing all of this in obedience to the will of God.

This baptism was to confirm His intention to go right on through with the Divine Plan, with His assigned work.

It was to say to all of the principalities and powers in heaven and on earth that He was willing and would go through with the assigned role of suffering Servant and identify with man through and through. 

The righteous Son of God would sustain life as a man, yet do it without sin and thereby, prove Himself as 'the Lord our Righteousness'.

The Lord had prophesied that through Jeremiah, in 
Jer 23:5-6, ' Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His Name whereby He shall be called 'The Lord our Righteousness'.'   

Yes - Jesus knew His mission. The Righteous One did this to fulfill all righteousness required by the law and by the Divine will. He was about to enter into man's sinful condition, strip away man's sin from the core of man's being, and make man partaker of His own sinless righteousness through their knowledge of Him, of His Person, and of His work by entering into living fellowship with Him.

'By the knowledge of Himself shall My Servant justify many; and He shall bear their iniquities', the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, in Isa 53:11.

Jesus knew God with Whom He stood in loving fellowship. He knew the counsels of God's salvation plan and He knew the will of God to follow through to His purpose.

He knew that the fulfillment of coming down into death and coming forth from death, would be the only path for man to acquire a righteousness that pleased God for all time and eternity.

'By the knowledge of Himself, He knew He would justify many...'.

He, the Righteous One, by virtue of this knowledge of Himself, knew that He would help people, all mankind, to expunge sin and put His righteousness in its place.

'He was made to be sin so we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.'

Yes - Jesus, in entering the waters of the baptism of repentance, was symbolizing this majestic and remarkable plan of God - Christ entering into death, coming out from death, releasing man from sin, and putting into the core of man's being the wondrous workings of His righteousness.

John may have stopped short when Jesus came to him for baptism, but Jesus could not be deterred from the right start of His ministry - fulfilling all of the work, even to this symbolic act, that was in God's design of His ministry on earth.

And with this act of submitting to the baptism of John, submitting to John's ministry who is His lesser, He was putting Himself alongside all of the sinful ones He was coming to save.

He was identifying Himself - He, the Sinless One - with the sinner - with John - with us all! 

Imagine - the Son of God was taking a place right alongside of each one of us - He Who had no sin to repent of, took His place among those who had sin to repent of. 

He Who was sinless went down into the water to say with the sinner, 'I k now, I know how hard it is not to sin - I know what sin does - I know the battle - yes, I know all that.

But - I also know that I have come to pull you out of the death trap of sin - I know how to give you a clean garment of salvation unto righteousness.'

Jesus was identifying Himself with the people - He was linking Himself with man's deepest need - the need to cancel out sin that is always man's most fatal failure of life. 

When He was immersed, He was consenting to the power and the reality of sin in man's life; He was consenting to following through with the entire design set in the Divine Counsel.

He had just lived thiry years of His life on earth and knew - beyond a shadow of a doubt - what hell men faced each of its living days. 

He knew the time was come for Him to take upon Himself this load that plagued sinners continuously. He knew all about it by that time.

He knew the time was come for Him to assume His redemptive office.

This baptism was to prophecy of the death he would face one day - the death it foreshadowed under John's hand.

Jesus referred to His personal baptism only twice during His ministry.

The first was when His disciples were vying for head positions in His kingdom where He responded: 'Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?'

They were probably thinking about this baptism of John's when they replied 'We are able'.

But Jesus, of course, was looking to His death on their behalf which was only foreshadowed by John's baptism.

The other time He spoke of baptism, He said, 'I came ot cast fire upon the earth; and what will I? Oh, that it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straightened till it be accomplished.'

John baptized in water; Jesus came to baptize with fire; but He could not baptize with fire, until He Himself had been baptized in the baptism of His death.

He knew that this culminating work of His meant His death. If we were the artist of Jesus coming to John at the Jordan, we could draw the symbol of the Cross over the water for that is what it meant for Him.

He knew He could not win men by His example of a good life. He knew He could not save them by preaching. The only way was to give Himself as a ransom for many.

He knew the issue of sin. He knew these people on the banks of the Jordan were making His death necessary.

It was death in its profoundest sense.

And as they went down into the waters, He, also went with them, typifying and prophesying what He would soon pass through to fulfill all righteousness, to banish sin, to replace it with His goodness. 

By His knowledge of the need, and of the real meaning of sin, by His knowledge of the way by which men would be redeemed, by His knowledge of God's full and perfect plan of redemption, He consented to identifying with man, to commit Himself to man, and commit Himself to the purposes of God,  

This is how He began His public ministry toward God's way of saving men - the new, and living way for all of us.

And God was well pleased with Him as He sent His Spirit to light upon Him with the message: 'This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.'