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Jesus? Baptized? !!

Mark 1:1-8 (continued)

When we think of the stated purpose of John's baptism - to symbolize true repentance and preparation for the coming Messiah, we should be quite surprised that Jesus Himself came to be baptized. We wouldn't be alone in our amazement - John was amazed too! In Matthew 3:14, he says to Jesus, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" For what would Jesus need to repent? Why would Jesus need to make this ritualistic statement of a desire to be freed from the pollution of man's rebellion?

Mark's Gospel is extremely brief at this point, but Matthew supplies a few more details. Matthew reports Jesus' answer to John: "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." In some way, Jesus would have missed fulfilling some aspect of righteousness if He were not baptized - and John evidently agreed with Him, because we read that He then went forward with the baptism.

There are many possible explanations. I'll add mine to the rest. We need to begin by looking at our own extreme need: In Adam, we all rebelled against God, and everyone of us has gone his or her own way without even a consideration of our rightful Lord and His will for us. We naturally and habitually seek only our own gain in all our thoughts and actions, and the very heart of our being is corrupt because it is godless. Against this awful backdrop, the scene is indeed hopeless!

Not only so, but then comes the Messiah to bring relief, and we are called upon to be "prepared!" We need desparately the relief that He brings, and, just as desparately, we need the preparation - we need a restoration of that relationship to our God that we lost so many centuries ago, a relationship of awe and reverence, of love and adoration, of joy and trust. Restoration of that relationship is the absolutely necessary preparation we need for the relief that Jesus brings.

Can You Repent?

Such attitudes would naturally produce a true heart-sorrow for our rebellion and sin - a true repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the preparation we need. But can any of us produce such attitudes – adequately - in our own hearts? Can any of our darkened hearts even adequately understand such attitudes? Can you or I truly repent?

Jesus Alone Can Do It!

And what if we can't? Are we to remain lost? The answer comes like the sun breaking through dark clouds at the end of a long and dreary winter! Jesus! Jesus Who IS our relief! He Who represents us in every way, He Who stands before His Father in our place, He Who willingly takes upon Himself all our inabilities, failings, and foolishness - He even repents in our place - as though He were us!!

Here Jesus comes to John, representing each and every one of us. He comes to the waters of washing, the waters that symbolize the desire every one of us should have, the desire to be rid of our sinful nature and wrong attitudes. We see Him thus saying to the Father, "Father, I repent of My people's sins. Father, I stand before You for them. Not only will I atone for all their sins, I will also enter by the Spirit into their hearts, and, little by little, I will give them that new relationship to You that You righteously demand!"

But it's still amazing! In J. S. Bach's immortal words:

O blessed Jesu, how hast Thou offended,
That such a doom on Thee has now descended? Of what misdeed hast Thou to make confession? Of what transgression?

Washing and water are of course symbolic.


Whenever I read accounts of Jesus water baptism I recall the earlier action of God the Holy Spirit when Mary visited Elizabeth her cousin and told her about her pregnancy. John leaped in His mother's womb......
That little boy must have grown up knowing his own place in God's scheme.

The wonder of it is that John was able to "grow less" as it was time for Jesus' ministry to take over from where John left off. No childish jealousy here...disciplined from his youth up. We have so much to thank John the Baptiser for.

It seemed right for Jesus to be baptised by John, symbolically the water baptism cleanses our sins...it is only a sign...
Holy Spirit Baptism...is a fire....and this was Jesus' mission to bring in the New...HE ALONE CAN BAPTISE WITH HOLY SPIRIT.

It was important for Him to allow John to baptise Him.  It showed a joining together of the Two baptisms....Water and Holy Spirit.....
God saying I am here again in My Son Jesus.....Adam you've messed up. I am giving you another chance through my second Adam...JESUS CHRIST.

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done , but according to His mercy He saved us , by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Titus 3:5-6.

Jesus humbled Himself again later didn't He when He told His disciples to wash His feet.

Thanks Pastor for all you help on this...
Very interesting. Jenny.

Mark 1:1-8 (continued)[/size]

You Shouldn't Be Surprised!

In view of what our Lord has done in being baptized, we shouldn't be surprised at what takes place next. The heavens are torn asunder, the Spirit comes upon Jesus, then the Voice of God Himself overwhelms all else to tell us that the Holy God is pleased with what His Son has done!

What A Response!

The words used here are interesting. The heavens weren't gently parted - they were "torn open!" It's as though God Himself violently opened the way for the Spirit to come in response to His Son's wonderful love and humility in repenting for His people. It's a response of overwhelming approval - not only of Jesus' baptism, but also of Jesus' entire mission as Savior.

Your Savior!

He sent the Spirit in a visible form, a form that would remind one of a dove coming down upon His Son. But it wasn't a mere symbol! Jesus was at this moment anointed as our Savior! Everything symbolized by the anointing oil in the Old Testament was fulfilled in the reality of this anointing! By choosing this visible action, God is designating and commissioning Jesus as the long expected one, the One Who could now begin His Work for you! In sending His Spirit in visible form, God is telling you to look to this Jesus as Lord and Savior!

In Old-Testament times, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed before beginning their work. Each one did some of the work of salvation - the prophet called the people to return to Jehovah, the priest offered up the atoning sacrifices that looked forward to the coming One, and the king led the people, provided for the people, and defended the people. But Jesus our Lord does all the work of salvation: He is prophet, priest, and king.

In John 1:32, John tells us that the Spirit not only came down upon Him, but He "remained upon Him." The obvious conclusion is that our Lord is ALWAYS anointed, always commissioned by the Almighty to do His gracious works. A reflection of this wonderful commissioning is given to us by Luke in the Acts, chapter 10, verse 38: ". . . how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."

The Father's Works

One important conclusions we ought to draw from this narrative is that Jesus, as a Man, was dependent upon the ever-present Spirit. As God the Son, He had no need to be dependent, but as our Representative, He had to live as we must live - in dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus never did a miracle in His own manly strength. He told us that He did only those things that he saw His Father doing (John 5:19), and He did them in dependence upon the Spirit. The result is that what He did, done as we would have to do it, can substitute for what we should have done.

What A Gift!

Next we are told that God spoke in an audible and understandable way! What a scene! A visible representation of the Spirit! Then the voice of God! Our Father wanted to make sure that this event would make a lasting impression! And see what He said! "You are My beloved Son; in You I was well pleased!" There could be no doubt after hearing THAT Voice! This Person standing upon the river bank was no other than God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity! Those Who deny a Trinity must contend with this revelation!

But the Father is doing more in this event than revealing His trinitarian nature. He is in fact responding to what His Son has just done. The tense of the verb used here is important - "...in You I was well pleased!" The past tense refers to the time when the Father chose the Son to be our Savior, the time when He chose to give "His only begotten Son, that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16). In view of Jesus' baptism and all it meant for us, God is saying, "See, this is My beloved Son! I was well pleased to send such a Savior for you, a Savior Who will even repent for you!" And He calls Him His "beloved" to let us know that it is the Father's loving purpose to send Him to us! The Extreme - For Us!

Next we see the seemingly preposterous result of God's approval: Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the desert! And in the other Gospels we read that Jesus was not only in the desert for forty days and nights, but He was fasting! Matthew tells us, "He afterward became hungry!" What a rediculous thing to say! Of course He was hungry! Even those who go on hunger strikes in our day don't go on that long. He was without food long enough to experience not only hunger, but extreme weakness.

Then we discover that there was a reason for His fasting: He was to be tried, He was to be tempted by the master of lies and temptations! Does it seem reasonable? Does it seem reasonable that one who was to be tempted and tried to the extreme should be deliberately weakened? There can be only one answer: He did it for you and I! He went to the extreme so that none could ever argue that their case was too extreme, that Jesus never experienced anything like it.

A New and Better Adam!

Do you ask how it could be for us? Keep in mind this one fact: our forefather Adam fell to the temptation of the Devil, and you and I fell with him. But he had it easy! He wasn't hungry. He wasn't weak. He was surrounded by paradise! But Jesus comes, weakened and hungry, to be tempted by far greater temptations than ever Adam was - or you were. And where you and I failed, both in Adam and in ourselves, He succeeded! Even when Satan gave Him his worst, He didn't fall!

And He's your Representative! See what Paul had to say about it: "So also it is written, 'The first man, Adam, became a living soul.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." (1 Cor. 15:45) Our Lord is the new Head of a new race, and, by His Spirit, He will keep you "from falling and present you faultless before His glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 24)!

It's no wonder that, at the end of Jesus' trial, "angels ministered to Him." The Greek for "angel" just means "messenger," and the Father sent His messengers to Jesus to minister to His bodily needs when the awful trial was over. Why? Because He had SUCCEEDED! The messengers are the evidence of God's approval of the trial. Because And because He is your Representative, His righteousness is therefore adequate for you!

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.  Bless His holy Name.