Jesus Kneels in Prayer in the Jordan RiverBible World
3:13Matthew 3:13
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
Then Jesus left His secluded life and work in Nazareth of Galilee and came to John at the Jordan with the gathering people to present Himself for baptism. His coming at age thirty marked the beginning of His public ministry, His inauguration and anointing for His mission as God's beloved Son and divine representative. Though wholly sinless with no guilt to confess and no need of repentance, He insisted on being immersed to fulfill all righteousness. By that act He identified Himself with sinners as the head, substitute, representative and surety of the human race, meeting in perfect human obedience all God's requirements of repentance, faith and baptism and magnifying the law rather than ending it. As He prayed after rising from the water the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove in brightness, and the Father declared Him His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased, giving the promised sign to John and the pattern of repentance, faith and baptism that every believer must follow.
Coming to the Jordan
Jesus left His secluded life and work at Nazareth in Galilee and came to the Jordan unto John, going with the gathering people who were coming there. His coming marked that the time for His public ministry to begin had arrived. His first act at that time, when He was thirty years old, was to present Himself to John for baptism. That baptism was His inauguration and anointing for His mission. His dedication was not by any human agency, for the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent publicly confirmed Him as God's beloved Son and divine representative.
John had prepared the way for Christ's first ministry and directed the people's faith away from himself toward Jesus who was to come. Though John believed Jesus was the promised One, he did not personally know Him as the Messiah. He had been told that the Messiah would seek baptism from him and that a distinct sign of divine character would then be given. By that sign he would be enabled to present Him to the world as the Lamb who takes away sin.
John recognized Jesus' purity and superiority and objected that he himself needed baptism from Jesus. Jesus gently insisted that it was fitting for them to fulfill all righteousness. John then yielded and baptized Him by immersing Him in the water. After rising from the water Jesus prayed for support and strength as He began His public work as Messiah.
The baptism in the Jordan came before His Spirit-led journey into the wilderness for forty days of fasting, temptation and victory. It also came before He attended the marriage feast at Cana, which His disciples witnessed after having seen the baptism. Report of the public manifestation at the Jordan reached Mary and renewed her hope that He was the Messiah. It joined John's mission with Jesus' mission.
Fulfilling All Righteousness
Though wholly righteous and sinless, having never committed sin, Jesus had no personal guilt to confess and no need of repentance for Himself, yet He submitted to baptism. His baptism was not a confession of personal sin but a taking of the steps He requires sinners to take in conversion.
By receiving baptism He identified Himself with sinners and with humanity on behalf of the human race, as its head, substitute, representative and surety, taking the steps required of sinners. He underwent baptism on behalf of humanity and thereby set the example for every person to follow.
His baptism fulfilled all righteousness by meeting all God's requirements in repentance, faith, and baptism, the steps of genuine conversion and the steps in grace for entering covenant relation with God. In His humanity He filled up the full measure of the law's requirements in perfect and entire obedience, giving the example of perfect conformity to the law required from Adam to the last man and honoring the ordinance. He had taken the necessary steps of repentance, conversion, and faith to fulfill all righteousness.
This fulfilling did not bring righteousness or God's law to an end, lessen its claims, or release anyone from obedience. It magnified the law and made it honorable, demonstrating its spiritual, unchanging and far-reaching character and principles to heavenly beings, unfallen worlds, and a disobedient world. He came to show perfect obedience to God's law, not to end its authority or lessen people's duty to obey it.
As humanity's substitute and surety, His perfect obedience showed that human beings, by uniting their weakness to His divine nature by living faith and partaking of His character, can keep all God's commandments. His example and work open the way for people to obey the law.
Heaven's Witness and Believers' Pattern
Coming up out of the water He knelt on the banks of the Jordan and prayed for support and strength as He began His public work as Messiah, depending on His Father as He faced the trials and suffering before Him. While He prayed the heavens were opened, showing heaven more directly accessible to man, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove of burnished gold with flashing light and the overshadowing brightness of the Father's glory, and the Father signified acceptance of the Son by declaring Him His beloved Son and the long-awaited Deliverer in whom He was well pleased. His prayer on that occasion was such as had never before entered heaven, and it reached God as shown by the opening heaven, the dove, and the Father's words.
The dove-like sign and the Father's voice were the promised token to John, confirming Jesus' sonship and divine character as Messiah and Son of God. They helped inspire faith in those who witnessed the scene, and led John to proclaim Him to the people as the Lamb who takes away the world's sin. John had been told that the Messiah would seek baptism from him and that a sign of divine character would then be given so he could present Him to the world.
In coming to the Jordan He had left the royal courts of heaven where He held the position of honor as the Son of God, the beloved of the Father. Satan was on the ground and witnessed the circumstances, hearing the majestic voice of Jehovah resounding through heaven and earth like thunder declaring This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, seeing lightnings flash from cloudless heavens and the brightness of the Father's glory overshadowing the form of Jesus and pointing Him out in the crowd with unmistakable assurance as God's acknowledged Son. This opening of the heavens with the voice of God addressing His Son was contrary to Satan's hope that God's abhorrence of sin after he led man to sin would forever separate God from man and break the link between heaven and earth, for it signified that God would unite man more fully to Himself and give power to overcome Satan's devices. The scene aroused Satan's most intense hatred and fear like a death-knell, giving him certain knowledge that unless he could overcome Christ there would thenceforth be a limitation of his power and a contesting of his empire, a benevolence and love from the Prince of Heaven in leaving heaven's inestimable value to come as a man to a world marred with sin and seared with the curse for the benefit of the fallen race that he as a selfish rebel who had lost heaven's riches, peace, holiness, joy and God's approval through rebellion could not comprehend.
In accepting Christ the Father gave a pledge to all the human family that they through Christ may also be accepted. His prayer embraces every believer, so that three great infinite powers are unitedly pledged to work in their behalf as they cooperate with them, and Christ there pledged Himself to keep all who look to Him and trust in Him with abiding faith. Through Christ the way is open for fallen people's prayers to reach God, for Christ advocates for them and presents their petitions while the Holy Spirit works within them, and through the dark shadow Satan has thrown athwart the pathway Christ has cleaved the way to the throne of the infinite God and laid hold of almighty power. All who believe in Him and obey His commandments are accepted in the Beloved, in whom is the only hope of salvation, and because of that prayer believers should expect large things from God and commit the keeping of their souls to Him as a faithful Creator. Those who intelligently and understandingly receive His Word will certainly see the salvation of God.
His baptism gives the pattern that every son and daughter of Adam who will believe in Christ as a personal Saviour must follow by taking the same requisite steps of repentance, conversion, faith, and baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, identifying with Jesus Christ and entering covenant relation with God. Those baptized are buried with Christ in baptism as an emblem of His death and raised from the water as an emblem of His resurrection to live as newborn souls with life hid with Christ in God, dead to self and seeking things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God, to be raised at the last great day, showing faith in His atonement. His life of suffering and patient endurance after baptism also serves as an example, and His mission to give humanity another trial and His victory over temptation in the wilderness give moral power through His merits to overcome temptation, including enslaving habits and perverted appetite. Baptism itself begins earnest work for God and does not mean that the work is finished.
Then Jesus left His secluded life and work in Nazareth of Galilee and came to John at the Jordan with the gathering people to present Himself for baptism. His coming at age thirty marked the beginning of His public ministry, His inauguration and anointing for His mission as God's beloved Son and divine representative. Though wholly sinless with no guilt to confess and no need of repentance, He insisted on being immersed to fulfill all righteousness. By that act He identified Himself with sinners as the head, substitute, representative and surety of the human race, meeting in perfect human obedience all God's requirements of repentance, faith and baptism and magnifying the law rather than ending it. As He prayed after rising from the water the heavens were opened, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove in brightness, and the Father declared Him His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased, giving the promised sign to John and the pattern of repentance, faith and baptism that every believer must follow.
Coming to the Jordan
Jesus left His secluded life and work at Nazareth in Galilee and came to the Jordan unto John, going with the gathering people who were coming there. His coming marked that the time for His public ministry to begin had arrived. His first act at that time, when He was thirty years old, was to present Himself to John for baptism. That baptism was His inauguration and anointing for His mission. His dedication was not by any human agency, for the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent publicly confirmed Him as God's beloved Son and divine representative.
John had prepared the way for Christ's first ministry and directed the people's faith away from himself toward Jesus who was to come. Though John believed Jesus was the promised One, he did not personally know Him as the Messiah. He had been told that the Messiah would seek baptism from him and that a distinct sign of divine character would then be given. By that sign he would be enabled to present Him to the world as the Lamb who takes away sin.
John recognized Jesus' purity and superiority and objected that he himself needed baptism from Jesus. Jesus gently insisted that it was fitting for them to fulfill all righteousness. John then yielded and baptized Him by immersing Him in the water. After rising from the water Jesus prayed for support and strength as He began His public work as Messiah.
The baptism in the Jordan came before His Spirit-led journey into the wilderness for forty days of fasting, temptation and victory. It also came before He attended the marriage feast at Cana, which His disciples witnessed after having seen the baptism. Report of the public manifestation at the Jordan reached Mary and renewed her hope that He was the Messiah. It joined John's mission with Jesus' mission.
Fulfilling All Righteousness
Though wholly righteous and sinless, having never committed sin, Jesus had no personal guilt to confess and no need of repentance for Himself, yet He submitted to baptism. His baptism was not a confession of personal sin but a taking of the steps He requires sinners to take in conversion.
By receiving baptism He identified Himself with sinners and with humanity on behalf of the human race, as its head, substitute, representative and surety, taking the steps required of sinners. He underwent baptism on behalf of humanity and thereby set the example for every person to follow.
His baptism fulfilled all righteousness by meeting all God's requirements in repentance, faith, and baptism, the steps of genuine conversion and the steps in grace for entering covenant relation with God. In His humanity He filled up the full measure of the law's requirements in perfect and entire obedience, giving the example of perfect conformity to the law required from Adam to the last man and honoring the ordinance. He had taken the necessary steps of repentance, conversion, and faith to fulfill all righteousness.
This fulfilling did not bring righteousness or God's law to an end, lessen its claims, or release anyone from obedience. It magnified the law and made it honorable, demonstrating its spiritual, unchanging and far-reaching character and principles to heavenly beings, unfallen worlds, and a disobedient world. He came to show perfect obedience to God's law, not to end its authority or lessen people's duty to obey it.
As humanity's substitute and surety, His perfect obedience showed that human beings, by uniting their weakness to His divine nature by living faith and partaking of His character, can keep all God's commandments. His example and work open the way for people to obey the law.
Heaven's Witness and Believers' Pattern
Coming up out of the water He knelt on the banks of the Jordan and prayed for support and strength as He began His public work as Messiah, depending on His Father as He faced the trials and suffering before Him. While He prayed the heavens were opened, showing heaven more directly accessible to man, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove of burnished gold with flashing light and the overshadowing brightness of the Father's glory, and the Father signified acceptance of the Son by declaring Him His beloved Son and the long-awaited Deliverer in whom He was well pleased. His prayer on that occasion was such as had never before entered heaven, and it reached God as shown by the opening heaven, the dove, and the Father's words.
The dove-like sign and the Father's voice were the promised token to John, confirming Jesus' sonship and divine character as Messiah and Son of God. They helped inspire faith in those who witnessed the scene, and led John to proclaim Him to the people as the Lamb who takes away the world's sin. John had been told that the Messiah would seek baptism from him and that a sign of divine character would then be given so he could present Him to the world.
In coming to the Jordan He had left the royal courts of heaven where He held the position of honor as the Son of God, the beloved of the Father. Satan was on the ground and witnessed the circumstances, hearing the majestic voice of Jehovah resounding through heaven and earth like thunder declaring This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, seeing lightnings flash from cloudless heavens and the brightness of the Father's glory overshadowing the form of Jesus and pointing Him out in the crowd with unmistakable assurance as God's acknowledged Son. This opening of the heavens with the voice of God addressing His Son was contrary to Satan's hope that God's abhorrence of sin after he led man to sin would forever separate God from man and break the link between heaven and earth, for it signified that God would unite man more fully to Himself and give power to overcome Satan's devices. The scene aroused Satan's most intense hatred and fear like a death-knell, giving him certain knowledge that unless he could overcome Christ there would thenceforth be a limitation of his power and a contesting of his empire, a benevolence and love from the Prince of Heaven in leaving heaven's inestimable value to come as a man to a world marred with sin and seared with the curse for the benefit of the fallen race that he as a selfish rebel who had lost heaven's riches, peace, holiness, joy and God's approval through rebellion could not comprehend.
In accepting Christ the Father gave a pledge to all the human family that they through Christ may also be accepted. His prayer embraces every believer, so that three great infinite powers are unitedly pledged to work in their behalf as they cooperate with them, and Christ there pledged Himself to keep all who look to Him and trust in Him with abiding faith. Through Christ the way is open for fallen people's prayers to reach God, for Christ advocates for them and presents their petitions while the Holy Spirit works within them, and through the dark shadow Satan has thrown athwart the pathway Christ has cleaved the way to the throne of the infinite God and laid hold of almighty power. All who believe in Him and obey His commandments are accepted in the Beloved, in whom is the only hope of salvation, and because of that prayer believers should expect large things from God and commit the keeping of their souls to Him as a faithful Creator. Those who intelligently and understandingly receive His Word will certainly see the salvation of God.
His baptism gives the pattern that every son and daughter of Adam who will believe in Christ as a personal Saviour must follow by taking the same requisite steps of repentance, conversion, faith, and baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, identifying with Jesus Christ and entering covenant relation with God. Those baptized are buried with Christ in baptism as an emblem of His death and raised from the water as an emblem of His resurrection to live as newborn souls with life hid with Christ in God, dead to self and seeking things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God, to be raised at the last great day, showing faith in His atonement. His life of suffering and patient endurance after baptism also serves as an example, and His mission to give humanity another trial and His victory over temptation in the wilderness give moral power through His merits to overcome temptation, including enslaving habits and perverted appetite. Baptism itself begins earnest work for God and does not mean that the work is finished.