There are several defining moments in the life of our Lord Jesus
Christ that deserve the deepest and most serious consideration. His
baptism at the Jordan, His temptation in the wilderness, His
transfiguration, His agony in Gethsemane and His sufferings on the cross
are the most significant points in Jesus’ earthly ministry. The baptism
and temptation are singular in their importance because of the
representative character which they portray. In order to fully
understand any subsequent act in the life of Christ the central
importance of these two inaugural events must first be discerned.
Matthew, Mark and Luke each collectively bear witness to the fact
that the wilderness temptation occurred immediately after Jesus was
baptized. His baptism was nothing less than identification with those
for whom He came to die. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance.
Jesus needed no repentance, but He underwent it to show that He was the
sin-bearing representative of His people. It was most likely also the
Messianic anointing with which His public ministry was inaugurated. This
event, for the first time in human history, led to the unfolding of the
mystery of the Trinity. There at the Jordan, the Father pronounced his
declaration of delight over the Son, as the Spirit descended upon Him.
The readers’ mind must reach back to the first manifestation of the
Spirit, where, at the creation of the world, He is said to have hovered
over the waters that the Father and Son spoke into existence. The
declaration of the Father at Jesus’ baptism was meant to carry the Son
through His entire ministry, especially through the atoning death He was
to endure on the cross. The declaration that Jesus was the Father’s
beloved Son, is put both to Jesus and to those who were present at the
baptism. Jesus was obeying the Father by undergoing a baptism of
repentance–a “repentance” that He alone, of all mankind, did not need.
As the representative of His people, Jesus was obeying what His Father
had commanded Israel to do, and was therefore well pleasing to Him. He
was, in brief, the second Adam doing all that the Father commanded His
people to do. Keep Reading...
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