Read: Matthew 3:13-17
It is well known that the four Gospel writers each chose to highlight different aspects of Christ’s ministry. Often we find them recounting the same event in a very similar way. Occasionally, we find slight variance of expression due to the different perspective that each writer or eyewitness may have had of the event in question. These variances are not discrepancies, but are actually a part of giving us a fuller picture of the real story, and each Gospel perspective contains an angle worthy of our focus.
But one of the greatest benefits is when one author pens an entire part of the story not included by the other writers.
Though all four authors mention Jesus’ baptism and the events that surround it, Matthew’s telling of it differs from the other three Gospels in at least one significant way: he provides insight into the reason Jesus is baptized.
Initially, John was baptizing Jews in preparation for the coming Messiah. His baptisms were for the repentance of sin and admission to not being faithful followers of Yahweh. Baptism was not prescribed by the Law of God for His people, but like purification rituals practiced in the days of Moses, it symbolically represented the recognition of one’s own uncleanness and the need to be cleansed internally. Gentiles who were proselytes into Judaism were baptized to show their identification with the Hebrews in outward form.
It was surprising then, even for John himself, when the very Messiah whose coming he had prophesied and prepared for by preaching repentance came to him asking to be baptized. His attempt to prevent the baptism is entirely relatable: “I need to be baptized by You, and yet You come to me (Matthew 3:14)?” Note the incredulity in his words. The unclean, he is saying, don’t wash the clean. In the presence of Christ, people recognize their own lack of righteousness.
Jesus, however, wasn’t coming to be baptized in the way John had been baptizing. The spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world had no sin from which he needed cleansing. Nor did he need to make a declaration of faith by identifying with the proselytes converting to Judaism.
By choosing to be baptized, Jesus was demonstrating his active obedience to God the Father by doing all that the Father wills perfectly, even by being obedient to fulfill every last commandment. We know that the Father willed the sacrificial death of Jesus for the sins of the many: “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him (Isaiah 53:10).” But it was also the Father’s will that Jesus did all the works that He did during His earthly ministry.
Only Jesus has the ability to be wholly righteous, not only by not sinning, but also by submitting His own authority to the authority of the Father. Though no obedience would ultimately be required of Jesus, as He was the Lord of the universe (Colossians 1:16), His job as the last Adam was to complete the ruined work of the first Adam by doing what Adam failed to do: obey. In His obedience, He undoes the curse of sin that entered the human race through that ancient and blatant disobedience in the garden.
Jesus’ actual baptism is then recorded by all four Gospel writers as they each testified to the visual evidence of His submission to the Father by the sending of the Spirit to empower the Son to complete His ministry on earth. The Father then speaks audibly, confirming Jesus as the Davidic Messiah, the long awaited and expected. Here in Matthew’s Gospel, we see the Trinity together for the first time. Here too we know that the Father delights in the Son (Matthew 3:17), who, in the power of the Spirit, now goes about His work on earth redeeming it through His passive obedience, that is, His paying the penalty of our sin upon the cross. But Jesus also does redeeming work through His active obedience which is His obedience to the will of the Father and the keeping of His precepts, in particular, in His standing against the power of Satan’s temptations, which occurs in chapter four of Matthew’s Gospel. It’s a fascinating demonstration of Matthew’s understanding of who Christ is and His purpose in receiving baptism.
Baptism after Jesus takes on a different meaning, though believers are also demonstrating their obedience to Christ in the reception of baptism. At baptism, we are baptized into Christ (Romans 6:3-4) and into the Spirit (Romans 8:1-11), which now sets us free from the power of sin and death (accomplished by Jesus’ passive obedience) but also the law (accomplished by Jesus’ active obedience).
There are so many important implications of Jesus’ baptism, and thankfully, God provided these details through Matthew’s account of the event. Thankfully too, we have a Savior “who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).” Above all, we can gratefully acknowledge that both Christ’s active obedience and passive obedience are imputed (attributed) to us, freeing us to go forth into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!
Micah Lovell is the Editor of Songtime Publications.