Why was Jesus baptized?
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and people came to it confessing their sins — so when Jesus walked from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized, John tried to stop Him. The Lord's answer, that it was fitting to "fulfill all righteousness," is the only explanation Scripture gives, and commentators place the weight of it in different places: obedience, identification with a godly few, and a pledge that pointed on to the cross.
Righteousness Means the Will of God
The phrase Jesus used is not about clearing Himself of guilt. It describes carrying out what God had appointed at that moment.
J. A. TrenchThe people had come to be baptized by John, confessing their sins; He had come fulfilling righteousness — that is, carrying out the will of God.
God's dealings had moved on from Moses to John, and the Lord honoured each in turn.
J. G. BellettHe who, as circumcised, had thoroughly honoured God in Moses, or under law, fulfilling righteousness then, would now (as God, in His ways, was moving from Moses to John) follow obediently and fulfil all righteousness — the righteousness announced by the Baptist, as well as that demanded by the lawgiver.
Standing With the Repentant, Not With Their Sin
John's baptism divided Israel. Those who came to it stepped away from the nation's condition and owned their own. Jesus joined that company without joining their guilt.
An Outline of Sound WordsJohn knew well that the holy Son of God had no need of his baptism as a baptism of repentance, but the Lord came to him to be identified with those whom God accounted righteous... He identified Himself with them, not in their sin, but in their place before God as righteous.
The choice of whom to stand beside was deliberate, and it fulfilled words written long before.
J. N. DarbyThe Lord does not identify Himself with rebellious and perverse Israel, but with the path of God, and those who were walking in it... He has now taken His place among the godly and upright though feeble sons of men.
"Us" — John Drawn In
Jesus did not simply overrule John's objection. He answered it in a way that gave John a share in the act.
The Bible TreasuryThis was indeed a gracious reply, and in it the Lord at once maintained His authority and showed His grace. There was the gentle insistence that His will must be done, while at the same time with unusual grace He linked John with Himself in that submission which godly service always involves. "It becomes us" are His words.
A Pledge Pointing to the Cross
Baptism pictures death, and the Lord Himself later spoke of His sufferings as a baptism. Writers see His going down into the Jordan as a commitment made in advance.
Leslie M. GrantIn being baptized He was identifying Himself with the many who were repenting of their sins; and He was virtually accepting the sentence of death for them, for He was not Himself under that sentence... So by His baptism He was pledging Himself to go to the cross, where the claims of righteousness would be perfectly fulfilled on their behalf.
Why This Matters for Christian Baptism
Those who came to John owned that death was what their sins deserved. What Jesus did there changed what the same waters now mean.
Frederick W. GrantJohn also baptized to death, with the baptism of repentance; death being the wages of sin, and those baptized by him confessing their sins as justly deserving death, the due of sin. But John could not yet baptize to Christ's death, for He had not died. Only in the Lord's meaningful action do we see the foreshadowing of this... But now in Christianity we come into Jordan after Christ has been in it; the death we come to is still our due, but it is His death.
Heaven's Answer
Nothing in the scene explains the baptism as clearly as what followed it. The Spirit came down and the Father spoke.
An Outline of Sound WordsLike Noah's dove that found no rest for the sole of its foot except on the ark, so the Holy Spirit found One on whom He could rest where all around was waste and ruin. Then there was "a voice from heaven, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'" The Father's eternal pleasure was in His Son, but the Son had come into the world and associated Himself with those who sought God, and the Father's pleasure was found in Him down here, and in what He had done at this time.
Summary
- Obedience. He was not confessing sin. He was doing the will of God at the point where God's dealings had moved from the law to John's preaching.
- Association. Obedience took the shape of standing beside the few in Israel who had judged themselves — sharing their place before God, never their guilt.
- Grace. That association reached even to John: "it becomes us" made the reluctant baptizer a partner in the act rather than an obstacle to it.
- Pledge. Going down into Jordan, the water of death, committed Him to the cross, where the righteousness He spoke of would be fully met for others.
- Approval. Heaven opened over the Man who had taken that low place — the Spirit resting on Him, the Father naming Him His beloved Son.