Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 3:13
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
13. Then cometh Jesus to be baptized of him ] Jesus who is the pattern of the New life submits to the baptism which is a symbol of the New life ( Metanoia). He who has power to forgive sins seems to seek through baptism forgiveness of sins. But in truth by submitting to baptism Jesus shows the true efficacy of the rite. He who is most truly man declares what man may become through baptism clothed and endued with the Holy Spirit, and touched by the fire of zeal and purity.
There is no hint in the gospel narrative of that beautiful companionship and intercourse in childhood between Jesus and the Baptist with which Art has familiarized us. See Joh 1:31, a passage which tends to an opposite conclusion.
to Jordan ] Probably at “non near to Salim” (Joh 3:23), a day’s journey from Nazareth, “close to the passage of the Jordan near Succoth and far away from that near Jericho.” Sinai and Palestine, p. 311.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13 17. Jesus comes to be baptized of John. Mar 1:9-11; Luk 3:21-22; Joh 1:32-34
St Luke adds two particulars: that the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus (1) “in a bodily shape,” and (2) “while He was praying.”
In the fourth gospel, where John Baptist’s own words are quoted, the act of baptism is not named; a touch of the Baptist’s characteristic humility.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then cometh Jesus – The Saviour is now introduced as about to enter on his work, or as about to be solemnly set apart to his great office of Messiah and Redeemer. The expression cometh implies that the act was voluntary on his part; that he went for that purpose and for no other. He left the part of Galilee – Nazareth – where he had lived for nearly 30 years, and went to the vicinity of the Jordan, where John was baptizing the people in great numbers, that he might be set apart to his work. The occasion was doubtless chosen in order that it might be as public and solemn as possible. It is to be remembered, also, that it was the main purpose of Johns appointment to introduce the Messiah to the world, Mat 3:3.
To be baptized of him – By him. Baptism was not in his case a symbol of personal reformation and repentance, for he was sinless; but it was a solemn rite by which he was set apart to his great office. It is true, also, that although he was personally holy, and that the baptism in his case had a different signification, in this respect, from that which is implied when it is administered now, yet that even in his case the great idea always implied in the ordinance of baptism had a place; for it was a symbol of holiness or purity in that great system of religion which he was about to set up in the world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 3:13
Baptized of him.
The baptism of our Saviour
I. The circumstance of title.
1. Seasonable. Men were at this time being baptized and confessing their sins. People were expecting the Christ (Joh 1:19). Let man be diminished, but let God arise. The truth is revealed that the servant may not rob the Master of His honour.
2. This adverb of time points to the age of Christ. Mature age. He taught the need of well-seasoned timber to make pillars for the Church of God. As Christ attained perfect age in nature, His servants should be perfect in grace and glory.
II. After what manner he would be baptized.
1. Upon what ground did John begin this new ceremony: It betokened the end of the old ceremonies. Superstitions turned into a blessing. Heathen used washings. Turned into an immortal laver.
2. The dignity of Johns baptism. It was the baptism of repentance. It did not lack grace. But Christs ministry is better than mans.
Distinctions between the two baptisms.
1. John baptized in the name of the Messiah. Christ bade His disciples use another form.
2. They differ in extent-John baptized in the regions of Judaea, Christ bade His disciples to except none.
3. Christs baptism transcends Johns in the variety of persons.
4. Christs baptism is more operative since He has gone to His Father.
5. Johns baptism was good, Christs is necessary to the end of the world. (Hacket.)
1. John was jealous of our Saviours honour.
2. He confesses his vileness and inferiority. (Hacket.)
Faith is nothing else but a long-continued astonishment, which knows not how to utter itself, because the Lord hath done such marvellous things for us. (Hacket.)
Christ baptized
What so Divine an instigation to press us all to come unto the flood of living waters, to thirst for that immortal spring of grace than this, that the Son of God Himself did not decline to be partaker of the baptism of repentance. To make the sacrament virtuous and powerful for them that should take it after Him. That by His example, to undergo a new rite and ordinance, men might be drawn from old customs to newness of life. (Hacket.)
The baptism of Christ no degradation
As Caesar did not lessen his own dignity, because he would both command as General, and yet work in the trenches like the meanest pioneer, Dux confilio, miles exemplo; and as Helen, the mother of Constantine, was not under the honour of a princess, because she would dress the blains and ulcers of poor cripples in the hospital; so the mighty Son of God was not diminished in His glory, because He put Himself into the rank of abject ones by His own yielding and accord, not by compulsive necessity. (Hacket.)
I. We should sincerely feel the want of a divine redeemer. When Jesus demands baptism of John, the latter -publicly declares: I have need to be baptized of Thee.
II. We should acknowledge the wise counsels of God.
III. We should admire the grandeur and majesty with which jesus was encompassed. We beheld our Saviour encompassed by a glory which transcends the most enchanting pageantry of nature. (From the Danish of Dr. Balle.)
The baptism of Jesus by John
I. The office of John was to awaken the conscience of mankind.
II. John had a ministry of separation.
III. John was a forerunner in pointing to Christ.
IV. John was to identify Christ. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
The significance of our Saviours baptism
We can only allude to meanings which have been discovered in it; all of them, it may be, parts of its largest import. It was to ratify the mission of John; it was to purify the water of baptism. Christ was ceremonially unclean, as representing sinners. St. Bernard sees in the baptism the exhibition of perfect humility; and Meyer, of perfect obedience. Still others look upon the baptism as an inaugural announcement, a formal identification, of His Person as the Messiah-an inauguration of His Messianic ministry. It is important to notice certain respects in which the baptism was unlike that of the people.
1. It was at the close of the day. He waited until all the penitents of that day had been baptized; in this, as in all else involving sin, separate from sinners.
2. John did not treat Christ as a sinner. He gave Him the remarkable testimony, I have need to be baptized of Thee.
3. At Jesus baptism there was no confession of sin. In the place of confession was a prayer.
4. The promised token, the descent of the Spirit as a dove, which abode upon Him, while a voice from heaven said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Christ, who now was about thirty years of age, Luk 3:23, cometh from Nazareth, a city in Galilee, where Joseph lived, Luk 2:4, and whither he went with, Joseph and Mary, Luk 2:39, and again after he had disputed with the doctors at twelve years of age, Luk 2:46; cometh from thence to Jordan, the great river, where John was baptizing disciples, offering himself to be baptized of him. He showed his humility by going to him, and also made the action public. If any ask to what end Christ, who had no sin, was baptized, himself gives us an account, Mat 3:15, to fulfil all righteousness (of which more in its place). He thus owned Johns ministry and mission to baptize, and confirmed the institution of baptism by water, and offered himself to that testimony which he knew his Father would give of him. He thus initiated himself in the Christian church, as by circumcision he had made himself of the Jewish church, and so was the Head both of the believing Jews and Gentiles. He was not (as others) baptized in testimony of his repentance, or for the remission of sins, for he was without sin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Then cometh Jesus from Galileeto Jordan unto John, to be baptized of himMoses rashlyanticipated the divine call to deliver his people, and for this wasfain to flee the house of bondage, and wait in obscurity for fortyyears more (Ex 2:11, c.). Not sothis greater than Moses. All but thirty years had He now spent inprivacy at Nazareth, gradually ripening for His public work, andcalmly awaiting the time appointed of the Father. Now it had arrivedand this movement from Galilee to Jordan is the step, doubtless, ofdeepest interest to all heaven since that first one which brought Himinto the world. Luke (Lu 3:21)has this important addition”Now when all the people werebaptized, it came to pass, that Jesus being baptized,”&c.implying that Jesus waited till all other applicants forbaptism that day had been disposed of, ere He stepped forward, thatHe might not seem to be merely one of the crowd. Thus, as He rodeinto Jerusalem upon an ass “whereon yet never man sat” (Lu19:30), and lay in a sepulchre “wherein was never man yetlaid” (Joh 19:41), so inHis baptism, too. He would be “separate from sinners.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then cometh Jesus,…. That is, when John had been some time preaching the doctrine of repentance, and administering the ordinance of baptism; for which, time must be allowed, since he went into all the country about Jordan, and preached unto them, and baptized such large numbers: very probably it might be six months from his first entrance on his ministry; since there was this difference in their age, and so might be in their baptism and preaching. Now when John had given notice of the Messiah’s coming, and so had prepared his way; had declared the excellency of his person, the nature of his work, and office, and had raised in the people an expectation of him,
then cometh Jesus from Galilee; from Nazareth of Galilee, Mr 1:9 where he had lived for many years, as the Jews q themselves own; in great obscurity, in all obedience to God, in subjection to his parents, exercising a conscience void of offence towards God and man, and employing his time in devotion and business: from hence he came to Jordan to John, who was baptizing there; which shows the great humility of Christ, who comes to John, and does not send for him, though John was his servant, and he was his Lord and Master; and also his cheerful and voluntary subjection to the ordinance of baptism, since of himself, of his own accord, he took this long and fatiguing journey; for Nazareth, according to David de Pomis r, was three days journey from Jerusalem, though somewhat nearer Jordan; the end and design of his coming was
to be baptized of him. It may reasonably be inquired what should be Christ’s view in desiring to be baptized; it could not be to take away original or actual sin, since he had neither; nor has baptism any such efficacy to do this, in those who have either or both: but, it was to show his approbation of John’s baptism, and to bear a testimony of it, that it was from heaven; and also that he himself might receive a testimony both from heaven, and from John, that he was the Son of God and true Messiah, before he entered upon his public ministry, into which he was in some measure initiated and installed hereby; and moreover, to set an example to his followers, and thereby engage their attention and subjection to this ordinance; and, in a word, as he himself says, to fulfil all righteousness.
q Toldos Jesu, p. 6. r Tzemach David, fol. 141. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Baptism of Jesus. |
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13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. 14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Our Lord Jesus, from his childhood till now, when he was almost thirty years of age, had lain hid in Galilee, as it were, buried alive; but now, after a long and dark night, behold, the Sun of righteousness rises in glory. The fulness of time was come that Christ should enter upon his prophetical office; and he chooses to do it, not at Jerusalem (though it is probable that he went thither at the three yearly feasts, as others did), but there where John was baptizing; for to him resorted those who waited for the consolation of Israel, to whom alone he would be welcome. John the Baptist was six months older than our Saviour, and it is supposed that he began to preach and baptize about six months before Christ appeared; so long he was employed in preparing his way, in the region round about Jordan; and more was done towards it in these six months than had been done in several ages before. Christ’s coming from Galilee to Jordan, to be baptized, teaches us not the shrink from pain and toil, that we may have an opportunity of drawing nigh to God in ordinance. We should be willing to go far, rather than come short of communion with God. Those who will find must seek.
Now in this story of Christ’s baptism we may observe,
I. How hardly John was persuaded to admit of it, Mat 3:14; Mat 3:15. It was an instance of Christ’s great humility, that he would offer himself to be baptized of John; that he who knew no sin would submit to the baptism of repentance. Note, As soon as ever Christ began to preach, he preached humility, preached it by his example, preached it to all, especially the young ministers. Christ was designed for the highest honours, yet in his first step he thus abases himself. Note, Those who would rise high must begin low. Before honour is humility. It was a great piece of respect done to John, for Christ thus to come to him; and it was a return for the service he did him, in giving notice of his approach. Note, Those that honour God he will honour. Now here we have,
1. The objection that John made against baptizing Jesus, v. 14. John forbade him, as Peter did, when Christ went about to wash his feet, Joh 13:6; Joh 13:8. Note, Christ’s gracious condescensions are so surprising, as to appear at first incredible to the strongest believers; so deep and mysterious, that even they who know his mind well cannot soon find out the meaning of them, but, by reason of darkness, start objections against the will of Christ. John’s modesty thinks this an honour too great for him to receive, and he expresses himself to Christ, just as his mother had done to Christ’s mother (Luke i. 43); Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? John had now obtained a great name, and was universally respected: yet see how humble he is still! Note, God has further honours in reserve for those whose spirits continue low when their reputation rises.
(1.) John thinks it necessary that he should be baptized of Christ; I have need to be baptized of thee with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as of fire, for that was Christ’s baptism, v. 11. [1.] Though John was filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb (Luke i. 15), yet he acknowledges he had need to be baptized with that baptism. Note, They who have much of the Spirit of God, yet, while here, in this imperfect state, see that they have need of more, and need to apply themselves to Christ for more. [2.] John has need to be baptized, though he was the greatest that ever was born of woman; yet, being born of a woman, he is polluted, as others of Adam’s seed are, and owns he had need of cleansing. Note, The purest souls are most sensible of their own remaining impurity, and seek most earnestly for spiritual washing. [3.] He has need to be baptized of Christ, who can do that for us, which no one else can, and which must be done for us, or we are undone. Note, The best and holiest of men have need of Christ, and the better they are, the more they see of that need. [4.] This was said before the multitude, who had a great veneration for John, and were ready to embrace him for the Messiah; yet he publicly owns that he had need to be baptized of Christ. Note, It is no disparagement to the greatest of men, to confess that they are undone without Christ and his grace. [5.] John was Christ’s forerunner, and yet owns that he had need to be baptized of him. Note, Even they who were born before Christ in time depended on him, received from him, and had an eye to him. [6.] While John was dealing with others about their souls, observe how feelingly he speaks of the case of his own soul, I have need to be baptized of thee. Note, Ministers, who preach to others, and baptize others, are concerned to look to it that they preach to themselves, and be themselves baptized with the Holy Ghost. Take heed to thyself first; save thyself, 1 Tim. iv. 16.
(2.) He therefore thinks it very preposterous and absurd, that Christ should be baptized by him; Comest thou to me? Does the holy Jesus, that is separated from sinners, come to be baptized by a sinner, as a sinner, and among sinners? How can this be? Or what account can we give of it? Note, Christ’s coming to us may well be wondered at.
2. The overruling of this objection (v. 15); Jesus said, Suffer it to be so now. Christ accepted his humility, but not his refusal; he will have the thing done; and it is fit that Christ should take his own method, though we do not understand it, nor can give a reason for it. See,
(1.) How Christ insisted upon it; It must be so now. He does not deny that John had need to be baptized of him, yet he will now be baptized of John. Aphes arti—Let it be yet so; suffer it to be so now. Note, Every thing is beautiful in its season. But why now? Why yet? [1.] Christ is now in a state of humiliation: he has emptied himself, and made himself of no reputation. He is not only found in fashion as a man, but is made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and therefore now let him be baptized of John; as if he needed to be washed, though perfectly pure; and thus he was made sin for us, though he knew no sin. [2.] John’s baptism is now in reputation, it is that by which God is now doing his work; that is the present dispensation, and therefore Jesus will now be baptized with water; but his baptizing with the Holy Ghost is reserved for hereafter, many days hence, Acts i. 5. John’s baptism has now its day, and therefore honour must now be put upon that, and they who attend upon it must be encouraged. Note, They who are of greatest attainments in gifts and graces, should yet, in their place, bear their testimony to instituted ordinances, by a humble and diligent attendance on them, that they may give a good example to others. What we see God owns, and while we see he does so, we must own. John was now increasing, and therefore it must be thus yet; shortly he will decrease, and then it will be otherwise. [3.] It must be so now, because now is the time for Christ’s appearing in public, and this will be a fair opportunity for it, See John i. 31-34. Thus he must be made manifest to Israel, and be signalized by wonders from heaven, in that act of his own, which was most condescending and self-abasing.
(2.) The reason he gives for it; Thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness. Note, [1.] There was a propriety in every thing that Christ did for us; it was all graceful (Heb 2:10; Heb 7:26); and we must study to do not only that which behoves us, but that which becomes us; not only that which is indispensably necessary, but that which is lovely, and of good report. [2.] Our Lord Jesus looked upon it as a thing well becoming him, to fulfil all righteousness, that is (as Dr. Whitby explains it), to own every divine institution, and to show his readiness to comply with all God’s righteous precepts. Thus it becomes him to justify God, and approve his wisdom, in sending John to prepare his way by the baptism of repentance. Thus it becomes us to countenance and encourage every thing that is good, by pattern as well as precept. Christ often mentioned John and his baptism with honour, which that he might do the better, he was himself baptized. Thus Jesus began first to do, and then to teach; and his ministers must take the same method. Thus Christ filled up the righteousness of the ceremonial law, which consisted in divers washings; thus he recommended the gospel-ordinance of baptism to his church, put honour upon it, and showed what virtue he designed to put into it. It became Christ to submit to John’s washing with water, because it was a divine appointment; but it became him to oppose the Pharisees’ washing with water, because it was a human invention and imposition; and he justified his disciples in refusing to comply with it.
With the will of Christ, and this reason for it, John was entirely satisfied, and then he suffered him. The same modesty which made him at first decline the honour Christ offered him, now made him do the service Christ enjoined him. Note, No pretence of humility must make us decline our duty.
II. How solemnly Heaven was pleased to grace the baptism of Christ with a special display of glory (Mat 3:16; Mat 3:17); Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. Others that were baptized staid to confess their sins (v. 6); but Christ, having no sins to confess, went up immediately out of the water; so we read it, but not right: for it is apo tou hydatos—from the water; from the brink of the river, to which he went down to be washed with water, that is, to have his head or face washed (John xiii. 9); for here is no mention of the putting off, or putting on, of his clothes, which circumstance would not have omitted, if he had been baptized naked. He went up straightway, as one that entered upon his work with the utmost cheerfulness and resolution; he would lose no time. How was he straitened till it was accomplished!
Now, when he was coming up out of the water, and all the company had their eye upon him,
1. Lo! the heavens were opened unto him, so as to discover something above and beyond the starry firmament, at least, to him. This was, (1.) To encourage him to go on in his undertaking, with the prospect of the glory and joy that were set before him. Heaven is opened to receive him, when he has finished the work he is now entering upon. (2.) To encourage us to receive him, and submit to him. Note, In and through Jesus Christ, the heavens are opened to the children of men. Sin shut up heaven, put a stop to all friendly intercourse between God and man; but now Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Divine light and love are darted down upon the children of men, and we have boldness to enter into the holiest. We have receipts of mercy from God, we make returns of duty to God, and all by Jesus Christ, who is the ladder that had its foot on earth and its top in heaven, by whom alone it is that we have any comfortable correspondence with God, or any hope of getting to heaven at last. The heavens were opened when Christ was baptized, to teach us, that when we duly attend on God’s ordinances, we may expect communion with him, and communications from him.
2. He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, or as a dove, and coming or lighting upon him. Christ saw it (Mark i. 10), and John saw it (Joh 1:33; Joh 1:34), and it is probable that all the standers-by saw it; for this was intended to be his public inauguration. Observe,
(1.) He saw the Spirit of God descended, and lighted on him. In the beginning of the old world, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. i. 2), hovered as a bird upon the nest. So here, in the beginning of this new world, Christ, as God, needed not to receive the Holy Ghost, but it was foretold that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon him (Isa 11:2; Isa 61:1), and here he did so; for, [1.] He was to be a Prophet; and prophets always spoke by the Spirit of God, who came upon them. Christ was to execute the prophetic office, not by his divine nature (says Dr. Whitby), but by the afflatus of the Holy Spirit. [2.] He was to be the Head of the church; and the Spirit descended upon him, by him to be derived to all believers, in his gifts, graces, and comforts. The ointment on the head ran down to the skirts; Christ received gifts for men, that he might give gifts to men.
(2.) He descended on him like a dove; whether it was a real, living dove, or, as was usual in visions, the representation or similitude of a dove, is uncertain. If there must be a bodily shape (Luke iii. 22), it must not be that of a man, for the being seen in fashion as a man was peculiar to the second person: none therefore was more fit than the shape of one of the fowls of heaven (heaven being now opened), and of all fowl none was so significant as the dove. [1.] The Spirit of Christ is a dove-like spirit; not like a silly dove, without heart (Hos. vii. 11), but like an innocent dove, without gall. The Spirit descended, not in the shape of an eagle, which is, though a royal bird, yet a bird of prey, but in the shape of a dove, than which no creature is more harmless and inoffensive. Such was the Spirit of Christ: He shall not strive, nor cry; such must Christians be, harmless as doves. The dove is remarkable for her eyes; we find that both the eyes of Christ (Cant. v. 12), and the eyes of the church (Son 1:15; Son 4:1), are compared to doves’ eyes, for they have the same spirit. The dove mourns much (Isa. xxxviii. 14). Christ wept oft; and penitent souls are compared to doves of the valleys. [2.] The dove was the only fowl that was offered in sacrifice (Lev. i. 14), and Christ by the Spirit, the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God. [3.] The tidings of the decrease of Noah’s flood were brought by a dove, with an olive-leaf in her mouth; fitly therefore are the glad tidings of peace with God brought by the Spirit as a dove. It speaks God’s good will towards men; that his thoughts towards us are thoughts of good, and not evil. By the voice of the turtle heard in our land (Cant. ii. 12), the Chaldee paraphrase understands, the voice of the Holy Spirit. That God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, is a joyful message, which comes to us upon the wing, the wings of a dove.
3. To explain and complete this solemnity, there came a voice from heaven, which, we have reason to think, was heard by all that were present. The Holy Spirit manifested himself in the likeness of a dove, but God the Father by a voice; for when the law was given they saw no manner of similitude, only they heard a voice (Deut. iv. 12); and so this gospel came, and gospel indeed it is, the best news that ever came from heaven to earth; for it speaks plainly and fully God’s favour to Christ, and us in him.
(1.) See here how God owns our Lord Jesus; This is my beloved Son. Observe, [1.] The relation he stood in to him; He is my Son. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, by eternal generation, as he was begotten of the Father before all the worlds (Col 1:15; Heb 1:3); and by supernatural conception; he was therefore called the Son of God, because he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost (Luke i. 35); yet this is not all; he is the Son of God by special designation to the work and office of the world’s Redeemer. He was sanctified and sealed, and sent upon that errand, brought up with the Father for it (Prov. viii. 30), appointed to it; I will make him my First-born, Ps. lxxxix. 27. [2.] The affection the Father had for him; He is my beloved Son; his dear Son, the Son of his love (Col. i. 13); he has lain in his bosom from all eternity (John i. 18), had been always his delight (Prov. viii. 30), but particularly as Mediator, and in undertaking the work of man’s salvation, he was his beloved Son. He is my Elect, in whom my soul delights. See Isa. xlii. 1. Because he consented to the covenant of redemption, and delighted to do that will of God, therefore the Father loved him.Joh 10:17; Joh 3:35. Behold, then, behold, and wonder, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that he should deliver up him that was the Son of his love, to suffer and die for those that were the generation of his wrath; nay,and that he therefore loved him, because he laid down his life for the sheep! Now know we that he loved us, seeing he has not withheld his Son, his only Son, his Isaac whom he loved, but gave him to be a sacrifice for our sin.
(2.) See here how ready he is to own us in him: He is my beloved Son, not only with whom, but in whom, I am well pleased. He is pleased with all that are in him, and are united to him by faith. Hitherto God had been displeased with the children of men, but now his anger is turned away, and he has made us accepted in the Beloved, Eph. l. 6. Let all the world take notice, that this is the Peace-maker, the Days-man, who has laid his hand upon us both, and that there is no coming to God as a Father, but by him as Mediator, John xiv. 6. In him our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable, for his the Altar that sanctifies every gift, 1 Pet. ii. 5. Out of Christ, God is a consuming Fire, but, in Christ, a reconciled Father. This is the sum of the whole gospel; it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that God has declared, by a voice from heaven, that Jesus Christ is his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased, with which we must by faith cheerfully concur, and say, that he is our beloved Saviour, in whom we are well pleased.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Then cometh Jesus ( ). The same historical present used in 3:1. He comes all the way from Galilee to Jordan “to be baptized by him” ( ). The genitive articular infinitive of purpose, a very common idiom. The fame of John had reached Nazareth and the hour has come for which Jesus has waited.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee,” (tote paraginetai ho lesous apo tes Galilaias) “At this point Jesus arrives from Galilee,” into Judea, the territory where John the Baptist had been preaching and baptizing, preparing a people for Jesus. Jesus came directly from Nazareth, His hometown where He had been brought up, about 60 miles away, Mr 1:9.
2) “To Jordan unto John,” (epi ton lordanen pros ton loannen tou) “To (where) John (was) upon (the bank of the) Jordan River,” in the lower Jordan Valley, near Bethabara about five miles north of the Dead Sea, Joh 1:28.
3) “To be baptized of him.” (Baptisthenai hup’ autou) “To be immersed by (authority) of him,” by authority of John who had been “sent from God,” Joh 1:6, and had been “sent to baptize,” Joh 1:33. When God wanted a human family He created one, Adam and Eve, Gen 1:26-27; Gen 2:21-25. Then He provided for the continuity of that family in the covenant of marriage as one. When God wanted a church to bear His message He sent a man from heaven to prepare a people out of and with whom Jesus instituted His church. John the Baptist (sent from God) Joh 1:6, did preach, teach, and baptize believing disciples from whom Jesus called out disciples to institute and constitute and perpetuate His church, Mat 4:17-21; Joh 15:16; Joh 15:27; Act 1:21-22; Act 15:13-14; Mat 8:18-20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Mat 3:13
. That he might be baptized by him. For what purpose did the Son of God wish to be baptized? This may be learned, in some measure, from his answer. We have already assigned a special reason. He received the same baptism with us, in order to assure believers, that they are ingrafted into his body, and that they are “buried with him in baptism,” that they may rise to “newness of life,” (Rom 6:4.) But the end, which he here proposes, is more extensive: for thus it became him to fulfill all righteousness, (Mat 3:15.) The word righteousness frequently signifies, in Scripture, the observation of the law: and in that sense we may explain this passage to mean that, since Christ had voluntarily subjected himself to the law, it was necessary that he should keep it in every part. But I prefer a more simple interpretation. “Say nothing for the present,” said our Lord, “about my rank: (292) for the question before us is not, which of us deserves to be placed above the other. (293) Let us rather consider what our calling demands, and what has been enjoined on us by God the Father.” The general reason why Christ received baptism was, that he might render full obedience to the Father; and the special reason was, that he might consecrate baptism in his own body, that we might have it in common with him.
(292) “ Je laisse maintenant ma dignite a part.” — “I now lay my rank aside.”
(293) “ Lequel de nous deux est plus grand ou excellent;” — “which of usboth is greater or more excellent.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat. 3:13. Jesus baptised.He received the rite as ratifying the mission of the great forerunner, and He also received it as the beautiful symbol of moral purification, and the humble inauguration of a ministry which came not to destroy the law but to fulfil (Farrar).
Mat. 3:14. Forbad, is emphatic, and implies that John interposed strenuously to hinder Him. The Baptists words imply that he had some definite knowledge of the character of Jesus. Joh. 1:33 seems to mean that he did not know for certain, by Divine intimation or revelation, that Jesus was the Messiah, until the event referred to occurred (Morison).
Mat. 3:15. Now = for the present. The future will make abundantly manifest what we respectively are. Fulfil all righteousness.To leave nothing undone which would be honouring to the seemly and significant ordinances of God (Morison).
Mat. 3:16. Heavens opened.This and the resultant manifestations were granted probably to John and Jesus only (Joh. 1:32-34). Dove.Suggesting the idea of completeness and, at the same time, of beauty, gentleness, peace, and love (J. M. Gibson).
Mat. 3:17. This is My beloved Son.This revelation awakened the Messianic consciousness of Jesus (Wendt). The titles, Son of God and beloved, or well-pleasing to the Father, according to the Old Testament promises, belonged to the Messiah (cf. Psa. 2:7; Isa. 42:1). No doubt Jesus was previously conscious that He was the Son of God and an object of the Divine complacency; but through this revelation was awakened the consciousness of a unique pre-eminence of sonship in relation to God, and of the unique significance which, in virtue of this pre-eminence, He should have for the establishment of the kingdom of God and the Messianic dispensation (ibid.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Mat. 3:13-17
Messiah Himself.Mightier than I. So the Baptist, in the preceding verses, had predicted of Christ. What he foretold in those verses is accomplished in these. Jesus of Nazareth Himself here appears on the scene. Jesus of Nazareth is here openly acknowledged to be all that the Baptist had just declared about Christ. This is shown us, partly, by what is related here of the actions of men; and partly by what is related here of the action of God.
I. Of the actions of men.We say of men because of the representative character of the man shown to us here. The law and the prophets were until John (Luk. 16:16). He excelled all before him partly because of the fact that he summarised all. What he does here, therefore, is done in effect by the whole column he leads. Hence its significance, in the first place, in the way of remonstrance. Whilst engaged in his work of baptising sinners and bringing them to repentance, Jesus of Nazareth appears amongst them, and asks for baptism at his hands. Such a request, to John the Baptist, seems to put everything wrong. So far from seeing any need of repentance in Jesus, His very presence there only makes him the more conscious of the evil to be found in himself. I have need to be baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me? (Mat. 3:14). What a testimony this is (if we think of it) to the character for holiness which this Jesus possessed in the eyes of John, even before the latter appears to have known Him fully as the Messiah (cf. Joh. 1:33). What a testimony from one so holy himself! So discerning! So faithful! So connected, as we have just seen, with all the holiness of the past! Virtually, it was all that holiness effacing itself before Christs. In the way of submission. The answer of Jesus to this remonstrance of John says in effect, As things are now, I ask you to allow this to be done. If it does not seem so at first, it is yet, in reality, in fullest harmony with what I am here to accomplish; the very object I have come for being that of occupying the place of the unrighteous and fulfilling all righteousness in his stead. Convinced by this language, John opposes no more (Mat. 3:15). It is not for him to undertake to deny what this sinless One says. Jesus of Nazareth is not only far holier, He is also far wiser than he. So he confesses by thus giving way. So, also, there confesses with him all the true enlightenment of the past.
II. Of the action of God.As soon as the baptism thus conceded is over, we are in the presence of this. It follows immediately on the coming up of Jesus out of the water (Mat. 3:16). It is manifested, on the one hand, in the way of vision or sight. From the opened heavens above Him the Spirit of God was seen by the Baptist descending like a dove upon Jesus, and lighting upon Him (Mat. 3:16). Thus, as it were, was the Messiahship of Jesus set forth to the world. The very sign of that Messiahship which John was taught to expect (Joh. 1:33) has come upon Jesus. That sign, as it were, therefore, is the laying of hands upon Him as the man called to this worka gift at once separating and preparing Him for what that Anointed One had to do. On the other hand, we see the action of God here in the way of hearing and speech. From the same opened heaven there comes, next, the sign of a voice. Needless to say, coming thence, from Whom it proceeds. It is the voice of that Father whom we are taught to call upon as Our Father in heaven (Mat. 6:9). This sign is a testimony, therefore, to the unique dignity of the Messiah. Whatever the Messiah was to be in this respect, that this Holy Onethis Jesus of Nazarethis hereby acknowledged as being. Thisthis same one, this just baptised oneis truly My Son. With Him, alsoas being suchI am always well pleased. Even Johns greatness, as the greatest of servants, is nothing to this.
This combination of testimonies, as well from earth as from heaven, brings before us, in conclusion:
1. The greatest of Teachers.Who can be better qualified as a teacher than One on whom the Spirit of truth (1Co. 2:11) thus descends and remains? In thus altering the decision of John, also, do we not see Him instructing one who had surpassed all teachers before? Well, therefore, may He be accepted as the Teacher of all teachers to come!
2. The completest of Saviours.What He undertakes here to do is just that which sinners most of all need, viz. to provide them with that which shall secure them acceptance with God. How striking to find this thus spoken of on His first appearance in public! How equally striking to find that the Father sets His seal on this from the first!
3. The profoundest of mysteries.How plainly we seem taught here that there are three persons in One! How nothing short of this seems to satisfy all that is shown to us here! How fully this does satisfy all that is shown to us here! No other key cart turn this lock with its multitudinous wards!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat. 3:13-17. The coronation of the King.
I. The becomingness of the apparently unbecoming baptism.The whole mystery of Christs identification of Himself with sinful men, and of His being made sin for us, who knew no sin, lies in germ in His baptism by John. No other conception of its meaning does justice to the facts.
II. The Divine anointing or coronation.The symbol of the dove seems to carry allusions to the grand image which represents the Spirit of God as brooding over chaos, and quickening life, as a bird in its nest by the warmth of its own soft breast; to the dove which bore the olive branch, first messenger of hope, to the prisoners in the ark; to the use of the dove, as clean, in sacrifice; to the poetical attribution to it, common to many nations, of meek gentleness and faithful love. Set side by side with that Johns thought of the Holy Spirit as fire, and we get all the beauty of both emblems increased, and understand how much the stern ascetic, whose words burned and blistered, had to learn. Meekness is throned now.
III. The Divine proclamation.
1. The coronation ends with the solemn recitation of the style and title of the King.
2. The voice attests the Divine complacency in Him.
3.The Fathers delight in the Son is through the Son extended to all who love and trust the Son.A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat. 3:13-15. Christ coming to be baptised.The mighty impulse of the Spirit leading Christ to Jordan. Appears from the circumstance:
1. That He came from a great distance.
2. That He came alone.
3. That He came fully decided on the course before Him.J. P. Lange, D.D.
Mat. 3:15. Christ in His humiliation.
1. Some things were necessary to be done by Christ in the time of His humiliation, which otherwise would not have become the dignity of His person.
2. It is a thing both right and comely for each man to do what his calling requireth.
3. When the Lord makes His will clear unto us, we should renounce our will and follow His. Then he suffered Him.David Dickson.
The mode of Christs baptism.As to the baptism, there has been great discussion about it. It is very curious to me that when the great moral lesson of this incident has stood confronting the church, instead of considering what is the real meaning of Christs baptism, it has gone discussing what Professor Swing has so well characterised as a question whether the water should be applied to the man or the man to the water. We do not know which was done in this case. An ancient picture, dating, I think, from about the fourth century, rude and rough, in the catacombs of Rome, represents Jesus and John standing in the water, and John pouring the water from a shell on Jesus head. We know that in early times water was poured on the heads of priests to anoint them. I think myself it most probable that the baptism of Jesus by John was neither that which the Baptist sect nor that which the other sects have generally pursued, but one which, so far as I know, no considerable denomination of Christendom has ever used, the method of pouring.L. Abbott, D.D.
Mat. 3:16. Like a dove.
I. In His purity like a dove. Hence He finds at first only one resting-placethe head and heart of Jesus.
II. In His gentleness like a dove. Hence addressing Himself to man.
III. In His harmlessness like a dove. Hence conquering the wicked one.
IV. In His love as a dove. Hence imparting life to the church.Lange.
The baptism of Jesus.Even the pure offspring of the Spirit needed the anointing of the Spirit; and it was only when His human nature had grown strong enough for the support of the fulness of the Spirit that it remained stationary and fully endowed with power from above.Olshausen.
Mat. 3:16-17. The Holy Trinity.Here, in the baptism of our blessed Head, we find ourselves in the presence at once of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, into whose adorable name we are baptised (Mat. 28:19). The early Fathers of the church were struck with this, and often advert to it. Go to Jordan, said Augustine to the heretic Marcion, and thou shalt see the Trinity. Nor is it to be overlooked, as Lange remarks, that, as it is at Christs own baptism that we have the first distinct revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity, so it is at the institution of baptism for His church that the doctrine brightens into full glory.D. Brown, D.D.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Section 6. JESUS IS BAPTIZED BY JOHN
(Parallels: Mar. 1:9-11; Luk. 3:21-22; cf. Joh. 1:29-34)
TEXT: 3:13-17
13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14. But John would have hindered him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15. But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him;
17. and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS
a.
Do you think Jesus really needed to be immersed by John? If so, why? If not, why not?
b.
Why did John consider himself in need of immersion by Jesus, instead of Jesus having need of Johns baptism?
c.
What do these phrases mean:
(1) it becometh us?
(2) to fulfil all righteousness?
(3) he suffered him?
d.
Why did God speak from heaven in this manner and on this particular occasion?
e.
What does Matthew mean by the heavens were opened unto him?
f.
How do you think Jesus reacted psychologically to that voice of His Father speaking to Him on this occasion?
g.
For what acts or attitudes of Jesus do you think God was expressing His pleasure in Jesus?
h.
Did anyone else hear the voice of God on this occasion as He identified Jesus as His Son? What of the multitudes who were constantly coming and going?
PARAPHRASE AND HARMONY
In those days that marked the height of Johns revival of the nation, which was about the thirtieth year of Jesus life, Jesus walked from Nazareth of Galilee to the Jordan to John to be immersed by him. But John tried to dissuade Him, saying, I need you to baptize ME, and YOU come to me? But Jesus replied, Let it be so for the present, for we do well to conform in this way with all that God requires. This is the fitting way for both of us to do our full duty to God. Then John yielded and consented to immerse Jesus.
Now when the greater part of the people had been immersed, Jesus also was baptized. He immediately went up out of the water and was praying when, suddenly, the heavens opened. They, that is at least John and Jesus, saw the Spirit of God in a bodily form descending, as does a dove, upon Him and remaining. Then there came a voice from heaven which said, You are my dearly loved Son: I am pleased and proud of you!
NOTES
I. A PREPARED PERSON
Mat. 3:13 Jesus came from Galilee. Mark specifies Nazareth as the beginning point of this 60-70 mile trip on foot to that stretch of the Jordan which flows through the wilderness of Judea about 5 miles north of the Dead Sea. Nazareth. for Jesus, meant home, the quiet life, rewarding toil and memories. ALL this is left behind for the stormy turbulence that shall be His short, busy career. However, He who leaves home to enter the service of God is no stripling of twelve years but a mature man who has learned the joys of honest labor, the worries of a household, and the fluctuations of business with all its headaches. Yes, here is a man who chooses not to remain hidden in a small Galilean hamlet, but rather to seize eagerly His responsibility as Gods Son. As He turns His back upon the relatively easy life and sets His face to go to the inevitable cross, in effect, He is praying, Father, it was not with sacrifices, as offerings for sin, that you were pleased. But you have prepared for me a body, and in this body I have come to do your will. (Cf. Heb. 10:5-10)
II. A PERPLEXED PROTEST
Mat. 3:14 If John did not know Jesus as the Messiah (Joh. 1:31; Joh. 1:33),then why did he object to Jesus request for immersion? His baptism was for repentance (Mat. 3:11) and for remission of sins (Mar. 1:4; Luk. 3:3) and yet he obviously felt that Jesus did not need his baptism. Four reasons are suggested why he might have thus demurred:
1.
The family reason. If the intimacy of Johns and Jesus families was maintained over the years, John would have known the pure life of Jesus, his kinsman (Luk. 1:36-56; Luk. 1:80)) through contacts at least at the great feasts in Jerusalem. However, unless Jesus were known by John to be absolutely sinless, He would have needed Johns baptism, at least, in Johns opinion,
2.
The inspired reason. Gods prophet that he was, John must have been able to recognize the sinlessness of Jesus by prophetic insight, just as Elisha recognized, the greed and falseness of Gehazi, or the treachery and cruelty of Hazael (2Ki. 5:26; 2Ki. 8:7-15; see also Luk. 7:39). However, until the Spirit descended upon Him, John had not that divine assurance that Jesus was the Messiah nor could he say with absolute certainty, This is the Christ, however sure he himself may have felt that He was. Of this one thing John was sure: here before him stood the cleanest, purest, godliest man his eyes had ever looked upon!
3.
The ethical reason. He stood in the presence of Him the latchet of whose shoes he was not worthy to unloose. As John had faced the Pharisees and Sadducees, he had accorded them the very opposite treatment (Mat. 3:7-10), refusing to immerse them because of their sinful impenitence. He hesitates to baptize Jesus because of His known purity.
a.
John, by confessing his need of Jesus baptism, thus confessed his own sin. Or was he thinking of Jesus administration of the baptism in the Holy Spirit?
b.
By acknowledging Jesus right to baptize even him whom God had appointed as a divinely-sent prophet, John was placing Jesus far above himself. Perhaps he suspected Him also to be the Messiah.
4.
The personal reason. In his perplexity, John shows his personal ignorance of Gods will for Jesus and of what really constitutes Gods idea of a Messiah. Although John knew he was unworthy to baptize Him and thus shows his deep, reverent humility, he was on the verge of forgetting his own commission to introduce the Christ, of neglecting the express command of God, and of overlooking that very sign which had been given him by which to recognize the Messiah (Joh. 1:33). Although John was wrong in his understanding, yet his actions ring true psychologically, and, as a matter of fact, had not the narrative included his hesitation, the baptism of Jesus, recorded without any other comment, would seem to compromise His sinlessness.
Maybe all or parts of these reasons caused John to take the position he did. Yet, this misunderstanding and suggestion both provide one more temptation to Jesus, a test similar to the sorrow of His parents when He should have been expected to about His Fathers affairs. Even as then, He refused to be turned aside from His divine calling and position, overcoming by relying upon perfect obedience to God.
III. A PARAMOUNT AND PERVADING PRINCIPLE
Mat. 3:15 Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.
1. The problem: The question has puzzled the Church for centuries, just as it raised problems for John the Baptist that day: why did Jesus come to be baptized? Jesus did not intimate that John was correct in suggesting that He did not need to be baptized, but why? Several answers have been suggested:
a.
That Jesus, by His baptism, identifying Himself with the search of men for God, in order that He might reveal God to them in this their hour of new sin-consciousness? Certainly, one reason He began His ministry at this time was the timeliness of the hour in which the Jews were facing the reality of their sins as never before in immediately preceding centuries. But, could not Jesus have identified with them in other ways or have begun His ministry without being baptized?
b.
Or, is Jesus, in this act of identification with those who truly need forgiveness and repentance, signifying that He is now ready to take upon Himself the responsibility of being their redeemer? Is He indicating that, though He be pure and yet steps into the same position shared by such sinners, He is therefore Gods Lamb?
c.
Others suggest that Jesus came for His formal, solemn setting apart to His office as the Messiah and Redeemer of Israel. It is true that one of the main purposes of Johns appointment was to introduce the Messiah to the world (Joh. 1:31), Further, it was proper that Jesus should have been set apart by His own forerunner, and that definite connection be shown with his ministry, as fulfilling its predictions and carrying forward its initiatives.
d.
Permit it now indicates that, in the case of Jesus baptism, there was to be another purpose. While Jesus did not need the results obtained in the case of the others, i.e. transformation of life and forgiveness of sins, yet He needed another result: the perfect fulfilment of all the Fathers will. Could He have gone on in His sinlessness as heretofore and have remained sinless to the end if at this point He did not do everything God had commanded? No, perfect holiness involves doing all God says to do, without rationalizing. Had Jesus refused or neglected to obey this precept of God, He would have failed, coming short of perfect righteousness.
2.
His personal Purpose: It becomes us to fulfil all righteousness. Jesus had to be immersed! There could be no doubt or hesitation for Him, once the all-important question as to the origin of Johns baptism was answered: The baptism of John, whence is it? from heaven or men? (Mat. 21:25) Jesus submitted, not with any ulterior motive, but because Johns baptism was from God. He refused to expect of others what He Himself had not undergone. Had He not so completely done Gods will, His condemnation of the religious leaders (Mat. 21:25) would have had a hollow ring to it. This is why the Pharisees and Sadducees are so guilty: even if they were too self-deceived to see their need of repentance and forgiveness, at least they should have humbly submitted to be baptized by John to fulfil all righteousness! But, as it was, they doubly rejected the counsel of God against themselves (Luk. 7:30).
It must be remembered that the main element in repentance is the POSITIVE turning of the individual towards God with new determination to conform to His will, and not only the NEGATIVE turning away from sin as enmity toward God. While forsaking sin and seeking forgiveness therefrom may be the first step in repentance toward God, a step not needed by the sinless Jesus, yet positive conformity to Gods righteousness was most certainly required of Jesus. Thus, it becomes most intelligible and quite proper that Jesus should feel personally impelled to submit to Johns immersion. He publicly declared thereby His resolve to surrender His will to the will of God, and His renunciation of all sin. He did this, not in spite of His Sonship, but on account of it! He knew that He was the pure Son of God, but this was good reason for obeying God: as a pure Son. This purpose, personally felt by Jesus, will empower Him to face each assault of Satan, to remain humble before the applause of the multitudes, to remain calm before the confusion and misunderstandings of the disciples, to continue to love those most unlovely, and to lay down His scourged, hurting body upon the cross for our sins.
3. Our perpetual pattern. Out of that perfect union of Jesus personal purpose with the paramount principle comes a perpetual pattern for us. Jesus was not baptized to give us an example that we should also be baptized. Rather, Jesus was baptized to give us an example of doing whatever God has commanded just because God had said to do it. If God commands US to be baptized, then we do that because He commanded and not because Jesus was baptized. In this case, we pour ourselves into Jesus mold of perfect obedience to the Father in whatever He commands by doing just what God has specifically commanded us.
Nobody will ever formulate a better ethic than doing all that God tells us to do. There is no better. Without Gods revelation, men have such trashy ideals, and yet the whole human race descended from people who knew God (Rom. 1:18-32). Thus, all the wickedness of the world is due to departure from the knowledge of the will of God and willing obedience to it. Man cannot throw away or ignore what he knew of Gods will and then expect to find a sure foundation for an ethic to take its place. In the case before us, John had preached Gods will but many religious people rejected that message. Jesus could not. To please God, according to Jesus, is not to set aside anything God has commanded. In making no exception of Himself, Jesus is saying that no excuse is good enough for not doing everything God requires, This is the true measure of all righteousness, (See Mat. 5:17)
John could not know of the authority of God possessed by Jesus, at least at that moment when he refused to baptize Him, so clearly as we can see from our vantage point. Thus he is not so culpable for this refusal, But, having been assured of Jesus right to command, we must see that to argue with Jesus about the propriety of ANYTHING He requests, is sin!
4. The permission: Then he permitted him. Here John proves himself to be a true prophet by recognizing and obeying his true Master when that Master corrects his understanding. Jesus of Nazareth is not only far holier than John; He is also far wiser in the application of Gods will. This is what John confesses in permitting Jesus to be baptized.
IV. THE PROMISED POWER
Mat. 3:16 When Jesus was baptized, he went up from the water. Mark had specified that Jesus came to be baptized into (eis) the Jordan; hence, it is quite natural to assume that the phrase, from the water, is the logical movement of a person who had been in it. Though Matthew says from (apo) , again it is Mark who is more specific: out of (ek). The prepositions by themselves are not sufficient to establish the conclusion that Jesus was immersed, but when they accord perfectly with the meaning of baptizein, immerse, they become important circumstantial evidence to support that conclusion.
The heavens were opened to him. We are not told what was visible when the heavens were suddenly opened, nor even what constitutes such an opening in the heavens. From the physical nature of the heavens, as we know them, it may be said that the heavens are already open as far as the eyes of one standing at the Jordan River could see, and probably always have been. Therefore, perhaps what Matthew means is that to the physical, fleshly eyes of John and Jesus, at least, the normally invisible but thoroughly real spirit-world was made visible in a manner similar to the visions of that world seen by Ezekiel (Eze. 1:1), Stephen (Act. 7:56), Peter (Act. 10:11), or John (Rev. 4:1). Note also Jesus cryptic statement (Joh. 1:51). Matthew focuses all attention upon Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit, leaving the heavenly vision undescribed.
unto him . . . he saw. The unto him may or may not have been written by Matthew, as it has good manuscript authority both for and against it. (See SQE, p. 26) This phrase and the expression, he saw, do not necessarily preclude all others from having seen the Spirit descend upon Jesus, and they must not be construed to exclude John. No doubt the Spirit was visible and the voice of God audible to all present. Some have understood Luke (Luk. 3:21) to suggest that only Jesus and John now stood on the Jordans bank, as the others would have left immediately after their baptism. However, that passage must be only a general statement concerning the major part of the crowds, since John also baptized others later (Joh. 3:23). Nor would it necessarily follow that they would have immediately departed after being baptized; rather, it is to be supposed that many remained to become regular disciples of John. Thus, there were probably others still present.
descending as a dove. It may not be too important a problem to ask whether there really was a bird in the air that day. ALL four Gospels unite (cf. Joh. 1:32) in using this expression as a dove (hos, or hosei peristeran) with a common verb for descent (katabaino) . Is it necessary to picture a real dove in this scene, any more than real fire on Pentecost (Act. 2:3 : as fire, hosei puros)? Granted, there was a bodily form of some sort, but was it dove-form, or did it merely descend as a dove descends and lights upon something? The fact that Luke places in a bodily form between Holy Spirit and as a dove, does not settle the question, since, grammatically, it could stand anywhere in the sentence. The other Gospels make the phrase, as a dove, modify either descend (Matthew and John) or Holy Spirit (Mark). Other commentaries seek for the meaning behind the symbol of the dove. If there were no bird, why bother? Mark (Mar. 1:10) clarifies: The Spirit as a dove came down into (eis) Him. How could a bird enter Jesus? But the Spirit of God in a bodily form could descend upon Jesus, even as swiftly and gracefully as a dove descends and lights, and enter into Jesus. Were there a real bird, the problem of disposal of the body arises just as this scene closes. Did the bird die right there? Disappear? Fly away? This is stretching a non-existent detail to its logical extreme. The all-important point is the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus.
The Spirit of God descending. Here is Jesus’ promised power (Isa. 11:1 ff) Jesus emerged from His baptism as the Messiah, designated, qualified and proclaimed so by God Himself. In this capacity He received the fullness of the Spirit for His work. (Cf. Psa. 45:7 with Heb. 1:9; Isa. 61:1 with Luk. 4:18) In His human nature which He had assumed in order to bring about our redemption, He received the Spirit (Joh. 3:34). As God, He needed nothing. It was only as the God-Man, or God in human flesh, that He needed such a gift of power as the Holy Spirit, and particularly so now, as He was ready to begin that great work for which He had come. This anointing by the Spirit does not mean that Jesus was not pure and holy before, or that He was not aware of His divine mission previously, or that He was nor possessed of divine wisdom before this, for He was all this before His baptism. The coming of the Spirit performed these all-important functions:
1.
The divine authentication of His identity: HE, and no other, is God’s Son and Messiah;
2.
His public anointing as God’s Messiah (Act. 10:38);
3.
The reinforcement of the human nature of Jesus for the great work and suffering which He must shortly commence.
From this point on, we see Jesus led and empowered by the Holy Spirit as never before (Mat. 4:1; Mar. 1:12; Luk. 4:1; Luk. 4:14; Luk. 4:21; Mat. 12:18 f; Luk. 10:21; Heb. 9:14; Rom. 1:4; Rom. 8:11).
V. PATERNAL PLEASURE
Mat. 3:17 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The silence of God is broken! No word from God had been heard since He spoke from heaven to Israel at Sinai. How significant that He should choose this moment to communicate directly with earth! And He shall speak again at Jesus’ moment of glory (Matthew 17; Mar. 9:7; Luk. 9:35), and shortly before His hour of suffering (Joh. 12:28-30). Here is the word of Him who cannot lie, which proclaims who Jesus really is: my Son! On this point, what other witness in the universe would be so well-qualified to testify as the Father Himself? What other fact so worthy the honor of His personal sanction as this? God’s solemn declaration of Jesus as His Son meant the fulfilment of the great Davidic promise (Psa. 2:7; cf. Heb. 1:5; Heb. 5:5), God did not need to say, This is my chosen Messiah, for every Jew should have known that to declare Jesus as His Son was to declare Him the Messiah.
On this point, compare Mat. 26:63-66; Mar. 14:61-64; Luk. 22:66-71; note also Joh. 10:29-33 and the line of reasoning used by the Jews in their attacks upon Jesus. Compare Psalms 2 with the standard rabbinical interpretations of it, as noted by Edersheim, Life, II, 716: See also Heb. 1:5; 2Sa. 7:14; Psa. 89:26-27.
The verbal difference between the reporting of the voice of God, as quoted by Matthew and the quotation by Mark and Luke should be noted. Different attempts have been made to harmonize or explain the difference. One ancient suggestion, that made by the Ebionite Gospel (SQE, 27), represents God as speaking twice: once to Jesus, the other to John. There is no necessary contradiction between the differing Gospel accounts. God probably spoke only once, His words being recorded loosely by Matthew as they might have been quoted by John the Baptist, while Mark and Luke cite the words directly. In either case, the message is unchanged.
But it is not just to the world in general that God addresses Himself, but to Jesus: You are my dearly beloved Son: I am pleased and proud of you! How gratefully comforted the human heart of Jesus must have been to hear how perfectly on course He was sailing through that sea which is the human life. How much joy it must have brought Him to hear God recognize Him as His unique Son, and express His paternal pleasure for His public declaration of filial obedience to the Fathers will.
Though the words of Gad seem to be a direct quotation of Psa. 2:7 a, and quite possibly His words would call to the minds of any Jew present that particular Psalm, yet it is not necessary to assume that God was either merely quoting Scripture (as if the Gospel writers had put the words in Gods mouth) or that God had in mind the second half of that verse: This day have I begotten thee. The Ebionite Gospel cites these latter words at this point, as if they were actually pronounced upon this occasion, in the attempt to establish the Ebionite doctrine that God adopted the human Jesus on the day of His baptism. It has been the temptation of not a few heretic sects to assume that the nature of God came upon and entered to take control of the human nature of Jesus that day. But to prove this adoptionist doctrine, they must ignore all of the relevant facts related to Mary by the angel (Luk. 1:26-38), or those explanations given to Joseph (Mat. 1:18-23) regarding the true nature of the yet-unborn Baby, as well as the self-awareness of Jesus at age twelve (Luk. 2:49). This day (Psa. 2:7) is to be understood as referring to Jesus resurrection also, not merely to His baptism, if at all (Act. 13:33; cf. Rom. 1:4). Further, the words of God, in the second phrase, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased, more closely parallel Isa. 42:1 with the slight change from servant to Son. To feel the force of this prophecy, it should be read in the Greek of Mat. 12:18. The point is this: by what He says, God is not making or constituting Jesus as His Son; rather, He is declaring publicly what was already true from the moment of Jesus conception in the virgin mother. An identity card and a special anointing do not change the nature of the Person, although they verify or guarantee the nature of the relationship thus declared. By His anointing with the Holy Spirit and by the Fathers proclaiming His Sonship, Jesus is thus revealed to the nation and the world as fully equipped and duly authorized to accomplish that or which He had come to earth.
Here at the baptism of Jesus, we have one of the clearest and most complete revelations of the three Persons who make up the Deity: the Son of God standing incarnate upon earth. the Spirit descending out of heaven, and the Father speaking from heaven. Again, our obedience to the divine will brings together those mighty names in connection with our baptism (Mat. 28:19).
FACT QUESTIONS
1.
Where did Jesus baptism occur?
2.
About how far did Jesus have to walk to get there?
3.
When did it occur? That is, at what time in Jesus life, and then in relation to His ministry, when did it occur?
4.
Why was Jesus baptized? List at least three reasons given in the Scriptures,
5.
Why did John hesitate to baptize Jesus?
6.
Cite any evidence that indicates whether Jesus was immersed, or had water sprinkled or poured upon Him. Is it possible to arrive at a secure conclusion which mode was used?
7.
Did Jesus have to be baptized? If so, why? If not, why not?
8.
How did Jesus baptism differ from others, if it did?
9.
What took place immediately following Jesus baptism?
10. Who said, It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness? What did he mean?
11. Cite any evidence that would indicate whether any others than John and Jesus heard and saw the accompanying signs from heaven.
12. What was Jesus doing just as He was baptized?
13. Was there a real dove which descended and alighted upon Jesus? What are your grounds for deciding this? Does it make any difference either way?
14. Whose word are we taking for the extraordinary sights and sounds that occurred that day? Does it make any difference about whether we believe that it actually occurred or not?
15. What did the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus mean to John?
16. What did it mean to Jesus? Did Jesus really need any strengthening, help, encouragement or power, such as the Holy Spirit provides?
17. Is Jesus baptism an example for us? If not, why not? If so, to what extent or in what way is it so?
18. What did God say about Jesus? What did He mean by that?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(13) Then cometh Jesus.We are brought here face to face with the question which the legend just quoted sought to answer, and cannot altogether turn aside from it: Why did the Lord Jesus come to the baptism of John? The Sinless One had no sin to confess, no need of repentance. We cannot even ascribe to Him that consciousness of evil which weighs upon the hearts of the saints of God almost in exact proportion to their holiness; yet we must believe that His righteousness was essentially human, and therefore capable of increase, even as He increased in wisdom and stature. Holy as He was at every stage of life in proportion to its capacities, there yet rose before Him height upon height of holiness as yet unattained, and after which we may say with reverence He hungered and thirsted. And for that attainment the baptism, which to others was a stepping-stone out of the slough of despond, might well seem a means, if not a condition. It was meet that He should fill up the full measure of righteousness in all its forms by accepting a divine ordinance, even, perhaps, because it seemed to place Him in fellowship with sinners.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. BAPTISM OF JESUS, Mat 3:13-17 .
13. Then cometh Jesus We have already remarked (Mat 3:1) on the unacquaintance of John with Jesus, according to Joh 1:31-33.
Though the visible descent of the dove-form Spirit was to be a complete token to John alone, that does not prove that the descent was visible to John alone, or that the scene itself of the baptism was (as some commentators think) secret. A similar testimony to his Divine Sonship (Joh 12:28-29) was certainly not secret.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Then comes Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him.’
Having described what is to be, Matthew now moves on to the first stage of its coming into fruition. Jesus travels from Galilee to where John is preaching by the Jordan in order to be baptised by him. This was an act of deliberate and determined choice. By it Jesus demonstrated that He thoroughly approved of the ministry of John, and saw it as the work of God on behalf of Israel. It was the picture of what God was about to do in Israel and He wanted to indicate that He was at one with His people in it. Being baptised by John was the right thing for all men to do, and therefore it was necessary for Him to be a part of it. For He must demonstrate that He was fully a man among men, and at one with all who sought righteousness. It is probable that He also saw the need for Him to admit the need for repentance, not on His own behalf, but on behalf of His people, as the One Who stood in their place to act as their Representative in order to plead on their behalf (see Isa 59:16-17; Isa 59:20). His was a representative repentance as he manifested His people’s repentance before God on their behalf.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
God the Father’s Testimony of Jesus’ Righteousness: The Baptism of Jesus ( Mar 1:9-11 , Luk 3:21-22 , Joh 1:29-34 ) Mat 3:13-17 records the water baptism of Jesus Christ which presented Him to the world as the Messiah. At this baptism, God the Father speaks from Heaven declaring Jesus as His beloved Son in whom He is pleased. No man had ever fully pleased God by his own merits. The Jews spent their lives under the Mosaic Law trying to please God by obeying its statues and later associated traditions. However, their own consciences told them that they had come short of pleasing God. Now God speaks from Heaven to declare Jesus Christ justified in His sight as sinless, perfectly pleasing God in every aspect of His life.
Mat 3:13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
Mat 3:13
Comments – We read in Mat 3:1 that John the Baptist made his public appearance; then in Mat 3:13 the same Greek word is used of Jesus’ public appearance. The Greek word adds a prophetic tone to this narrative material in that we picture prophecy unfolding in God’s divine time line. In other words, these “appearances” are being divinely orchestrated in order to fulfill prophecy.
Mat 3:13 Comments – Scholars locate the place of Jesus’ baptism near Joshua’s crossing of the Jordan. Joh 3:26 tells us that Jesus was baptized by John “beyond Jordan.”
Joh 1:28, “These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan , where John was baptizing.”
Joh 3:23, “And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim , because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.”
Joh 3:26, “And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan , to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.”
Joh 10:40, “And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.”
The Greek preposition , translated “beyond” in the KJV, can also be translated “on the other side of,” or “across,” as in Joh 6:1, “And Jesus went away to the other side of the lake” Perhaps the phrase “beyond Jordan” in describing the place where John was baptizing was referring to a territory on the other side of the Jordan River, i.e., Peraea. For example, this same phrase “beyond Jordan” is used in Mat 4:25 and Mar 3:8 to refer to a specific region, which according to Josephus, was the region of Perea ( Wars 1.29.4, 2.20.4).
Mat 4:25, “And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan .”
Mar 3:8, “And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan ; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came unto him.”
Mat 3:14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
Mat 3:15
Mat 3:15 Comments – Why did Jesus have a need to be baptized, since He had no sin in His life of which to repent? John G. Lake said, “Jesus committed Himself publicly at His baptismbefore all the world…” [348] Thus, one reason for His baptism would be as a public testimony that He was entering into His earthly ministry.
[348] John G. Lake, John G. Lake: His Life, His Sermons, His Boldness of Faith (Fort Worth, Texas: Kenneth Copeland Publications, 1994), 6.
A further insight into the meaning of Jesus’ statement, “For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness,” can be seen when looking at this passage within the context of the outline of Matthew’s Gospel. Mat 3:1 to Mat 4:11 contains three testimonies that Jesus Christ stood sinless, and thus righteous, before God. The testimonies of John the Baptist, God the Father speaking from Heaven, and Jesus while being tempted in the wilderness, all verify Jesus’ righteousness, for He was without sin. Jesus’ water baptism by John serves as one of three important testimonies to us that Jesus stood righteousness before God. Jesus performed His water baptism in order to offer this testimony of righteousness to mankind so that all can believe in Him and be saved. He was baptized in order to fulfill these testimonies so that all might have the opportunity to believe in Him and be justified before God. This is what Jesus meant by saying, “For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus’ baptism also serves as our example of how to be obedience to God when we put our faith in Him for salvation; for we too are commanded to be water baptized when we repent and place our faith in the redemptive work of Christ Jesus on Calvary as a public testimony of our faith. Thus, this act of water baptism served to demonstrate how every believer is also to follow in obedience in order to stand justified before God.
When comparing this passage with the parallel passages in the other three Gospels, Matthew is the only one that records the statement by Jesus Christ in Mat 3:15. This is because Matthew places emphasis upon the fulfillment of Scriptures as they testify that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. His baptism was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in the sense that he spoke of the coming of John the Baptist and his ministry of water baptism (Isa 40:3, Mat 3:3).
Mat 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
Mat 3:16
Act 2:38, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
What would be the significance of the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus Christ at the time of His water baptism in the manifested form of a dove for others to see? We do know that this was the time when Jesus Christ was fully anointed for the ministry in which He was embarking. In addition, we know that the Jewish concept of the Spirit of God hovering over something or someone goes back to the Story of Creation in Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 in which the Spirit of God hovered over the earth. We see this concept again in the Old Testament when the cloud and the fire hovered over the Tabernacle. We will later see how the Spirit manifested Himself over the 120 disciples in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost in the form of cloven tongues (Act 2:1-4). Thus, the Jews who witnessed the baptism of Jesus Christ would easily identify the Spirit of God descending in the form of a dove as a sign that God was with Him and had anointed Him as a Prophet to the people. Thus, the visible manifestation was probably as a sign for the people to believe in Him and not for the sake of Jesus Christ alone.
Mat 3:17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Mat 3:17
Mat 3:15-17 Comments – The Meaning of Jesus’ Baptism – Jesus was buried to His past life as a carpenter (representing us being buried to past life of works of the flesh) and Jesus was raised to walk by God’s Holy Spirit and His anointing (representing us being raised to walk in the newness of life).
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Baptism of Jesus.
The time had now come for Jesus to enter upon His ministry, to be inducted into His office by a public ceremony:
v. 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. He now came forth from His concealment, while John was at the very height of his evangelistic career. He came down to John, not like the Pharisees and Sadducees, who really all the while rejected God’s counsel against themselves, Luk 7:30, but in an open, friendly manner, to enter into amicable relations with him, and incidentally to receive Baptism at his hands. So far as His coming in itself was concerned, there was no difference between His desire for Baptism and that of the multitudes.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 3:13. To be baptized him By this he intended to do an honour to John’s ministry, and to conform himself to what he appointed for his followers. It was for this last reason, that he drank of the sacramental cup. See Diodati. And certainly our Lord’s baptism tended to promote the ends both of his own mission and of his forerunner’s, as it established the authority of both. It established John’smission; great honour being done him by the Messiah’s receiving his baptism. It established our Lord’s mission also; for after he was baptized, the testimonies of the Spirit and voice from heaven, were given him in the presence of the multitude assembled at Jordan. That these testimonies should have been given him on this occasion, rather than on any other, was fit, because it was an august manner of opening our Lord’s ministry; was the most public occasion which could be found; and pointed him out as the Messiah to the Baptist, who was thereby qualified for the principal duty of his mission. See Macknight.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 3:13 . ] at that time , when John thus preached the advent of the Messiah, and baptized the people, Mat 3:1-12 .
. .] See Mat 2:23 . It belongs to . The position is different in Mat 2:1 .
. ] Jesus wished to be baptized by John (genitive, as in Mat 2:13 ), but not in the personal feeling of sinfulness (B. Bauer, Strauss, Pcaut), or as the bearer of the guilt of others (Riggenbach, Krafft); not even because He, through His connection of responsibility with the unclean people , was unclean according to the Levitical law (Lange), or because He believed that He was obliged to regard the collective guilt of the nation as His guilt (Schenkel); just as little in order to separate Himself inwardly from the sins of the nation (Baumgarten), or make it certain that His should not be opposed to the life of the Spirit (Hofrnann, Weissag. und Erfll . II. p. 82), or because the meaning of the baptism is: the declaration that He is subjected to death for the human race (Ebrard); not even to bring in here the divine decision as to His Messiahship (Paulus), or to lay the foundation for the faith of others in Him , so far as baptism is a symbol of the regeneration of those who confess Him (Ammon, L. J. I. p. 268), or in order to honour the baptism of John by His example (Calvin, Kuinoel, Keim), or to bind Himself to the observance of the law (Hofmann, Krabbe, Osiander); or because He had to conduct Himself, before the descent of the Spirit, merely as an Israelite in general. The opinion also of Schleiermacher, that the baptism of Jesus was the symbolical beginning of His announcement of Himself , and, at the same time, a recognition of John’s mission , is foreign to the text. The true meaning appears from Mat 3:15 , namely, because Jesus was consciously certain that He must, agreeably to God’s will, subject Himself to the baptism of His forerunner, in order (Mat 3:16-17 ) to receive the Messianic consecration; that is, the divine declaration that He was the Messiah ( , Euth. Zigabenus), and thereby to belong from that moment solely and entirely to this great vocation . The Messianic consciousness is not to be regarded as first commencing in Him at the baptism, so that He would be inwardly born, by means of baptism, to be the Messiah, and would become conscious of His divine destination, to full purification and regeneration as the new duty of His life; but the , Mat 3:15 , presupposes a clear certainty regarding His vocation; and John’s relation to the same, as in general the existence of that consciousness, must have been the necessary result of His own consciousness, which had attained the maturity of human development, that He was the Son of God. But that baptism, to which He felt certain that He must submit Himself, was to be for Him the divine ordination to the Messiahship . It is clear, according to this, that His baptism was quite different from that of others, so far as in Him, as a sinless being, there could be no confession of sin; but the lustrative character of the baptism could only have the meaning, that from that moment He was taken away from all His previous relations of life which belonged to the earthly sphere, and became, altogether and exclusively, the Holy One of God, whom the Father consecrated by the Spirit. Although He was this God-sanctified One from the beginning, yet now, as He was aware that this was the will of God, He has, by the assumption of baptism, solemnly bound and devoted Himself to the full execution of His unique destiny, a devotion which was already more than a vow (Keim), because it was the actual entrance into the Messianic path of life, which was to receive at the very threshold its divine legitimation for all future time. In so doing, He could, without any consciousness of guilt (Mat 11:29 ), associate Himself, in all humility (Mat 11:29 ), with the multitude of those whom the feeling of guilt impelled to baptism; because in His own consciousness there was still the negation of absolute moral goodness, to which He, long afterwards, expressly gave so decided expression (Mat 19:17 ).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
B. Mat 3:13-17
(Second Pericope on Sunday after the Feast of Circumcision or New Year)
Contents.He who baptizes with the Spirit, and with fire, humbles Himself to submit to the baptism of water, administered to a sinful community. From this communion with sinners the Father exalts Him into communion with the blessed Trinity. The Baptist points Him out to the people as the Messiah promised to the fathers.
13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to [the] Jordan unto John, to be baptized of [by] him. 14But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of [by] thee, and comest thou to me? 15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so11 now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. 16And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of [from] the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, 17 and lighting [coming] upon him: And, lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Mat 3:13. Then ().In contrast with the baptism of the Pharisees and Sadducees, we have here the baptism of Jesus. At that time Jesus came from Galilee to Jordan, to be baptized of him. Meyer suggests the following as the object of Christs baptism (p. 91):Jesus did not come to be baptized from a feeling of personal sinfulness (Bruno Bauer, comp. Strauss); nor because, according to the Levitical law, His personal connection with an impure people rendered Him impure (Lange); nor for the purpose of showing that there was no incompatibility between His and life in the Spirit (Hoffmann, Weissagung und Erfllung, vol. ii. 82); nor because baptism implied a declaration of being subject to the penalty of death (Ebrard); nor in order to elicit the Divine declaration that He was the Messiah (Paulus); nor to confirm the faith of His followers, inasmuch as baptism was a symbol of the regeneration of His disciples (Ammon, L. J. vol i. 268); nor to sanction the baptism of John by His example (Kuinoel, Kern); nor to indicate His obligation to obey the law (Hoffmann, Krabbe, Osiander); nor, lastly, because, before the descent of the Spirit, He acted like any other ordinary Israelite (Hess, Kuhn, comp. Olshausen). The true explanation of this act, as furnished in Mat 3:15, is, that, as the Messiah, He felt that, according to the Divine will, He had to submit to the baptism of His forerunner in order to receive the Divine declaration of His Messianic dignity ( Mat 3:16-17). It was not in baptism that He first became conscious of His dignity as the Messiah, as if by that act He had been inwardly transformed into the Messiah; the expression, ( Mat 3:15), implies that He was conscious of being the Messiah, and of the relation in which, as such, John stood towards Him.We thankfully admit the value of the comprehensive summary furnished by Meyer of the various views propounded on the subject of Christs baptism. But his own explanation does not make it any clearer, either on what grounds Jesus submitted to a baptism unto repentance, or in what sense we are to understand the words of the Saviour, Thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness,an expression which must evidently refer to Old Testament righteousness. With this remark we return to our own explanation. In strict application of the law of Moses as expounded by Haggai (Mat 2:14), John had pronounced the whole people of Israel impure. Jesus Himself, although sinless and holy, was included in this general declaration; His connection with His people rendering Him levitically unclean. This implied that, from His connection with the people, He must needs suffer, or that He, being innocent, must suffer for the people. And thus he fulfilled all righteousness. Meyer is, of course, right in suggesting, that when the Saviour thus freely yet obediently submitted Himself to the judgment resting upon His people, He was preparing for His own glory, and hence, also, for the declaration of His Messianic dignity. But this formed the second or last element in the baptism of Christ, not its basis or fundamental idea. It is scarcely necessary to add, that our explanation includes that of Ebrard; only that, in our view, the idea of consecration unto death was not yet fully expressed in the baptism of John, which only implied sufferings similar to death.
Mat 3:14. But John forbade Him [sought to hinder him].According to Strauss and de Wette, this passage is inconsistent with the statement in Joh 1:23, I knew Him not. But this passage refers only to the prophetic or divine certitude of the Baptist concerning the Messiahship of Jesus. Such certitude could neither be the result of what his mother Elisabeth would tell him, nor of his previous acquaintanceship with Jesus: it could only be obtained by a distinct sign from on high. Still he was sufficiently impressed with the religious and moral exaltation of Jesus to feel that He required not baptism at His hands (Hoffmann). Add to this the wonderful impression produced by the personal appearance of the Lord, and by the increasing conviction of John that what his parents had formerly told him would now prove to be true. Accordingly, he felt as the less in presence of the greateras a sinner in presence of the Holy One. The obvious inference from the baptism which He administered, and to which Jesus was about to submit, seemed so strange to the Baptist, that he shrunk from it. Hence the expression he forbade Him, the composite being stronger than the simple verb. Jesus removed these objections by simply referring to the requirements of righteousness; by which our Lord must have meant the Levitical consequences of Johns prophetic mission, and not that John would see what miraculous sign should accompany the rite. The great object was simple obedience. How to own and glorify the obedience of His dear Son, God reserved to Himself. Any confession of sin was, of course, out of the question: there was only a profession on the part of Jesus, that as an Israelite He became subject to the law, and that He was connected with humanity by the ties of blood, of history, of suffering, and of love. The apocryphal Prdicatio Pauli (see Credner, Beitrge i. p. 360) first set forth the false notion that Jesus made a confession of sin; while in the Evang. sec. Hebr. (see Hieronymus, Contr. Pel. iii. 2), Jesus replies to the solicitations of His mother and brethren to be baptized along with them: Quid peccavi, ut vadam et baptizer ab eo? nisi forte hoc ipsum quod dixi, ignorantia est. On the discussion between John and Jesus in the Evang. sec. Hebr., see Meyer, p. 92.
Mat 3:15. Thus it becomes us.The baptism of Jesus was a duty, not only on the part of the Lord, but also on the part of the Baptist.
Mat 3:16. Went up straightway.A special meaning attaches to the word , as if He had flown upwards from out of the water. This miraculous ascent from the deep was connected with the equally miraculous descent of the Spirit of God from on high.
Lo, the heavens were opened unto Him; .The contradictory [rationalistic] explanations of Paulus, who speaks of a clearing up of the sky, and of Kuinoel and Amnion, who speak of a thunder-storm, may neutralize each other. Meyer maintains that it must not be considered as a poetic description of what took place, but that the heavens were literally opened, and the Holy Spirit descended through this opening. It is difficult to understand the exact meaning of Meyer, as this view implies that the event itself was mythical, and hence also poetical. In another place (Leben Jesu, ii. 1, p. 183), we have ventured to suggest that even the outward phenomena attending this great event were unique, the stars making their appearance on the occasion. In this way it would seem to bear analogy with the darkening of the sun at midday during the crucifixion, even as Christs baptism was analogous, and formed a prelude to, His final sufferings But there was also undoubtedly a vision, in which, although mainly designed for the Saviour, the Baptist had also a part (comp. Joh 12:28; Act 9:7; Act 22:9). For the Baptist must evidently have heard the voice by which Jesus was designated as the beloved Son. Although the word refers primarily to Jesus Himself, we conclude that John also participated in the vision,1. from his having heard the voice; 2. from the account given by Luke and by John. Thus, while the vision was primarily designed for Christ, it must have been beheld by both.
Like a dove (Luke: ).The expression cannot be meant as symbolical simply of the manner in which the Spirit descendedrapid (Fritzsche), quiet (Neander), pure (Olshausen), creative (Baumgarten-Crusius). Meyer very appropriately calls attention to the parallel passage in Luke; nor must we lose sight of the import of the term . The Gospel of the Hebrews, as quoted by Epiph. 30:13, correctly interprets the phrase as implying that he saw the Holy Spirit of God descending in the form (or rather in the visionary form, ) of a dove. It was not a real dove; but, to his vision, it appeared as the form of a dove descending. A symbol this of perfect gentleness, purity, fulness of life, and of the power of communicating it.
Mat 3:17. And lo a voice.Comp. Luk 5:12; Luk 19:20; Act 8:27; Rev 4:1; Rev 6:2; Rev 7:9. Along with the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son also now manifest themselves. The term Son is applied to the Messiah (Psa 2:7; Isa 42:1), not merely in reference to His official character, but more especially to His Divine nature. There is evidently an allusion here to the miraculous origin of Christ by the Holy Ghost (Mat 1:20; Luk 1:35). The expression, , is neither equivalent to our most beloved (in the superlative degree), nor to only one, but means only beloved or beloved in a unique sense. , In whom I am well pleased.The verb is put in the Aorist to denote the eternal act of loving contemplation with which the Father regards the Son. There is a rhythmical connection between this event, the testimony to the Son heard in the temple, and, lastly, the voice from heaven heard on the Mount of Transfiguration. Nor must we omit noticing the peculiar demonstrative form of the expression, in Matthew, This is My beloved Son, not, Thou art My Son: implying, 1. that this voice was specially designed as a revelation to John 2. that it was granted to him for the purpose of his mission, which was to introduce Jesus as the Messiah to the people. In the Gospels of Mark and Luke, there is a more particular reference to Jesus Himself as the source and spring of the vision, Thou art My beloved Son; while John lays special stress upon the part which the Baptist sustained in the vision.
General Notes on the Whole Section.The objections raised by modern criticism against the historical character of this narrative fall to the ground the moment we acknowledge the supernatural element in the life of our Saviour. We cannot even admit with Meyer that there is a real difference between the account as gives by John and the other Evangelists; far less can we agree with him in reducing the fact in the case to the vision of a dove. The fact, that this was a vision, does not exclude the objective reality of this miraculous event; on the contrary, It is in perfect accordance with it. The question, whether before that time the dove was regarded as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, is one of considerable interest. Among the Syrians, the dove was held sacred, as the symbol of the fructifying power of nature (Creuzer, Symbolik, ii. 80). This throws fresh light upon the expression in Gen 1:2, that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters: the Talmud has it, that He moved over it like a dove. But the symbol is not further carried out in the Old Testament, though there is much significance in the dove of Noahs ark, and the dove in the Song of Solomon. Our Lord also alludes to it in Mat 10:16. Taking a general survey of these emblems, we gather the impression, that the symbol of a dove referred more particularly to the Church, as indeed the Holy Spirit manifests Himself, and, so to speak, assumes shape in the Church. On the Talmudical and rabbinical interpretations of this symbol, comp. Meyer, p. 98.
According to Strauss, the statement of the Evangelist, that Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, cannot be reconciled with the narrative in the text, that at His baptism He was baptized with the Holy Ghost. Critics of his school have attempted to connect this baptism with the Holy Ghost, with the view of some of the Gnostics (Cerinthus, Basilides, Valentinus, etc.), that the man Jesus received at His baptism the heavenly Logos. But all these assertions ignore the truth of the human development of our Lord. At His birth, He was filled and actuated by the Holy Spirit, so far at His talent and disposition was concerned. This implied His perfect sinlessness. But at His baptism, He attained the full consciousness of His nature and mission at the God-Man and Saviour. From that moment He became the organ of the Holy Spirit, not merely so far as He was personally concerned, but also as fully realizing His mediatorial character and work, and its relation to the salvation of mankind. He now received the Holy Ghost in His capacity as founder of the spiritual community about to be instituted. But this fulness of the Spirit remained still concealed under the form of a servant, and in the lowliness of His walk and work. It was only after the work had been finished and accepted, that the Spirit was poured out in all His fulness upon His believing people; and the dove, which had erst descended into His heart, now issued forth to move and to brood over the waters of the nations of the earth.
In the passive baptism of Jesus (that by John), we have the first glimmer of a distinct revelation of the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It brightens into full glory at the active baptism of Jesus, or the institution of Holy Baptism in Matthew 28, which is in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.The connection between the two events is manifest.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Jesus cometh from Galilee to the lower Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. From this we draw the following inferences: 1. The influence of the baptism of John had extended over the whole people of Israel. 2. Jesus came under the direct and irresistible impulse of the Holy Spirit. This was His first act after attaining manhood, since the time when, at twelve years of age, He manifested Himself in the temple, and again retired to the obscurity of Nazareth. Yet this act, so enigmatic to many of our modem theologians, was performed without any doubt or hesitation on the part of our Lord. The Divine call had reached Him, that He, the Holy One, should, according to the demands of the law, submit to the judgment of sinners. And this constituted, so to speak, the consecration for His work, to which He submitted, in anticipation both of the sufferings and the glory which were to come.
2. John was surprised when he saw Jesus coming to be baptized. The Baptist, no doubt, knew the prophecies which his parents had uttered concerning Jesus; probably, he was even personally acquainted with Him. Add to this the impression produced by the appearance of Jesus Himself. But all this was not sufficient to warrant him in presenting Jesus as the Messiah to the people: He had yet to await a distinct revelation to that effect. But it was more than sufficient to make him feel that baptism for purification was entirely inapplicable to the Lord, viewing Him in His personal character and dignity. Hence he could not but shrink, for the moment, from the tremendous consequences of his baptism; all the more, that in the presence of Jesus he felt more deeply than ever his own unworthiness and sinfulness: hence his refusal and his confession: I have need to be baptized of Thee. But Jesus judged otherwise. The inference from the baptism of John was none other than that from the law itself, which again only reflected the sacred and solemn object of His incarnation and life. There is a historical connection between the Holy One and His sinful brethren; therefore must he suffer with and for them. Thus the baptism of John was not only applicable to Jesus, but attained its real meaning and object only by the baptism of Jesus. Thus it became the symbol of His consecration unto death, for the salvation of the world. Hence the exclamation of John, after the baptism of Jesus, Behold the Lamb of God!
It seems as if, in this controversy between Jesus and John, the Old and the New Testament had, for the time being, changed sides. John appears almost the representative of the liberty of the New, Christ that of the legal rigor of the Old Testament. Thus the rods of Old Testament and of New Testament righteousness are here joined into a cross (Leb. Jesu, ii. 1, p. 177). But the connection and unity between the two dispensations appears in this intertwining of its ultimate links.Jesus conquers in this contest. More than ever before does the Baptist now humble himself, under a sense of the deep responsibility of his office. The Lord also humbles Himself under the law, to which he now formally becomes obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2).
3. This is the only instance in which there is neither confession of sin on the part of Him who is baptized, nor reproof and exhortation on the part of the Baptist. The baptismal address comes from heaven itself; but the blessings of the baptism descend upon all mankind. Heaven once again opened at the baptism of Jesusprimarily for Him, and, through Him, for all mankind. The blessing which flowed from this baptismthe prophetic import of which attained its fulfilment in the death on the crossappeared at the close of Christs mission on earth, in the institution of holy baptism for His people, with the gracious blessing of the TrinityFather, Son, and Holy Ghostattaching to it. For this purpose did the Father reveal Himself on this occasion; for this purpose did Jesus obtain without measure the anointing of the Spirit; for this purpose did He as the Son throw open the portals of heaven, and offer himself by the Holy Ghost to the Father, for the salvation of the world.
4. The germs of the doctrine of the Trinity which occur in the Old Testament, are taken up in the commencement of the Gospel history, where the miraculous conception of Jesus through the Holy Ghost is announced (Matthew 1; Luke 1). This mystery is more clearly brought out in the narrative of Christs baptism, and is more fully developed in the progress of the Gospel history. This shows that what is called the Trinity of revelation depends on the Trinity of essence For the relation between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as here revealed, is preminently that of nature or essence (ontological); while afterwards, in Mat 28:19, it appears more especially as a relation of manifestation or of revelation.
5. The glorification of Jesus by the voice from heaven, heard at his baptism, may be regarded as the second stage in the miraculous events attending His life, by which he was gradually and increasingly manifested as the absolute Wonder, and hence as the Wonderful or Wonder-worker. The first of these heavenly attestations was His miraculous birth, and with it the star and the angels hymn. Then followed the manifestation of Jesus at His baptism, when, instead of the voice of angels, that from heaven is heard, and which, from its utterance, we recognize as the voice of the Father. Instead of the star standing over Bethlehem, we have now the vision of a dove descending upon the Lord. This glorious manifestation becomes still brighter at the transfiguration of Jesus on the Mount. Here also the voice of the Father descends in the cloud upon the Mountit is heard close by; while the fulness of the Spirit resting on Jesus shines forth in His personal appearance, as He stands transfigured before His disciples. Once more is the same voice heard: this time in the Temple, and in the midst of His people; and although it only conveys to Him personally the assurance that the name of the Father shall be glorified in Him, it appears to his followers to be the voice of an angel, to the peoplethe sound of thunder. This is the third occasion on which the voice from heaven is heard. Lastly, on the Mount of Olives He is carried upward to the Father in a cloud of glory, and by the power of the Spirit. The various stages of this direct attestation from heaven may thus be marked:1. The miraculous origin of Christ from heaven; 2. the consecration, among His chosen ones, for His appearance in the form of a servant upon earth; 3. the prelude of the transformation of His earthly appearance as a servant, celebrated among His disciples; 4. the same as celebrated among the people; 5. the resurrection-glory, and the final transfiguration.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The mighty impulse of the Spirit leading Christ to Jordan. This appears from the circumstance, 1. that He came from a great distance; 2. that He came alone; 3. that He came fully decided on the course before Him.Christ resolved on submitting to baptism.Jesus does not shrink from the same baptismal bath which the generation of vipers had received.The various humiliations to which Jesus submitted during His youthful course: 1. from Bethlehem to Egypt; 2. from the temple to Nazareth; 3. from His sacred retirement to the baptism of sinners.How the Lord owned the Divine institution of baptism.How He honored the sacred office.The twofold difficulty of Johns work: 1. He was obliged to baptize the Pharisees and Sadducees; 2. he had to baptize the Lord.John himself required the grace of the Lord.How the Baptist confessed that he stood in need of the baptism of Jesus.How the holy office entrusted to ministers must tend to humble those who are in earnest, but how it also elevates them.The greatness of John as appearing most fully in his humility.He who was baptized greater than he who baptized.Suffer it to be so now. The infinite import of the word now: 1. A summing up of eternity in time, and of time in today, and of today in the moment which claims our decision; 2. an enigma propounded by the past and solved by the future; 3. an altar on which our obedience is claimed, and a blessing promised; 4. a passing phase of earth, which may be transformed into a revelation of heaven.Suffer it to be so now. 1. Suffer it at last to be Song of Solomon 2. suffer it quickly to be Song of Solomon 3. suffer it to be so for a moment; 4. suffer it to be so once for all.The baptism of Jesus the fulfilment of all righteousness, 1. so far as the mission of John was concerned; 2. so far as the demands of the law were concerned; 3. so far as the dealings of God with men, according to the fundamental principles of His administration, were concerned.Import of the fact that the Holy One submitted to the baptism of sinners: 1. Sinners must be immersed in the waters of judgment. 2. The Sinless One is immersed along with them, in order to give them courage for the judgment. 3. He must be immersed for them to change that judgment, so far as they are concerned, into salvation.The glory of the Lord in this great act of His humiliation.The manifestation of the Messiah.The manifestation of the Messiah in the glorious light of the Trinity.Out of the water, a watchword of life. 1. The earth out of water; 2. Noah and his race out of the water; 3. Moses and his people out of the water; 4. Christ and His Church out of the water.Heaven opened on the occasion of baptism. 1. Heaven is opened, a. for all the blessings which come down from above; b. for all the prayers which ascend from below. 2. It is opened over him who is baptized: a. over the Lord Himself; b. over all who are baptized in His name.Heaven opened: the heart of the Father opened.The Spirit of God descending like a dove: 1. In His purity like a dove; hence He finds at first only one resting-placethe head and heart of Jesus. 2. In His gentleness like a dove; hence addressing Himself to man. 3. In His harmlessness like the dove; hence conquering the wicked one. 4. In His love as the dove; hence imparting life to the Church.The voice from heaven in the manifestation of Christ, and its echo in the justification of the sinner.How the three tokens accompanying the baptism of Christ are spiritually repeated in every baptism. 1. Heaven is opened to the child which is now placed by the side of the Song of Solomon 2. The dovelike mind of the Holy Spirit is imparted by the Son to the child. 3. In the testimony to the Son the child hears the testimony of sonship, and of the Fathers good pleasure.The baptism of Jesus as the sealing of His name.The baptism of Jesus the manifestation of His humiliation and exaltation: 1. As His first actual and personal humiliation and exaltation; 2. as throwing light upon the humiliation and exaltation of His childhood; 3. as the token of His future humiliation and exaltation; 4. as the act deciding the future humiliation and exaltation of His whole life.Jesus undertaking His work in full consciousness of what awaited Him, and being attested by the Father and the Holy Ghost.The blessedness springing from certitude of the Divine call.
Starke:God has in His wisdom fixed for every one of us the proper time when we are to come forth.However highly placed a man may be, he should pay all becoming reverence to the Divine institution of the word and sacraments.Humility a precious gem.Christ has consecrated the washing of regeneration.Let us be careful to know what becometh us at every time.Heaven, which was closed by the first Adam, is opened again over the second.To us also has heaven again been opened by Christ, the Lord from heaven.
Gossner:As soon as the sinner opens his heart to God in repentance, God opens the heavens and owns him as His child.
Footnotes:
[11] Mat 3:15.[The words to be so, are unnecessary. Suffer it now, is sufficient for .P.S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
Here we have, at this verse, the introduction of the LORD of life and glory, in his public entrance upon his divine office, as the GOD-MAN Mediator. Luke, in his relation of this wonderful event, tells the Church, that at this time, JESUS himself began to be about thirty-years of age. Luk 3:23 . Hence we learn that the SON of GOD waited the appointed time for the being manifested unto Israel. But let not the Reader suppose, that the long interval from his birth, to this public entrance upon his ministry, was spent without an eye to the redemption-work he became incarnate to perform. No doubt every act, and every incident, in the life of CHRIST, had respect to the great object for which he came. The poverty of his birth, the humbleness of his calling, as a carpenter, the meanness of his companions, to one who from all eternity had lain in the bosom of the FATHER; No doubt, some great and special ends were intended from the whole. That sweet and precious scripture answers every enquiry, though it enters not into the full investigation of the cause: Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. Heb 2:17 . Precious JESUS! how ought such views to endear thee to thy people!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 9
Sympathy, Inauguration, and Sympathy Providence Both Slow and Swift Review of the Chapter the True Law of Development the True Baptism
Prayer
Almighty God, since the darkness and the light are both alike unto thee, thou canst make it light in our hearts, even though they be under a great cloud and gloom. Thou delightest to come into the soul of man, and to shed upon it all the brightness and beauty of heavenly morning. So do thou now come unto our hearts and create all the peace of thy sacred Sabbath, and give thy pilgrims rest. Very good art thou, and as for thy truth, it is more sure than the sun. Very tender, beyond all we know of pity, is the Lord, and he is our Father, and on him do we rest in the time of sore trouble and great fear. For a long time we turned our eyes away from thee as though we knew thee not, and then suddenly coming upon great woe, behold our hearts turned their eyes towards the heavens to search for him who reigns and rules over all. Thou dost receive thy prodigals every day, yea, in the night time dost thou open the door of thy house to let thy wanderers in. We are all thine, though we have spoken against thee; we bear thine image, though our hand has been thrust into thy face: we are still thy children, though we have ruined every faculty and wasted our inheritance, and are no more worthy to be called thy sons. So great is thy love, so all-forgiving is thy spirit: we come to thee now without any defence or excuse, assured by the very breath of thy gospel that we shall be received, even with joyfulness, in the courts of our Father’s house.
We have done wickedly: we bring back no commandment to thy throne that we have kept: we dare not stand upon our virtue and innocence and ask for thine inquiry. We are evil and we have done evil, and we are witnesses against ourselves, and the day is too short to hear the testimony of our self-accusation. But great is the mercy of the Lord, and full is his everlasting love, and ready to reply in his yielding and clement heart, seeing that we do come in the appointed way, and breathe our penitential prayer at the foot of the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We speak in his sweet great name, it is a name to sinners dear, it was created for the use of sinners verily it is their name, a rock in which they hide, a sun from which they expect their light, a sanctuary of delight and a pledge of power.
We entreat thee to hear our praises when we bless thee for all thy loving care. The fire has not gone out at home, the sick one is still with us, and a new gleam of hope lights up the chamber of gloom. Thou hast kept our roof over our head, and the snow has melted without drenching us. Behold thou hast kept the winter outside, and on the hearthstone hast thou set the flower of summer. Our table thou dost spread with a liberal hand, thou dost make our bed, and soften our pillow, and send sweet sleep to give us renewal of strength. All our friends are with us still, cheerful and glad, and touching us with the contagion of a rich sympathy, blessing us with the comfort of high fellowship, and giving gladness to the earth. Our reasoning faculties thou hast spared unto us, we are men at liberty and not in prison, we are bound to one another by the bonds of love, no fetter falls upon our limbs. What, then, shall we render unto the Lord for all his personal and social blessings unto us? We will lift high our hymn of praise, and bless the Lord with a solemn psalm.
Beyond all this, thou hast made our hearts rich with grace: before our eyes thou hast set a bright hope, thou hast put into our souls the comfort of thy Son, thou hast given us a Saviour, name high above all others, sweet beyond all names we know. May he be unto us Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, all and in all, what we need, what we cannot live without, assurance upon assurance, as grace upon grace, until our confidence becomes a high triumph.
We bless thee for thy written word, placed before us in our mother tongue: we thank thee for ability to read it, each man for himself. As we read, do thou explain: then shall thy word bo written upon the page before us, and upon the inner page of our loving hearts.
Hear all special praises and incline thine ear to all particular complaints. Do thou give rest unto the weary, and hope to the sad, and a new beginning to those who have spoiled all the past. Lift us into high ecstasy because of the renewal of our life and hope in Christ Jesus, and as the year closes around us, and bids us pensively Farewell, may we rise in the spirit of devotion and consecration, and attach ourselves to thy cause by broad and honourable vows.
Good Lord, hear us: let thy pity be greater than our sin, let the cross of Jesus Christ rise infinitely beyond the gloom of our distress, and give us assurance of pardon, purity, and heaven. Amen.
Mat 3:13-17 .
13. “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14. But John forbade (sought to hinder) him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now (for the present) for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16. And Jesus when he was baptized went straightway out of the water, and lo the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him:
17. And lo a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
There is one point upon which we are all agreed namely, that the baptism of Jesus Christ could not be a baptism unto repentance. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” He was without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, the very Son of God, pure as the bosom on which he rested and out of which he came. We must, therefore, find other reasons than that of repentance for this baptism of the Saviour of the world. John must enlarge his own conception of the baptism which he came to administer. He had used the word Repent; now a new word was to be attached to his baptism, and an infinitely older and larger word. What man amongst us is there who knows the exact measure of his work? Yet, for the sake of convenience, every one of us has a name by which he designates his ministry. John, for example, called his service a baptism unto repentance. But there came one unto him who said, “The other word which enlarges your service to its true proportion, and indicates its high intent and purport, is Righteousness.” John thought his ministry a negative one: Jesus Christ taught him that his baptism was positive as well as negative, a baptism unto righteousness or in accordance with the spirit of righteousness, as well as a baptism unto repentance.
This baptism of Christ was a baptism of sympathy. Sympathy means feeling with, having a common pathos or feeling, emotion, or passion, and he, the Saviour, was in all points made like unto his brethren, that in all points he might have a fellow-feeling, a kindred passion: that there might be no tone in all the gamut of their life’s utterance to which he could not respond, giving it a counterpart, a fulfilment, a higher emphasis, a keener and truer accent. Jesus Christ identified himself with all the dispensations of providence; he was the spirit of the prophets, and now he came into this baptism of John. When he expounded the Scriptures he began at Moses he could not have begun earlier and he expounded them to those who listened to him what was written in Moses, in the prophets, and in the Psalms; and, having been present in all these dispensations or varieties of the divine mood in relation to the children of men, was he to be absent only from the baptism of John? So he accepted that baptism, not because the word Repentance was associated with it, but because it also extended itself by subtle processes wholly unknown to the Baptist himself to Righteousness.
It was a baptism of inauguration and a baptism of approval; John was hereby sealed as a witness and messenger of God. By this act Jesus Christ said, “John is no adventurer, and his baptism is no mere sensation of the passing hour. It goes back to the decree and purpose of God, it looks forward to the infinite gospel which it holds,” and thus John himself was sealed, approved, and crowned in this very act of humble service performed by the Son of God. It was, I repeat, a baptism of inauguration. Jesus Christ was not in the sacerdotal line, though in the line royal: he came to be the Priest of the universe, having from eternity been its King, now he was introduced or inaugurated into his high-priestly office.
How little we know what we are doing when we baptize any life. We speak of repentance and cleansing as the meaning and purport of baptism, and sometimes we are baptizing kings and priests, and we know it not. The possibility that we may be thus inaugurating to high office and noble position some human life should throw over our whole service a tender and hopeful solemnity. You cannot tell who is under your influence: it may be a king, a priest, a deliverer. You thought your work was a preliminary one, you called yourself an elementary teacher, you said, in humble self-deprecation, “I am but a pioneer, I am only a forerunner, my name is a herald and nothing more, and I give introductory lessons, and cannot proceed to the higher learning: I am only a precursor, and nothing more.” You limited yourself too much, John thought he was a crying voice, whereas it was appointed of God that he should inaugurate to his priestly office the Saviour of the world.
Thus the lesser may be concerned in the service of the greater. “I have need to be baptized of thee.” If a man does not feel his own need of baptism he is unworthy of administering the rite in any of its higher senses to the humblest creature that ever was presented at the altar. “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” We know the meaning of this in other ranges of thinking. A minister sometimes sees before him persons to whom intellectually he is but slave and minister, and he says, “I have need to be intellectually elevated and illuminated by thee, and comest thou to me?” Yet the coming is perfectly right, for this kingdom of Christ is not a merely intellectual school, it is a school in which intellect has to sit down and humble itself, and patiently wait for the illumining revelation which is shed from Heaven. We do not sit here in our cleverness and grandeur and intellectual influence, but in our moral nakedness and necessity, in our spiritual simplicity and childlike-ness, waiting not for man but for God, and for man only in so far as he is the medium on which the infinite silence breaks into momentary speech for the teaching and comforting of the human heart.
Thus, too, God puts himself under his own laws. “The laws of nature” is a mood of God, is but another expression for God himself. Do not speak of laws of nature as if they were somewhat independent of God. They are God, they are God in motion, God made visible, God made audible, God coming down in wondrous condescension so far into our region, and thinking that we can in some degree trace him, and identify him, and judge him. Thus Jesus Christ came unto the baptism of John. It was to him a baptism of sympathy, a baptism of approval, a baptism of inauguration, a stooping of the divine so as to take up its own laws and exemplify its own purposes.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
Ver. 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee ] Our Saviour came far to seek his baptism. Let not us think much of any pains taken, that we may partake of the ordinances. The Shunammite went (ordinarily) every sabbath and new moon, on horseback, to hear the prophet, 2Ki 4:23 . The good people in David’s time “passed through the valley of Baca,”Psa 84:6Psa 84:6 , from strength to strength, to see the face of God in Sion, though but in that dark glass of the ceremonies. And in Daniel’s time they ran to and fro “to increase knowledge,” Dan 12:4 . In Zechariah’s days the inhabitants of one city went to another, saying, “Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also,” Zec 8:21 . Our Saviour took it ill that men came not as far to hear him as the queen of Sheba did to hear Solomon, Mat 12:42 . The eunuch came as far to worship in the temple, Act 8:27 . And of our forefathers in King Henry VIII’s time Mr Foxe saith thus: “To see their travels, earnest seeking, burning zeal, readings, watchings, sweet assemblies, love, concord, godly living, faithful marrying with the faithful, may make us now in these our days of free profession to blush for shame. George Eagles, martyr in Queen Mary’s days, for his great pains in travelling from place to place to confirm the brethren, was surnamed, ‘Trudge over the world.’” (Acts and Mon.)
To be baptized of him ] Not for any need he had (for he was a Lamb without blemish of natural corruption, and without spot of actual transgression, 1Pe 1:19 ), but merely for our benefit, to sanctify baptism to us, and to grace his own ordinance for us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13 17. ] JESUS HIMSELF BAPTIZED BY HIM. Mar 1:9-11 .Luk 3:21-22Luk 3:21-22 . It does not appear exactly when the baptism of our Lord took place . If the comparative age of the Baptist is taken into account, we should suppose it to have been about six months after this latter began his ministry. But this is no sure guide. The place was Bethany (the older reading), beyond Jordan; Joh 1:28 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
13. . ] Why should our Lord, who was without sin , have come to a baptism of repentance? Because He was made sin for us: for which reason also He suffered the curse of the law. It became Him, being in the likeness of sinful flesh , to go through those appointed rites and purifications which belonged to that flesh. There is no more strangeness in His having been baptized by John, than in His keeping the Passovers. The one rite, as the other, belonged to sinners and among the transgressors He was numbered . The prophetic words in Psa 40:12 , spoken in the person of our Lord, indicate, in the midst of sinlessness, the most profound apprehension of the sins of that nature which He took upon him. I cannot suppose the baptism to have been sought by our Lord merely to honour John (Kuinel), or as knowing that it would be the occasion of a divine recognition of his Messiahship (Paulus), and thus preordained by God (Meyer): but bona fide , as bearing the infirmities and carrying the sorrows of mankind, and thus beginning here the triple baptism of water, fire, and blood, two parts of which were now accomplished, and of the third of which He himself speaks, Luk 12:50 , and the beloved Apostle, 1Jn 5:8 , where = .
His baptism, as it was our Lord’s closing act of obedience under the Law, in His hitherto concealed life of legal submission, His . ., so was His solemn inauguration and anointing for the higher official life of mediatorial satisfaction which was now opening upon Him. See Rom 1:3-4 . We must not forget that the working out of perfect righteousness in our flesh by the entire and spotless keeping of God’s law ( Deu 6:25 ), was, in the main, accomplished during the thirty years previous to our Lord’s official ministry .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 3:13-17 . Jesus appears, His baptism and its accompaniments (Mar 1:9-11 ; Luk 3:21-22 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 3:13 . . . : then , after John had described the Messiah, appears on the scene ( , the historical present again, as in Mat 3:1 , with dramatic effect) from Galilee , where He has lived since childhood, Jesus , the real Christ; how widely different from the Christ conceived by the Baptist we know from the whole evangelic history. But shutting off knowledge gathered from other sources, we may obtain significant hints concerning the stranger from Galilee from the present narrative. He comes . ., . These words at once suggest a contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees and Sadducees. They came to the baptism as a phenomenon to be critically observed. Jesus comes to the Jordan ( ), towards the Baptist ( ) to enter into personal friendly relations with him ( vide Joh 1:1 , ), in order to be baptised by him (genitive of the infinitive expressing purpose). Jesus comes thoroughly in sympathy with John’s movement, sharing his passion for righteousness, fully appreciating the symbolic significance of his baptism, and not only willing, but eager to be baptised; the Jordan in His mind from the day He leaves home. A very different person this from the leaders of Israel, Pharisaic or Sadducaic. But the sequel suggests a contrast also between Him and John himself.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 3:13-17
13Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14But John tried to prevent Him, saying “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him. 16After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
Mat 3:13 “Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him” The Gospels differ in their early chronologies of Jesus’ ministries in Galilee and Judea. It seems that there was an early Judean ministry and a later one, but all four Gospels’chronologies must be harmonized in order to see this early Judean visit (cf. Joh 2:13 to Joh 4:3).
Why Jesus was baptized has always been a concern for believers because John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Jesus did not need forgiveness for He was sinless (cf. Joh 8:46; Act 3:14; Rom 8:3; 2Co 5:21; Heb 4:15; Heb 7:26; 1Pe 2:22; 1Jn 3:5). The theories have been as follows:
1. it was an example for believers to follow
2. it was His identification with believers’need
3. it was His ordination and equipping for ministry
4. it was a symbol of His redemptive task
5. it was His approval of the ministry and message of John the Baptist
6. it was prophetic of His death, burial, and resurrection (cf. Rom 6:4; Col 2:12).
Whatever the reason, this was a defining moment in Jesus’ life. Although it does not imply that Jesus became the Messiah at this point (adoptionism, cf. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture by Bart D. Ehrman, pp. 47-118), it held great significance for Him.
Mat 3:14 “But John tried to prevent Him” This is an imperfect tense verb. Many commentators have struggled with why John tried again and again to prevent Jesus from being baptized. Some theories are:
1. some see this as John having previous knowledge of Jesus, but this conflicts with Joh 1:31; Joh 1:33
2. some see this as John acknowledging that Jesus was a righteous Jew, but not that He was the Messiah
3. in modern Near Eastern culture one must insist three times to be considered sincere
Mat 3:15 “But Jesus answering said to him” Mat 3:14-15 are found only in the Gospel of Matthew. They do not provide enough information to completely answer the question of Mat 3:14. It is certain, however, that the baptism had meaning both for Jesus and John and that it was God’s will for both their lives.
Mat 3:16
NASB”Jesus came up immediately from the water”
NKJV”came up immediately from the water”
NRSV”just as he came up from the water”
TEV”Jesus came up out of the water”
NJB”he at once came up from the water”
This verse has been used by those who support immersion as the only biblical mode of baptism to prove that Jesus was immersed. However, it could be understood to mean that He went up on the bank out of the water (see Michael Magill, New Testament TransLine, p. 9, #35 and 36).
“the heavens were opened” This is a metaphorical way of showing God’s will (cf. Isa 22:22; Rev 3:7). Only God can open heaven (cf. Mal 3:10; Rev 4:1). God opens blind eyes (i.e., Mat 9:27-31; Mat 12:22-23; Mat 20:29-34; note Isa 29:18; Isa 35:5; Isa 42:7; Isa 42:16) and answers prayer (cf. Mat 7:7-8).
It is surely possible that this metaphor is from Isa 64:1.
“and he saw” The Greek text has only the pronoun “he,” which could refer to either John or Jesus. Some ancient Greek uncial manuscripts (cf8 i1, C, D, L, and W), some ancient translations (the Vulgate and Coptic), and the Greek texts used by early church fathers (Irenaeus, Eusebius, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine) imply that only Jesus saw the dove coming, in the phrase “the heavens were opened to Him.” However, the dove was also a sign to John to point out the true Messiah (cf. Joh 1:32).
“the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him” This is recorded in all four Gospels (Mar 1:10; Luk 3:22; Joh 1:32). Was it like a dove or was it a real dove? The question cannot be fully answered (cf. Luk 3:22). This is related to Isa 11:2; Isa 42:1; Isa 48:16; Isa 61:1. The specific form of the Spirit is not as significant as the Spirit Himself coming upon Jesus. This does not imply that before this time Jesus did not have the Holy Spirit, but that this was a special inauguration of His Messianic task.
The symbolism of the dove has been discussed a great deal as to its origin and purpose.
1. it goes back to Genesis 1, where the Spirit brooded over the waters
2. it goes back to Genesis 8, where Noah sent a dove out from the ark
3. the rabbis said that the dove was a symbol of Israel (cf. Psa 68:13; Hos 7:11; Hos 11:11; The Talmud San. 95A and Ber. R. 39; 2Es 5:26)
4. Tasker, in the Tyndale New Testament Commentary Series, says that it refers to gentleness, which is to be contrasted with the fire in Mat 3:11 (cf. Rom 11:22; Mat 11:29; Mat 25:40).
Mat 3:17 “a voice out of the heavens” This phrase is significant for several reasons. During the inter-biblical period, when there was no true prophet, the rabbis said that God confirmed His choice and decisions by means of a bath kol, which was a voice from heaven. Also, this voice was a sign from God in a cultural way these first century Jews could understand (cf. Act 10:9-16; Act 11:7-9; Rev 1:10; Rev 4:1; Rev 10:8; Rev 11:12). It was apparently as meaningful to Jesus as it was to John and possibly to the crowd which observed His baptism.
The combination of the quote “My Son in whom I am delighted” links the royal Messianic, Davidic emphasis of Psa 2:7 with the Suffering Servant motif of Isa 42:1. Here, in this quote, the royal Messiah is linked to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah.
This phrase, “My Beloved Son” (also note Mat 17:5) is the possible origin of the phrase “Son of God,” which is found in Mat 4:3; Mat 4:6. It is significant to note that in Mar 1:11 it was translated “You are My beloved Son,” which showed that the Father directed His words to Jesus, while in Matthew 3, it was translated in such a way as to indicate that God spoke to John and the crowd. See Special Topic: Son of God at Mat 27:54.
Mat 3:16-17 involve all three persons of the Trinity. The term “trinity” is not in the Bible, but the concept is surely scriptural. The fact that the Bible asserts the oneness of God (monotheism, Deu 6:4) must be balanced with the deity of Jesus and the personality of the Spirit. There is one divine essence and three eternal personal manifestations. The three divine personalities are often mentioned in the same context (i.e., Mat 3:16-17; Mat 28:19; Act 2:33-34; Rom 8:9-10; 1Co 12:4-6; 2Co 1:21-22; 2Co 13:14; Eph 1:3-14; Eph 4:4-6; Tit 3:4-6; 1Pe 1:2).
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TRINITY
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Jesus. See App-98.
from = away from. Greek. apo.
Jordan = the Jordan.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13-17.] JESUS HIMSELF BAPTIZED BY HIM. Mar 1:9-11. Luk 3:21-22. It does not appear exactly when the baptism of our Lord took place. If the comparative age of the Baptist is taken into account, we should suppose it to have been about six months after this latter began his ministry. But this is no sure guide. The place was Bethany (the older reading), beyond Jordan; Joh 1:28.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 3:13-14. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
Who among us would not have felt as John did? Shall the servant baptize the Master, and such a Master, even his Lord and Saviour? But merely the condescension of our blessed Lord. He would do everything that he wished his people afterwards to do; and therefore he would be baptized, and set the example that he would have them all follow.
Mat 3:15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
We are never to be so modest as to become disobedient to Christs commands. We have known some who have allowed their humility to grow alone in the garden of their heart without the other sweet flowers that should have sprung up side by side with it, and thus their very humility has developed into a kind of pride. John was easily persuaded to do what his feelings at first seemed to forbid: Then he suffered him.
Mat 3:16-17. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
It has also happened unto the servants of Christ, as well as to their Master, that in keeping the commandments of God there has been a sweet attestation borne by the Holy Spirit. I trust that we, too, according to our measure of sonship, have heard in our hearts the voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son, and that we have experienced the descending of the dove-like Spirit, bringing us peace of mind and gentleness of nature.
This exposition consisted of readings from Mat 3:13-17; and Mat 4:1-11.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Mat 3:13-17
2. THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
Mat 3:13-17
13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.-John had been busy in his ministry for several months; some think that he was just now in the height of his ministry; others think that Jesus came to John near the close of John’s ministry. Jesus was now “about thirty years of age” (Luk 3:23). Some have inferred from Luk 3:21 that Jesus was the last person that John baptized, that his mission ended with the baptism of Jesus; however, this is not a correct inference. Jesus came “from Galilee to the Jordan” to be baptized. He came from Nazareth in Galilee, where he had spent about thirty years of his life. We do not know the exact place in the Jordan where Jesus was baptized; he came to John who was baptizing in the Jordan. It is generally conceded that Jesus walked from Nazareth to where John the baptizing, which was a distance of sixty-five to eighty miles. Not knowing the exact place where John was baptizing, we cannot determine with accuracy the distance that Jesus walked. Some think that John was baptizing at Bethabara (Joh 1:28); it is a tradition that this was the place where the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan. This was the beginning of Jesus’ public career.
He came to John “to be baptized of him.” Why should Jesus, the sinless one, come to John to be baptized? Matthew expresses clearly the purpose of Jesus in coming to John; it was “to be baptized of him”; we know that Jesus did not come to be baptized from a feeling of personal sinfulness, neither because of his personal connection with an impure people, nor for the purpose of showing that there was no incompatibility between his life and the life of others, nor merely to elicit the divine declaration that he was the Son of God, nor to confirm the faith of others in him, neither was it to sanction the baptism of John as having been authorized of God. It was the will of God for him to be baptized, and he came to do the will of God. (Heb 10:7.)
14 But John would have hindered him.-John at first was opposed to baptizing Jesus; he did not forbid Jesus, but had it in mind to prevent him; the original means that he was for hindering him, or that he “would have hindered him.” John was moved to strenuous protest against baptizing Jesus. John felt that it was not in order for him to baptize Jesus; he recognized the superiority of Jesus and his own inferiority, hence he could not understand why the inferior or the less should administer baptism to his superior or the greater. John was conscientious; he was strenuous in his opposition to baptizing Jesus. John knew the purpose of his baptism; he knew that all who had been baptized of him needed to be baptized, but he did not recognize in Jesus anything that would lead him to believe that Jesus needed to be baptized of him.
I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? -John, in substance, says that he has far greater need of unto him, Suffer ‘it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffereth him. 16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up being baptized of Jesus than Jesus does of being baptized of him. This implies that John had some definite knowledge of the character of Jesus. How did John recognize Jesus as so holy? Their mothers were possibly related; John could not have been brought up in ignorance of some of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth; the song of the angels, the visit of the wise men, the song of Mary, and the prophecy of Simeon, all could have been known by John; he may also have had some acquaintance with the pure and sinless life of Jesus at Nazareth; again upon this occasion the Holy Spirit with which John was filled would aid him in recognizing the purity and sinlessness of Jesus. It was on this occasion, after the baptism of Jesus, that John knew with certainty that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. (Joh 1:33.) John was looking for the appearing of Jesus and taught others to look forward to his appearing; hence the prophetic anticipation of John, for the appearing of the Messiah helped him to recognize the superiority of Jesus.
15 But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now.-Literally this means permit it now; never mind the contrast between John and Jesus; Jesus asks that John let him take the place of the less or the inferior for the present. The baptism of Jesus was a duty, not only of Jesus, but it was also the duty of John to baptize Jesus; since it was the duty of John to baptize Jesus, Jesus is ready to help John do his duty; there is an implied truth in the objection that John made, but John is to do his duty nevertheless. There are two aspects of baptism; first, it was an act in connection with the remission of sin, and an act of obedience to a positive command of God. Jesus had no sin to be forgiven, but he must obey the command of God; “though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb 5:8); Jesus here began to learn obedience to God’s will.of God. John had a part in the preparation of the people for the coming of Jesus, and also a part in announcing and pointing out Jesus as the Messiah. John thought it would be presumption on his part to baptize Jesus and an unworthy condescension on the part of Jesus to submit to his baptism; but Jesus declares to John that it is befitting in both John and Jesus to perform this act. Nothing must be left undone that would honor God and assist Jesus in beginning and carrying on his ministry. As John’s baptism was not “from men” but “from heaven” (Mat 21:25; Joh 1:33), it became Jesus to receive the baptism of John, and John to administer it. It was fitting that Jesus should fill up the full measure of righteousness in all its forms by accepting the baptism of John. John saw the force of Jesus’ words and baptized him. Some think since John baptized Jesus at Jesus’ command that Jesus was really the active person in the baptism.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water.-“Straightway” means immediately; Mark says “straightway coming up out of the water.” (Mar 1:10.) Some think that no other person was baptized at the
time Jesus was baptized; others think that there were others who were baptized, but that John detained them in the water until they could make confession of their sins. There is nothing in the text to justify any assumption or speculation on this point; Matthew simply records the fact that Jesus was baptized and “went up straightway from the water.” This helps to emphasize the fact that John’s baptism was by immersion , Jesus departed “from” the water after he had come out of it.
And lo, the heavens were opened unto him.-Luke says, “Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened” (Luk 3:21); hence while Jesus was praying, “the heavens were opened unto him.” Some think that the heavens were opened in answer to his prayer, but the record only states that they were “opened” during his prayer; there was an apparent separation or division of the visible expanse, am well pleased. See . 12:1 as if to afford passage to the form and voice which are mentioned in the next clause. We have similar expressions in the Bible. (Isa 64:1; Eze 1:1; Joh 1:51; Act 7:56.) This signified that Jesus could see into the heavens and hence could communicate with God. The essential idea suggested is that of the removal of every visible thing between him and the father and that the extraordinary gift from heaven could be received by Jesus.
And he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him.-Jesus saw the Holy Spirit coming upon him; it seems from the text that the vision was to Jesus alone, but John was also a witness to it (Joh 1:32); this was to John the sign by which the Messiah should be recognized. Very likely the multitude did not see this vision, but that it was visible only to Jesus and John; still others think that it was visible to the multitude as Luke affirms that it came “in a bodily form” (Luk 3:22) like a dove. The form of a dove, and not in the manner of the dove, swiftly and gently as a dove, affirm some. The dove was an ancient symbol of purity and innocence, and was so adopted by Jesus on one occasion. (Mat 10:16.) Scholars are divided as to whether the comparison is with the “form” of the dove, or with the “manner of the dove” in descending. Luke says, “descended in a bodily form,” which seems to settle the question.
It came upon Jesus; it abode or remained upon him for some time. Some think that this symbolized the great fact that Jesus was henceforth to be permanently in union with the Father and under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Immediately after this we find that Jesus was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness.” (Mat 4:1.) The purpose of the visible form or manifestation was to point Jesus out to John; John must bear witness of Jesus; that he is the Messiah; he must have divine authority for this; he receives that authority at this time.
17 and lo, a voice out of the heavens.-This “voice” was the voice of God; it came from the rented heavens; it could have come without the heavens being separated, but the rent in the heavens was the physical manifestation of the supernatural, and this was accompanied with “a voice out of the heavens.” This is similar to other expressions. (Comp. Luk 9:35-36; Act 7:31; Act 9:4; Acts 11 :; Rev 1:10; Rev 4:1; Rev 6:6.) We have here the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the term “Son” is applied to the Messiah (Psa 2:7; Isa 42:1) , not merely in reference to his official character, but more especially to his divine nature.
Saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. -The voice from heaven said two things, first, that Jesus was the Son of God; second, that God was well pleased with him. This is the first public acknowledgment that God made of Jesus; it was made at his baptism. The words spoken here are the same that were uttered on the Mount of Transfiguration. (Mat 17:5; 2Pe 1:17.) The Greek is emphatic “This is my Son, the beloved”; the two terms are to a certain extent equivalent; God’s Son was his beloved. This voice was specially designed as a revelation to John; it was given him for the purpose of his mission which was to introduce Jesus as the Messiah to the people. ‘However in Mark and Luke there is a more particular reference to Jesus himself as the source of the vision, while John lays special stress upon the part which John the Baptist sustained in the vision. We have recorded three heavenly voices which were heard during Jesus’ ministry: (1) at his baptism; (2) at his transfiguration (Mar 9:7); (3) in the courts of the temple during the last week of Jesus on earth (Joh 12:28). The Son is consecrated by the Holy Spirit, and proclaimed by the Father at the baptism of Jesus. This announcement from heaven by the Father at this time was the formal divine authentication of the Messiah’s mission; he is now commissioned by the Father and anointed by the Holy Spirit to begin his public ministry for the redemption of man.
[ John baptized all who came to him, the vilest wrongdoers as well as others less guilty of sin, until Jesus came to him. He condemned each for his own sins and directed each to repent of his special sins. John, from the universality of the sinfulness, seems to have caught the idea that baptism was only for the remission of sins until Jesus came. When he came John forbade him saying: “I have need to be baptized of thee.” Here the question was before Jesus and John whether baptism is always for, or into, or unto, the remission of sins; and the first revelation he makes from God to man is to baptize and be baptized to fulfill the righteous will of God. All should respect and honor that will by obeying and honoring it. Jesus Christ in this revelation places obeying the will of God as the highest, holiest, best motive that can lead man in the service of God. When this motive leads to obedience, it includes all other motives and blessings and renders the obedience acceptable to God; it embraces and swallows up all other smaller or secondary motives and pleases God best of all. It is the motive that moved Jesus to leave heaven and come to earth to lead man to do what he does because it pleases God. John baptized all who came to him, from Jesus down, to bring them into the fellowship and brotherhood of Christ Jesus, who would bless and save.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John make reference to the conception, birth, and childhood of Jesus; these four writers do not give all the points which are recorded of the early life of Jesus; Mark tells all that he gives of the prophecy, descent, and birth of Jesus in nine verses until he comes to his baptism, and then God recognized him as his Son. No account of Jesus being called the Son of God is given by Luke until we come to Luk 3:21 which records his baptism and voice from heaven owning him as God’s Son. John begins his gospel by telling us who and where Jesus as the Word was before the world was made. He tells us that he was made flesh, was born of the virgin Mary, of John’s baptizing him, and in Joh 1:29 he tells of the baptism of Jesus and that God owned him as his Son; no intimation is given that God acknowledged Jesus to be his Son until he was baptized. John the Baptist said “that he should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water” (Joh 1:31);that is, God had determined to own him as his Son in his baptism. Therefore, John came baptizing, that in the baptism God might declare him his Son. This was an example and assurance he owns those who trust him.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Baptized with the Spirit
Mat 3:13-17
While John was denouncing the sins of others, he was very conscious of his own. He melted in holy humility before the one nature in which his keen eye detected no trace of impurity, and he strenuously strove to forbid the incongruity of his polluted hands baptizing so pure a being as he felt Christ to be.
Our Lord accepted the disclaimer but overruled it. He alone of all holy men had no consciousness of sin. He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, 1Pe 2:22. As Gods designated Lamb, He was narrowly searched, but those who knew the most about Him were compelled to attest His innocence and purity. Yet He was baptized that He might assume the sinners guilt, standing with him and for him and identifying Himself with his lot. Then He was anointed by the Spirit, and attested by the Fathers voice. Probably only John and He were aware of these celestial tokens. See Joh 1:32. But let us stand beneath the same chrism which made Him the Christ. See 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 6
The Baptism of Our Lord
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Mat 3:13-17
Our Lord Jesus spent the first thirty years of his life on this earth in obscurity. But the time had come for him to embark upon his public ministry and prophetic office. He did so by coming from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. We have Matthews account of this momentous event in this passage. As the Jewish priest of the Old Testament, when they entered the priestly office, consecrated themselves to God by being washed with water (Exo 29:4), so our great High Priest began the great work, which he came into the world to accomplish, by consecrating himself to God in public baptism. Being baptized by John the Baptist, our Lord Jesus here sits before us an example of obedience to God, which he later commanded all his disciples to follow.
An Honored Ordinance
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him (Mat 3:13). Do any imagine that baptism is an insignificant thing? Do any dare assert that this ordinance of Christ is a non-essential? The Son of God did not look upon it as such. The journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem took three days. Yet, our Savior took that long journey so that he might be baptized by John the Baptist. I take it, from such an example, that this ordinance of divine worship is not to be lightly esteemed. If Christ our Lord, the Head of the Church, honored the ordinance of baptism by submitting to it, surely all who profess to follow him must do the same.
Two words of caution are necessary because this ordinance has been greatly perverted by lost religious men. (1.) Let us throw away the creeds and confessions of men and simply obey the Word of God as it stands, without addition or alteration. Whenever men begin to tamper with the Word of God souls are ruined. (2.) We must never attach any idolatrous, superstitious importance to the ordinance of baptism. Baptism is a picture of redemption; but baptism is not redemption. Baptism is a picture of the remission of sins; but baptism is not the remission of sins. Baptism is a picture of salvation; but baptism is not salvation.
We are redeemed by the blood of Christ. We are born again by the Spirit of God. We are saved by the grace of God. Baptism pictures and confesses these blessings of grace. But baptism has absolutely no redeeming, saving merit and efficacy!
Yet, we must never dishonor the ordinance of baptism by refusing to submit to it, by making it a mere ritual without meaning, or by altering its form. And we must never allow inconvenience or trouble to keep us from the worship of our God, or from observing this ordinance of divine worship as prescribed and practiced by our Savior.
The Lord Jesus went to considerable trouble and inconvenience to observe this ordinance of worship. Today, multitudes who call themselves believers and followers of Christ quickly justify themselves in the neglect of worship. But you will find no justification for it in the Word of God. The Shunammite woman rode on horseback every sabbath day to hear Gods prophet at Carmel, though her husband hindered her (2Ki 4:23). In Davids time the saints of God passed through the valley of Baca to worship God at Zion (Psa 84:6). In Daniels day believers ran to and fro to increase knowledge, to know more of the Lord God (Dan 12:4). In Zechariahs day the inhabitants of one city went to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts (Zec 8:21). In the Book of Acts we read of the eunuch who journeyed from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship God (Act 8:25). Any man or woman who talks about being a Christian, who talks about worshipping God, who talks about being a believer and yet willfully neglects the worship of God ought to blush with shame!
Our Lords Humility
But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him (Mat 3:14-15). It was a great act of condescension and humility for the Son of God to come to John the Baptist to be baptized.
In all things our Savior constantly strikes a blow at our foolish pride. He never misses an opportunity to expose and condemn it, both by his words and by his actions. He constantly teaches all who follow him to walk in humility. Our Savior was ever the meek and lowly one. He was born to lowly parents, laid in a manger, and raised in obscurity. When he rode into Jerusalem as the King of Zion, he rode not upon a white charger, but a lowly ass. And when he began his public ministry, it was not with pomp and pageantry, but by being immersed by a man in a muddy river (2Co 8:9).
His servant, John the Baptist, though bold as a lion, was also a man of true humility. When the Lord came to John for baptism, John forbad him. He strenuously objected, not out of a spirit of rebellion, but out of a spirit of reverence and awe. John knew who Christ is. He knew that the man standing before him was the infinite God, his Redeemer and Savior. And he knew himself, too. He knew that he was a sinner in need of grace and a sinner saved by grace, through the merits of the Lamb of God who stood before him.
Though he was conscious of his personal sin and unworthiness to do so, when the Lord commanded him to do it, John baptized him. No man is worthy to do anything in the worship and service of the holy Lord God. Our only worthiness before God is Christ. It is his blood and righteousness alone that makes us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light (Col 1:12). And it is Christ who makes us worthy to approach our God in all acts of worship. We have no right, in a pretense of humility, to refuse any command or duty clearly set before us by our God.
To Fulfill All Righteousness
Why did the Lord Jesus insist upon being baptized by John? He had no sins to confess. He had no transgressions of which to repent. He had no iniquities to be washed away. Yet, he told John that it was necessary for him to be baptized to fulfil all righteousness. But what did his baptism have to do with the fulfillment of all righteousness?
We know that our blessed Savior fulfilled all the righteous requirements of Gods holy law for us as our Representative, freeing us from its curse and condemnation by his obedience unto death (Rom 5:18-21). And he fulfilled all the will of God as the God-man, our Mediator, by which we are forever sanctified (Heb 10:5-14).
By his baptism, our Savior symbolically fulfilled all righteousness and established as a standing ordinance in his Church that by which believing men and women publicly confess the fulfillment of all righteousness by him. By his baptism the Lord Jesus symbolically demonstrated how he would fulfil all righteousness as our sin-atoning Substitute. And by our baptism we confess the same. The baptism of Christ, wrote C. H. Spurgeon, was the picture, the type, the symbol of the work, which he afterwards accomplished. He was immersed in suffering; he died, and was buried in the tomb; he rose again from the grave; and all that is set forth in the outward symbol of his baptism in the River Jordan.
Believers baptism typically fulfills all righteousness. It is an ordinance full of meaning when rightly observed. It is to be reverently observed by all who follow Christ. If our Lord himself submitted to it, we cannot follow him and refuse to submit to it. I quote Spurgeon again. Shall I refuse to follow my Lord? Shall I think that there is nothing in an ordinance of which he said, Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness?
When the Lord Jesus was made sin for us, he was slain under the wrath of God, and buried.
When he had put away sin, he rose from the dead because he had accomplished our justification. When believers follow Christ into the watery grave, we publicly acknowledge that our only hope before God is that which he accomplished for us in his death and resurrection as our Substitute. Rising up out of the watery grave, we symbolically avow our allegiance to Christ, walking with him in the newness of life, in hope of the resurrection (Rom 6:4-6).
Immersion Only
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him (Mat 3:16). While I fully recognize that many oppose our insistence upon baptism as an ordinance for believers only and upon the fact that baptism can only be performed by immersion, it would be treasonous of me not to declare the obvious from this verse. Baptism is immersion. Immersion is not the Baptists mode of baptism. Immersion is baptism. Sprinkling is sprinkling. And pouring is pouring. Baptism is immersion.
Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. There is absolutely no reason for Matthew to make that statement except to show us that baptism must be performed by immersion. Without immersion, there is no baptism. John Gill argues
We learn this from it, that since it is said, that he came up out of the water, he must first have gone down into it; must have been in it, and was baptized in itThat Christ should go down into the river, more or less deep, to the ankles, or up to the knees, in order that John should sprinkle water on his face, or pour it on his head, as is ridiculously represented, can hardly obtain any credit with persons of thought and sense.
Baptism is always represented in the Scriptures as a burial (Rom 6:3-6; Col 2:12; 1Co 15:1; 1Co 15:29). When you bury a corpse in the earth, you do not throw a few grains of sand in his face. You put him beneath the ground. And a man is not buried in baptism by sprinkling a few drops of water in his face. He must be immersed in water. Any alternation of the baptismal mode is a perversion of the ordinance and a denial of what it represents The gospel of redemption and righteousness by Christ alone.
The Trinity
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: (17) And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Mat 3:16-17). Here we see the interest of the triune God in the work of redemption (Mat 3:16-17). Here is a display of the Holy Trinity, an identification of our Lord Jesus as the Messiah, and a declaration from heaven, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
Here is everything that is solemn, sublime, and glorious. The scene before us ought to be contemplated with utmost reverence, awe, and adoration. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one (1Jn 5:7). Here the three Persons of the triune God distinctly manifest themselves. God the Father speaks by a voice from heaven. God the Son, incarnate in human flesh, stoops to the watery grave. And God the Holy Spirit descends from heaven in the form of a Dove, lighting upon our blessed Savior.
Here we have a most majestic meeting of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity about the work of redemption. As in the beginning of creation, the triune God said, Let us make man; so in the beginning of redemption, he said, Let us redeem man! (Eph 1:3-14). The salvation of our souls is the united work of the Triune God. It was planned and purposed by God the Father. It was purchased and obtained for us by God the Son. And it is performed and sealed in us by God the Holy Spirit.
Fully God
It is very significant that the man Christ Jesus is here declared to be God the Son, even as he portrays his death, burial and resurrection as our Substitute. He is as fully God in his lowest humiliation as he is in his highest eternal glory. The glory and perfection of our Savior as God in his essential divinity was not even slightly diminished by his incarnation, obedience, and death as our Surety. Whenever we read anything about him in the Book of God that appears to limit his knowledge, power, or being, we must never fail to recognize that such limitations only reflect genuineness of his humanity and his voluntary subjection to the will of God as Jehovahs righteous Servant for the accomplishment of our redemption. He who is God our Savior is God and man in one glorious person. He is truly and fully and perfectly God. And he is truly and fully and perfectly man. It is he, the GODMAN our Mediator, in whom, and through whom, and by whom we have access to and everlasting acceptance with the eternal God.
Well-pleased
There is one more sweet and rapturous fact revealed in Mat 3:17. The declaration of God on this occasion is, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. God the Father is well-pleased with Christ and only with Christ. He is well-pleased with his person, with his obedience, and with his sacrifice pictured in his baptism. God the Father is eternally and infinitely pleased with his Son as his Son. He is eternally pleased and satisfied with his Son as his Servant (Isa 42:1). He is infinitely and eternally well-pleased with the sacrifice of his Son as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). He was well pleased with his assumption of our nature, with his obedience to the law, bringing everlasting righteousness, with him being made sin for us, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, enduring the penalty and curse of his holy law against sin to the full satisfaction of justice as our Substitute. Yes, the Father is well-pleased with his person, his righteousness, his satisfaction, and his atonement, by which his law is magnified and honored an his justice is satisfied.
But the Voice from heaven did not say, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased. The Voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. How thankful we ought to be for that. The God of Glory is well-pleased with all who are in his Son because of his Son. He is well pleased with us in Christ, for he has made us the righteousness of God in him. God is not only well pleased with his Son and in his Son, he is well-pleased with all his people in his Son. In him he loves us with an everlasting love. As the Son, our Surety, was delighted with us from eternity (Pro 8:31), so the Father took delight in us, rejoiced over us, accepted us, and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in his Son before the world began (Eph 1:3-6). And as the Fathers delight in his Son is immutable, so his delight with and pleasure with his elect in his Son is immutable. He shall rejoice over them with joy and singing forever, resting in his love (Zep 3:17). Robert Hawkers reflections on this passage are ought to be the reflections of our hearts after reading it.
May the Lord mercifully grant, that the whole church of God, through divine teaching, may be enabled to keep in unceasing remembrance, the Fathers testimony to his dear Son. And while my soul, and the souls of all his redeemed, are thus continually hearing, and receiving, the precious assurance of Gods being well pleased with his dear Son, for his redeeming love to his church, and his finished salvation for his people; oh, for grace to love him, whom JEHOVAH, in all the persons of the Godhead, loves; and to delight in Him, in whom JEHOVAH delighteth. Precious Lord Jesus! I would say, Whom have I in heaven but thee; and there is none upon earth my soul desireth but thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but thou art the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
The King designated and anointed
It was meet that there should be some public recognition of the King; some pointing of him out by truthful witness among men, and some indication from the Father in heaven that he was indeed his beloved Son.
Mat 3:13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
In due time, when all was prepared, the Prince quitted his obscurity.
Putting himself in a lowly place, ho did not summon the Baptizer to come to the Lake of Galilee, but went down the country along the banks of the Jordan to him, seeking baptism.
Should any of the servants neglect what their Lord so heartily attended to? Do any say, “It is not essential “? “Was it essential to our Lord Jesus? He said, “It becometh us “; and what was becoming in him is not unbecoming in his followers. If it should cost us a journey, let us attend to the command which is binding on all believers.
Mat 3:14. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
This was very natural. John knew Jesus to be eminently more holy than himself, and therefore he protested against appearing to be his purifier. John was strong in this protest: he “forbad him “: it seemed to him to be out of order for him to baptize one so supremely good. Although he was not yet assured from heaven that Jesus was the Messiah (for he had not yet seen the Spirit descending and resting upon him), yet he shrewdly guessed that Jesus was indeed the Christ. He knew him to be a very special favourite of heaven, superior to himself, and he therefore expected that sign by which he had been assured the Christ would be known.
John never shirked a duty, but he declined an honour. He would not even seem to be of any consequence as compared with his Lord. Blessed Jesus, teach us like humility!
Mat 3:15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
Jesus answered John so completely, that he ceased his opposition at once. It was becoming both in John and in Jesus that our Lord should be baptized of him. This assurance satisfied the Baptist so far that, still under protest, “he suffered him.” Baptism was becoming even in our Lord, who needed no personal purification; for He was the Head over all things to his Church, and it was becoming that he should be as the members should be. Baptism beautifully sets forth our Lord’s immersion in suffering, his burial, and his resurrection. Thus typically, it fulfils “all righteousness.” The ordinance is most full of meaning when rightly observed; and it is to be most reverently regarded, since our Lord himself submitted to it. Shall I refuse to follow my Lord? Shall I think that there is nothing in an ordinance of which he said, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness “?
Mat 3:16-17. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Our Lord went down into the water, for “he went up out of the water.” He did not tarry in the river; but when he had fulfilled one duty he straightway went on his way to carry out another. In Baptism, our Lord was openly attested and sealed as the “beloved Son”, both by the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. What more witness is needed? It is often so with his people: their Sonship is made clear during an act of obedience, and the Word and the Spirit bear witness with their consciences.
Our Lord Jesus had now to enter on his public life-work, and he did so in the best manner. The world was opening before him, “and the heavens were opened unto him.” As his need appeared, his source of supply was set open before him. On him also the divine anointing descended. Like a swift-winged, pure, and quiet dove, “the Spirit of God “came, and found a resting-place in him. When he had been immersed into the element of water, he was immediately surrounded by the divine element of the Spirit. Then, also, was his ear charmed with the Father’s audible acknowledgment of him, and with the expression of that good pleasure which the Lord God had always felt in him. It was a glorious moment. Our King was now proclaimed and anointed. Would not his next step be to take the Kingdom? We shall see.
Our Lord and King is now fully before us. He has been preceded, predicted, and pointed out by John the Baptist; he has been dedicated to his work in baptism; he has been anointed by the Spirit, and confessed by the Father; and therefore he has fairly entered upon his royal work. May none of us in the service of the Lord run before our time, or go forward without a sense of the Father’s approval, and without that spiritual unction which is from above!
O my Lord, let me be anointed and approved in my measure, even as thou wast in thine. In order to this, I would behold thine anointing of the Spirit with the full belief that I am anointed in thee, as the body receives unction in the anointing of the Head.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s The Gospel of the Kingdom
Mat 2:22, Mar 1:9, Luk 3:21
Reciprocal: Mat 3:6 – were Joh 1:15 – bare Joh 1:33 – I knew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3:13
Jesus had spent his life through childhood and early manhood with his parents at Nazareth which was in Galilee. The time came when he was to enter upon his life’s work and he had reason for starting it with being baptized. There was only one man baptizing people then and that was John the Baptist, hence Jesus left his home and came into Judea where John was baptizing in the Jordan.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 3:13. Than. Probably about six months after John began to preach; comp. Mat 3:1.
Cometh, as in Mat 3:1, a coming forth into public view.
From Galilee, from His home in Nazareth, a long distance.
To be baptised by him. Jesus who was sinless, came to a baptism unto repentance. This condescension formed a part of the obedience to the Divine law (see Mat 3:15), rendered by Him as a member of the Jewish nation. The Jews were baptized in token of uncleanness, so He, numbered with the transgressors, must needs go through the rites and purifications prescribed for them. This act closes the concealed life of quiet subjection and legal submission, opening the public life of mediatorial satisfaction. Hence He was baptized, both to fulfil all righteousness and to receive the Divine attestation; certainly not merely to honor John.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here we have our Savior’s solemn inauguration and public entrance upon this prophetic office, by baptism, or washing with water, according to the manner of the priests under the ceremonial law, Exo 29:4.
Where we have observable, 1. The circumstance of time: Then cometh Jesus: that is, after he had lain hid in Nazareth thirty years he comes abroad, and enters upon his public ministry.
Teaching us by his example, That when we are ripe and fit for public service, we should no less willingly leave our obscurity, than we took the benefit of it for our preparation.
Observe, 2. The action itself, Christ is baptized now, as he was circumcised before; not because there was any impurity in him, either filth, or foreskin, which wanted either the circumcising knife, or the baptismal water; yet purity itself condescends to be washed, Christ to be baptized; for these reasons:
1. That by this symbol he might enter himself into the society of Christians, as by circumcision he had done into the society of Jews; as a king condescends sometimes to be made a free man of a city or corporation.
2. That he might by his own baptism sanctify the ordinance of baptism unto his church.
3. That thereby he might fulfil the righteousness of the ceremonial law, which required the washing of the priests in water, when they entered upon their office as appears from Exo 29:4.
Observe, 3. The great condescension of Christ, in seeking and submitting to the baptism of John; Christ cometh to John, not John to Christ.
Behold! the Lord seeketh to his servant, Christ will be baptized of his messenger! Our Savior’s design hereby no doubt was, to put honour upon the ministry of John.
Oh! how dare the greatest upon earth despise the ministry of man being appointed by God, which Christ honoured in his own person, and graced with his own presence!
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 3:13. Then cometh Jesus Who was now about thirty years of age, from Galilee Where he had long lived, in a retired manner, unto John, to be baptized of him Not in testimony of his repentance, or for the remission of sins, for, being without sin, he neither needed repentance nor remission; but that he might honour Johns ministry, and acknowledge his commission to baptize, and might confirm the institution of baptism by water. He thus, also, offered himself to receive that testimony which he knew his heavenly Father would give him, and conformed himself to what he appointed for his followers; for which last reason he drank likewise of the sacramental cup. Thus the apostolical constitutions inform us that Christ was baptized, not that he needed any purgation, but to testify the truth of Johns baptism, and to be an example to us. We may consider this as a plain argument that baptism may be rightly administered to, and received by those that are incapable of many of the chief ends of it, provided they be capable of some other end for which it also was designed. For Christ, being without sin, could neither repent nor promise amendment of life; being the wisdom of the Father, he could be taught nothing; being the Christ, he could not profess he would believe on him that should come after him, that is, on himself. He, therefore, was baptized, 1st, to testify that he owned the Baptist as one commissioned by God to perform this office; 2d, that by this rite he might profess his willingness to fulfil all righteousness; and, 3d, that by this he might be initiated into his prophetical office, and consecrated to the service of God. Therefore, though infants can neither be taught, nor believe, nor give the answer of a good conscience, at baptism, yet they may be baptized; 1st, that by this ceremony they may be obliged to observe the laws of that Jesus, into whose name they are baptized, even as, under the Mosaic dispensation, the infant, by virtue of circumcision, became a debtor to observe the whole law of Moses, Act 15:5; Gal 5:3; Galatians 2 dly, that by this rite they may enter into covenant with God, of which they are declared capable by Moses, Deu 29:11.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
P A R T T H I R D.
BEGINNING OF OUR LORD’S MINISTRY.
XVIII.
JESUS BAPTIZED BY JOHN IN THE JORDAN.
(Jordan east of Jericho, Spring of A. D. 27.)
aMATT. III. 13-17; bMARK I. 9-11; cLUKE III. 21-23.
b9 And {a13 Then} bit came to pass in those days, that Jesus came {acometh} bfrom Nazareth of Galilee, ato the Jordan [Tradition fixes upon a ford of Jordan east of Jericho as the place where Jesus was baptized. It is the same section of the river which opened for the passage of Israel under Joshua, and later for Elijah and Elisha. This ford is seventy or eighty miles from Nazareth] unto John, to be baptized of him [He set out from Nazareth, intending to be baptized. Such was his intention before he heard John preach, and he was therefore not persuaded to do it by the preaching. His righteousness was not the result of human persuasion.] band was baptized of John in [Greek “into.” The body of Jesus was immersed or plunged into the river] 14; aBut John would have hindered him [It seemed to John too great an honor for him to baptize Jesus, and too great a humiliation for Jesus to be baptized. There is some dispute as to how John came to know this righteousness of Christ, which prompted his protest. The one natural explanation is, that the intimacy of the two families indicated at the beginning of Luke’s account had been kept up, and John knew the history of his kinsman], saying, I have need to be baptized of thee [those are most fit to administer an ordinance who have themselves deeply experienced the need [82] of it], and comest thou to me? [John felt that he needed Jesus’ baptism, but could not think that Jesus needed his. The words “I,” “thee,” “thou,” and “me,” show that John contrasted the baptizers as well as the baptisms. As a human being he marveled that the Son of God should come to him to be immersed. The comings of Jesus and the purposes for which he comes are still the greatest marvels which confront the minds of men. Moreover, it should be noted that this protest of John’s needed to be made, for it saved Jesus from being baptized without explanation, as if he were a sinner. Baptism without such explanation might have compromised our Lord’s claim as the sinless one.] 15 But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now [Permit me for this moment to appear as your inferior. The future will make plain and clear the difference between us, both as to our missions and our natures. The words show a Messianic consciousness on the part of Jesus]: for thus it becometh us [Some take the word “us” as referring to Jesus and John, but the clause “to fulfil all righteousness” shows that “us” refers to Jesus, and he uses the plural to show that it also becometh all of us] to fulfil all righteousness [Jesus came not only to fulfill all the requirements of the law, but also all that wider range of righteousness of which the law was only a part. 1. Though John’s baptism was no part of the Mosaic ritual, it was, nevertheless, a precept of God, given by his prophet ( Joh 1:33). Had Jesus neglected or refused to obey this precept he would have lacked a portion of the full armor of righteousness, and the Pharisees would have hastened to strike him at this loose joint of his harness ( Mat 21:23-27). 2. It was the divinely appointed method by which the Messiahship of Jesus was to be revealed to the witness John ( Joh 1:33, Joh 1:34). We should note here that those who fail to obey God’s ordinance of baptism fail (1) to follow the example of Jesus in fulfilling the divine will and precepts; (2) to obey one of the positive commands of almighty God spoken by his own Son.] Then he suffereth him. [John’s humility [83] caused him to shrink from this duty, but did not make him willfully persist in declining it. Humility ceases to be a virtue when it keeps us from performing our allotted tasks.] c21 Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized [This may mean that, on the day of his baptism, Jesus was the last candidate, and hence his baptism was the most conspicuous of all; but it more probably means that Jesus was baptized in the midst of John’s work–at the period when his baptism was in greatest favor], that, Jesus also having been {a16 And Jesus, when he was} cbaptized, and praying [All divine ordinances should be accompanied with prayer. Luke frequently notes the times when Jesus prayed. Here, at the entrance of his ministry, he prayed, and at the last moment of it he also prayed ( Luk 23:46). In his highest exultation at the transfiguration ( Luk 9:29), and in the lowest depths of humiliation in Gethsemane ( Luk 22:41), he prayed. He prayed for his apostles whom he chose ( Luk 6:12), and for his murderers by whom he was rejected ( Luk 23:34). He prayed before Peter confessed him ( Luk 9:18), and also before Peter denied him– Luk 22:32], b10 And straightway coming up out of {awent up straightway from} bthe water [the two prepositions, “out of” and “from,” show that Jesus was not yet fully out of the river, and that the vision and the voice were immediately associated with his baptism], aand lo, bhe saw [The statement that he saw the Spirit descending, which is also the language of Matthew, has been taken by some as implying that the Spirit was invisible to the multitude. But we know from John’s narrative that it was also seen by John the Baptist ( Joh 1:33, Joh 1:34), and if it was visible to him and to Jesus, and it descended, as Luke affirms, in a bodily shape like a dove ( Luk 3:22), it would have required a miracle to hide it from the multitude. Moreover, the object of the Spirit’s visible appearance was to point Jesus out, not to himself, but to others; and to point him out as the person concerning whom the voice from heaven was uttered. No doubt, then, the Spirit was visible and audible to all who [84] were present Luk 4:14] as a dove [That is, like a dove. All four evangelists are careful to inform us that it was not an actual dove], and coming upon him; c22 and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form [Lightfoot suggests that the Spirit thus descended that he might be revealed to be a personal substance and not merely an operation of the Godhead, and might thus make a sensible demonstration as to his proper place in the Trinity], as a dove [The descent of the Spirit upon Jesus was in accordance with prophecy ( Isa 11:2, Isa 41:1). The dove shape suggests purity, gentleness, peace, etc. Jesus makes the dove a symbol of harmlessness ( Mat 10:15). In fact, the nature of this bird makes it a fit emblem of the Spirit, for it comports well with the fruits of the Spirit ( Gal 5:22, Gal 5:23). The nations of the earth emblazon eagles upon their banners and lions upon their shields, but He who shall gather all nations into his kingdom, appeared as a Lamb, and his Spirit appeared under the symbol of a dove. Verily his kingdom is not of this world. It [85] is a kingdom of peace and love, not of bloodshed and ambition. Noah’s dove bore the olive branch, the symbol of peace, and the Holy Spirit manifested Jesus, God’s olive branch of peace sent into this world– Psa 72:7, Luk 2:14, Joh 14:27, Eph 2:11-18], upon him, a17 and lo, a voice ccame aout of the heavens, {cheaven} [Voices from heaven acknowledged the person of Christ at his birth, his baptism, his transfiguration and during the concluding days of his ministry. At his baptism Jesus was honored by the attestation of both the Spirit and the Father. But the ordinance itself was honored by the sensible manifestation of each several personality of the Deity–that the three into whose name we ourselves are also baptized], asaying, This is {bthou art} [The “this is,” etc. of Matthew are probably the words as John the Baptist reported them; the “thou art,” etc., of Mark and Luke are the words as Jesus actually heard them. The testimony of the Father is in unreserved support of the fundamental proposition of Christianity on which the church of Christ is founded ( Mat 16:15-18). On this point no witness in the universe was so well qualified to speak as the Father, and no other fact was so well worthy the honor of being sanctioned by his audible utterance as this. The testimony of Christ’s life, of his works, of the Baptist, and of the Scriptures might have been sufficient; but when the Father himself speaks, who shall doubt the adequacy of the proof?] amy beloved Son [See also Mat 17:5. The Father himself states that relationship of which the apostle John so often spoke ( Joh 1:1). Adam was made ( Gen 1:26), but Jesus was begotten ( Psa 2:7). Both were sons of God, but in far different senses. The baptism of Jesus bears many marked relationships to our own: 1. At his baptism Jesus was manifested as the Son of God. At our baptism we are likewise manifested as God’s children, for we are baptized into the name of the Father, and are thereby permitted to take upon ourselves his name. 2. At his baptism Jesus was fully commissioned as the Christ. Not anointed with material oil, but divinely consecrated and qualified by the Spirit and accredited by the Father. At baptism we also [86] received the Spirit ( Joh 3:5, Act 2:38, Act 19:1-6), who commissions and empowers us to Christian ministry– Act 1:8, 1Jo 3:24], in whom {cin thee} [Some make the phrases “in whom” and “in thee” to mean more than simply a declaration that God is pleased with Jesus. They see in it also the statement that the Father will be pleased with all who are “in Christ Jesus”– Eph 1:6] aI am well pleased [It is no slight condemnation to be well pleasing to God ( Job 4:18). It is the Christian’s joy that his Saviour had this commendation of the Father at the entrance upon his ministry.] c23 And Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age. [The age when a Levite entered upon God’s service ( Num 4:3, Num 4:47); at which Joseph stood before Pharaoh ( Gen 41:46); at which David began to reign ( 2Sa 5:4). Canon Cook fixes the date of Christ’s baptism in the spring A.U.C. 780. Wiseler in the summer of that year, and Ellicott in the winter of that year.]
* Recognizing the weight of Bro. McGarvey’s argument, I nevertheless contend that the multitude only shared partially in such a vision, if they shared it at all; for 1. There is no Scripture which even hints that the vision was seen by more than the two “inspired” parties, Jesus and John; and, on the contrary, the words of Jesus at Joh 5:37, though not addressed to the specific audience present at his baptism, were addressed to the Jews generally. 2. Jesus was to be manifested by his character and teaching rather than by heavenly sights and sounds ( Mat 12:39), and the mysteries of the kingdom ( Mat 13:11), and the opened heavens ( Joh 1:50, Joh 1:51), with many other manifestations, were reserved for believers ( Joh 12:28-30, Mat 17:1, Mat 17:2, Mat 17:9, Act 1:9, Act 7:55, Act 7:59, Act 10:40, Act 10:41), and are still so reserved ( 1Co 2:14). As to the arguments given above, we suggest that “bodily shape” does not insure universal sight. Baalam did not see what the ass saw ( Num 22:21-31). Again, it may be true that Jesus did not need to see the vision to “point him out to himself,” but he must have needed it for some purpose, for it is twice asserted that he saw it, and the temptations which immediately follow show that assurances of his divinity at this particular time were by no means misplaced.
[FFG 82-87]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
Mat 3:13-17; Mar 1:9-11; Luk 3:21-23. Then Jesus comes from Galilee unto Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. Our Lord was six months younger than John, and hence He awaits the arrival of His majority thirty years before He will enter upon His official Messiahship. As John was sent from God to introduce Him to the world he is the man to inaugurate Him into His ministry. John continued to decline Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou unto me? John was no exception to the human race, born with a depraved heart, which must be sanctified with a baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Of course, I am satisfied that John already enjoyed the sanctified experience, like his prophetical predecessors, in advance of his dispensation. We are to understand this, as a statement of a great generic truth, that not only John, but every other human being, needs the baptism of Jesus to sanctify him for heaven. And Jesus responding, said, Permit it now; for thus it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness; then he permits Him. Our Savior is Prophet, Priest, and King. The Levitical law positively required the high priest to have the anointing oil poured on his head, as Moses in the case of Aaron, before he is permitted to enter upon the duties and privileges of his office. This is the righteousness here pertinent; as our Savior never needed righteousness in the sense of justification, we are only permitted to give the word a ceremonial signification, complying with Old Testament law. And Jesus, having been baptized, came up immediately from the water; E.V., out of the water,
is corrected in R.V., rendering it from the water, as apo does not mean out of, but only from. And, behold, the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon Him. The Holy Ghost here assumes His symbolic form of a dove, becoming visible to mortal eyes. The cooing of the dove thrills the heart with melancholy, reminding us of the Holy Spirit, grieved over the wickedness of the world, and bewailing the hardness of the human heart. It is a significant fact, as is positively affirmed, that you can not make the dove angry; but you can grieve him so he will leave you and never return. Behold, a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am delighted. O what a popular sensation is aroused when John, on tiptoe, cries aloud, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! thus boldly notifying the multitude that the wonderful Shiloh of prophecy, Redeemer of Israel, whom he has all the time been preaching to them, is already on the ground. All eyes are turned in utter bewilderment, looking about, and many shouting, Where is He? The multitude spontaneously crowd together, as if moved by sacred awe, forming a long aisle, through which the Prince of glory, walking down, meets their preacher, demanding baptism at his hands. Ten thousand eyes are now centered on this wonderful scene, the Prince of glory meeting the prophet of the wilderness at the baptismal waters. Luke says, Jesus, having been baptized, and while praying, the heaven is opened; simultaneously the Divine voice roaring out from the blue dome of heaven, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased! O what a stir throughout the multitude! Some say, It is thunder, ringing down from a cloudless sky. Others say, That is impossible; but an angel spoke to Him. Now, all eyes are strained and looking after Him. But He is gone, led by the Spirit away into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Mat 3:13-17. The Baptism of Jesus (Mar 1:9-11*, Luk 3:21 f.).
Mat 3:14 f. (Mt. only) meets the objection to the acceptance by a sinless Jesus of a baptism connected with repentance (p. 661). Jesus maintains (suffer it now) that a temporary necessity must be acknowledged. Until the new revelation is ready, all righteousness, i.e. Divine ordinances, must be duly observed. For Johns sense of unworthiness cf. Luk 5:8 (Peter). The message of the voice (Mat 3:17) is a combination of Psa 2:7 and Isa 42:1 (the Gr. word for servant also means child), where the context speaks of the spirit. Read, therefore, This is my Son, the Beloved, the Beloved being a Messianic title (Eph 1:6). There is some reason for holding that the original announcement was simply, Thou art my Son (cf. Cod. Bez in Luk 3:22), and that we have here the influence of the Transfiguration narrative, an influence much expanded in the Ebionite Gospel and Justin (Tryph. 88) by reference to a light. Jesus Himself probably realised His Sonship before His Messiahship. There is nothing in Mt. (especially if we omit Mat 3:14 f; cf. Mat 11:2-6*), as there is nothing in Mk. and Lk., to suggest that vision or voice came to anyone but Jesus.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Abulensis thinks, on the other hand, that John was not baptized by Christ. And he proves it by the marvelling of John’s disciples, who soon afterwards told John that Christ, whom he had baptized, was Himself baptizing, and that all men were coming unto Him. For this would have been needlessly told to John if he had been baptized by Christ, and he would have given this reply to his disciples. So that it is a doubtful point whether John was baptized by Christ or not.
And Jesus answering said, &c. It becometh us, i.e., Me to receive, thee to confer, baptism. Others understand us in this way: “It behoves us who are teachers to set an example in ourselves. Nothing, however apparently unimportant, must be omitted. I shall institute baptism. It is the part of him who commands, to do before others what he commands.” Whence S. Luke says of Christ (Act 1:1), “Jesus began both to do and to teach.” “This is righteousness,” saith S. Ambrose, “that what you wish another to do, you should yourself first begin, and encourage others by your own example.” Whence S. Gregory, “Of true humility is ever sprung secure authority.”
Moreover, not only Christ receiving, but John conferring baptism fulfilled all righteousness, because, contending in humility with Christ, he suffered himself to be vanquished, by being as it were put upon an equality with Christ. And so he, as it were, being vanquished by Christ in humility, vanquished Christ by yielding to Him and obeying Him. As S. Dominic, wishing to give his right hand to S. Francis, whilst Francis opposed it and strove to take his left, said at length, “You overcome me in humility; I conquer you by obedience.”
It is very probable that in the act of baptism John pointed out Christ to the people, since the form of John’s baptism would be something of this kind: “I baptize thee in the Name of Him who is to come;” or, “Believe in Messiah who is about to come.” This is inferred from chap. xix. 4. Thus it would seem that when Christ came, and was being baptized, John would say, “This is Messias of whom I said that He was about to come.”
S. Jerome observes-“Beautifully is it said, ‘Suffer it now,’ that it might be shown that Christ was baptized with water, and that John was about to be baptized by Christ with the Spirit. And by-and-by Christ might say, ‘Thou baptizest Me in water, that I may baptize thee in thine own blood shed for Me.'”
For so it becometh us to fulfil (Arabic, to perfect) all righteousness. Instead of righteousness the Syriac has all rectitude, i.e., whatever is just, right, holy, and pleasing unto God. And it is not right to decline or depart from such things, even though they seem lowly and abject; and even though they be not provided for by any precept, but are matters of counsel only. But again, all righteousness is whatsoever God the Father hath commanded. So Vatabl. For that is just which God sanctions and commands. And it would seem that as God the Father commanded Christ to die, so also He gave Him a precept to submit to John’s baptism.
Hence, secondly, the Gloss says, humility is all righteousness-humility which subjects itself to all-superiors, equals, and inferiors. On the contrary, pride, by which a man prefers himself to all, not only inferiors and equals, but superiors, is all unrighteousness. For it takes away their just rights, and deprives them of the subjection which is their due. For as in every act of righteousness, i.e., of virtue, humility comes in, in that a man submits himself to reason and virtue, so pride mixes itself up with every act of sin, in that a man prefers himself, and his own will and desire, to the law and will of God. Humility therefore fulfils all righteousness, because it is the head of all right and justice which a man owes to God, his neighbour, and himself. He submits himself to God by religion, to his neighbour by charity. He subjects the body to the soul, the soul to the law of God. Wherefore the humble hath peace with all; the proud with all hath strife and war. At this present day how many lawsuits and contentions are there between clergy and prelates for places, titles, precedence! How both sides pertinaciously contend for what is due to each, to the great scandal of the laity, and with little gain of victory to either side. For what dost thou gain if thou overcomest in the lawsuit, save some small worthless point of honour, and in the meanwhile makest a far greater loss of reputation, peace, and conscience? Learn from Christ, O Christian, to believe in, yea, even to be ambitious of the lowest place, so shalt thou be exalted with Christ and deserve the highest. For Christ, subjecting Himself to John, was declared by John, yea, by all the Holy Trinity, to be greater than John, to be the Son of God. Say, therefore, with Christ, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” S. Ignatius, the founder of our Society, was a follower of Christ when he gave this golden axiom:
But still to yield be e’er his chief delight.” “With e’en the least, let no true Christian fight,
For the grace, honour, and glory of a Christian is humility, that is to say, to yield, to suffer himself to be vanquished, to yield the place of honour to another. Wherefore the greater is he who is the humbler. For, as S. Gregory says, “Pride is the place of the wicked, humility the place of the good.” Christ here teaches us to follow an ordinary life, not to seek exemption from the common law and lot, and to be accounted as one of the common people, according to the words in Ecclus. 3:20, “If thou wouldst be famous, be as one of the flock;” yea, descend to the lowest place, and prefer all men to thyself.
3. All righteousness, i.e., the highest justice. Thus God says to Moses (Exo 23:19), “I will shew thee all,” i.e. the highest “good” (Vulg.) namely, Myself. For the lowest degree of righteousness is to submit oneself to a superior, the middle degree to submit to an equal, the highest to an inferior. even as Christ submitted Himself to John. Christ, I say, who is the Holy of Holies, bowed His head to John for baptism, as though seeking from him sanctification and purification, like the rest, who were sinners, who came to his baptism.
Excellently says S. Gregory (3 p. Pastor. Admonit. 18), “Let the humble hear that the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; let those who are lifted up hear that pride is the beginning of all sin. Let the humble hear that our Redeemer humbled Himself, being made obedient even unto death; let the proud hear what is written of their head, ‘He is a king over all the children of pride.’ The pride of the devil was made the occasion of our ruin, the humility of God was found to be the assurance of our redemption. Let the humble therefore be told that when they abase themselves they rise to the likeness of God; but let it be said to the proud that when they lift up themselves they sink down to the likeness of the apostate angel. What then is more base than to be haughty? And what is more exalted than humility; which, while it puts itself in the lowest place, is united to its Maker in the very highest?”
S. Gregory says elsewhere: “This is the highest righteousness and sanctity, when we are in respect of our virtue the loftiest, in respect of our humility the lowliest.” S. Thomas Aquinas, being asked by what mark a really holy and perfect person might be known, answered, “By humility, by contempt of himself, contempt of honour and praise, by bearing ignominy and reproach.” “For if,” he said, “you see any one, when he is neglected and despised, and has others preferred before him, show a sense of pain or indignation, to be of a downcast countenance, to turn up his nose, wrinkle his forehead, you may be very sure he is not a saint, even though he should work miracles. For when he is neglected he shows his pride, anger, impatience, and so makes himself vile and contemptible.”
4. All righteousness, i.e., every increase of righteousness, that is to say, of virtue and sanctity. Christ indeed could not increase in interior grace, for with that He was always perfectly filled from the first moment of His Conception and union with the Word; but He showed daily ever greater and greater signs of virtue, and ever more and more humbled Himself. For Christ came down from heaven into the Virgin’s womb, from the womb to the manger, from the manger to Jordan, from Jordan to the Cross, as He would teach us in Psa 83:8: “They shall go from virtue to virtue: the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.” (Vulg.) So S. Augustine (Epist. 50, ad Dioscorum), “I would, my Dioscorus, that thou shouldst in all piety subject thyself to Christ and the Christian discipline, nor fortify for thyself any other way of reaching and obtaining the truth than that which has been fortified for us by Him who knoweth the infirmity of our footsteps, forasmuch as He is God. And so it is said of that most famous orator Demosthenes, that when he was asked what was the first rule to be observed in oratory, he replied, Pronunciation; and when he was asked what was the second, replied, Pronunciation; and being asked what was the third, still answered, Pronunciation. So if thou shouldst ask and ask again concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, I should answer that nothing else but humility would make you perfectly fulfil their obligations, although, perchance, I might be obliged to speak of other duties. To this most salutary humility, which, that our Lord Jesus Christ might teach us, He humbled Himself, to this, the greatest adversary is, if I may so say, a most uninstructed science.”
Lastly, he fulfils all righteousness who endures the unpleasant ways and manners and tempers of others, according to those words of St. Paul, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” He who loves those who hate him, blesses those who curse him, does good to those who injure him, honours those who despise him, vanquishes his enemies by the warmth of his love; who with Paul desires to be anathema for his enemies; and to be all things to all men that he may gain all for Christ, he is truly humble and is like Christ.
Then he suffered him. That is, when he heard this, John yielded and baptized Christ. “If God received baptism from man, no one need disdain to receive it from his fellow-servant,” says S. Jerome. And S. Ambrose says, “Let no one refuse the laver of grace, when Christ refused not the laver of penance.” Beautifully, too, says S. Bernard, “John acquiesced and obeyed; he baptized the Lamb of God, and washed Him in the waters; but we, not He, were washed, because, for washing us, the waters are known to be of cleansing power.”
S. Augustine (Serm. 154 de Temp.) says that the day on which Christ was baptized was a Sunday, though John Lucidus (lib. 7, c. 2) was of opinion that the day was Friday. What is certain from tradition is, that Christ was baptized on the 6th day of January, the same day of the month on which he had been adored by the Magi thirty years before. Whence the Church commemorates the event on that day. The Ethiopians on the 6th of January, in memory of Christ’s Baptism, not only sprinkle themselves with water, but immerse themselves in it. The faithful in Greece also were accustomed, about midnight before the 6th of January, to draw water from the nearest river or fountain, which, by the gift of God, remained sweet for many years, as S. Chrysostom expressly testifies (Hom. de Baptism. Christiano, tom. 5, Opp. Grc.). S. Epiphanius (Hres. 51) adds, that on that day the Nile was turned into wine. “About the 11th day of the month Tybus (our 6th of January) Christ’s first miracle was wrought in Cana of Galilee, when water was made wine. Wherefore in various places, until this very time, the same thing takes place as a divine sign for a testimony to unbelievers. Various rivers and fountains which are turned into wine are the proof of this. Cibyris, a fount of a city of Caria, becomes wine at the very hour in which Christ said ‘Draw out now, and bear to the governor of the feast.’ Gerasa in Arabia is another example. I myself have drunk of the fountain of Cibyris, and our brethren of the fount of Gerasa, which is in a temple of the Martyrs. Many testify the same concerning the Nile.”
Moreover, that the water of Jordan received by reason of Christ’s Baptism in it the gift of incorruption, Gretser testifies, “Let us add this,” he says, “that the waters of Jordan, after Christ had consecrated them by His Baptism in them, have been endowed with the gift of incorruption.” That illustrious prince, Nicolas Christopher Radzivil, in his Hodporicum Hierosolymit., says, “The water of the Jordan is extremely turbid, but very wholesome, and when kept in vessels does not become putrid. This I have found to be the case with some which I have brought with me.”
Christ appears to have been baptized and washed by John, not only as to His head, but with respect to the rest of His body. I think so, because such was the manner of the Jews, who were accustomed to denude themselves of their clothes, and undergo their ceremonial baptisms and lustrations naked. Jesus therefore condescended to appear naked before John, and he underwent this indignity for our sakes, that Adam’s and our nakedness and shame, induced by sin, He might clothe and cover by His grace. Whence also, as Bede testifies, a church was erected by the faithful on the spot where the clothes of Christ were deposited when He was baptized. Bede adds, that the same place was adorned with a noble monastery and church which was dedicated in honour of John the Baptist.
Gregory of Tours (lib. de Gloria Martyr., c. 17) writes about the same place: “There is a place by Jordan where the Lord was baptized. The water flows into a certain bay, in which, even now, lepers are cleansed. When they be come thither, they wash frequently until they are cleansed from their infirmity. As long as they remain there they are fed at the public expense. When they are cleansed they depart to their own homes. This spot is five miles from where the Jordan loses itself in the Dead Sea.”
The place is called in S. John’s Gospel non, near to Salim. It was not far from Zarthan and Jericho, where the children of Israel under Joshua passed over on dry ground, that it might be signified that the same Christ, who once led the Israelites over Jordan into the land of promise, will, by baptism, bring His faithful people to heaven. “And as under Joshua the waters were driven back, so under Christ, as our baptized Leader, are our sins turned back,” says S. Augustine. Again, Elias divided the waters of Jordan when he was about to be taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire, that it might be signified that those who pass through the waters of Christ’s baptism shall have an entrance into heaven opened to them by the fire of the Holy Ghost. Thus S. Thomas.
And Jesus, being baptized, &c. Luke adds, Jesus being baptized and praying. Whence it is plain that not by virtue of John’s baptism, but by the merit of Christ’s humility and prayer, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him.
Forthwith. This word is best referred, not to the words coming up out of the water, but to the heavens were opened.
Lo! the heavens were opened. Mark has, He saw the heavens opened. He-that is, Jesus-John too, and others who were present, doubtless saw them, since it was for their sakes this was done. Whence Matthew says, They were opened, i.e., unto him or for him. This is, they were seen to be opened in His honour, that God might make manifest that heaven is open unto all through Christ, says S. Chrysostom.
Also that the heavenly power of baptism might be pointed out, because by it carnal men become heavenly and spiritual, and by it are called and, as it were, taken by the hand to heaven. So S. Thomas.
You will inquire, in what way were the heavens opened unto Christ? It is replied, it was not the actual substance (soliditatem, Lat.) of the sky which was opened and rent in twain, for this is naturally impossible and supernaturally unneeded. Neither were the heavens opened by a merely imaginary vision, as they were opened to Ezekiel (i. I); but there was in the upper region of the air a hiatus visible to the senses, from which visible aperture both the Dove and the Voice of the Father appeared to come down upon Christ. Such hiatuses appear not unfrequently in the atmosphere, concerning which see Aristotle on meteors.
Hieron. Prado, the Jesuit, on the words the heavens were opened, says, “There was an appearance as though the sky were opened and divided by thunders and lightnings, and from the opening the Father’s voice burst forth as thunder. For thunder is always accompanied by lightning; indeed, lightning is the cause of thunder, although the thunder is always heard after the lightning, because sound travels more slowly than light.”
And saw (Syriac, looked up at) the Spirit of God descending like a dove (Egyptian, in the form of a dove). You will ask first, was this a true and real dove, or was it only the appearance and likeness of a dove? SS. Jerome, Anselm, and Thomas, Salmeron, and others, think that it was a real dove; and this is probable. It is, however, equally, or rather, more probable that it was not a real dove, but only the shape of a dove, formed by an angel, agitated and moved so that it should descend upon Christ. The reason is that all the Evangelists seem to indicate this. S. Matthew says, as if a dove; Mark, as it were a dove; John, like a dove; Luke, in a bodily shape like a dove. There was therefore the appearance and similitude only, not the reality of a dove. Nor was there any need of a real dove, but of its likeness for a symbolical signification, that by such a symbol those gifts of Christ of which I shall speak presently might be designated. In such wise were the heavens opened, not in reality, but in appearance, as I have already said. This was the opinion of S. Augustine, S. Ambrose, S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Lyra, &c.
You will urge, Was it then a phantasm, a merely fancied dove? I reply, By no means. It was a real, solid body, having the form of a dove, as S. Augustine teaches, de Doctr. Christian. c. 22; not indeed assumed, hypostatically, by the Holy Spirit, as the Humanity of Christ was assumed by the WORD, as Tertullian appears to have thought, lib. de Carne Christi., c. 3. But it was only an index and a symbol of the Holy Ghost. It was thus taken because the dove is a most meek, simple, innocent, fruitful bird, very amiable, but very jealous. Such in like manner is the Holy Ghost, who endowed the soul of Christ at the very moment of His conception with these qualities of meekness and the rest. And what was now done was, by this sign of the dove, to signify that the Holy Ghost had done this, and to declare it to the people publicly.
You will inquire in the next place, why the Holy Ghost descended upon Christ in the form of a dove, upon Apostles in the shape of tongues of fire? S. Chrysostom answers, 1. Because Christ came in the flesh, and into the world, meek like a dove, for the remission of sins, and for the release of sinners. But in the Day of Judgment, He will come as a severe Judge, to punish the wicked. 2. And more literally, the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles in the likeness of fire, because He endued them with fervour and ardour in preaching. (S. Augustine, Tract. 6 in Joan.)
Again, the dove represented excellently well the Holy Sevenfold Spirit, or His sevenfold gifts which He poured upon Christ as predicted in Isa 11:2, “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.” All these gifts are appositely signified by the dove. For as S. Thomas expounds (3 p., q. 39, art. 6, ad. 4), the dove tarries by flowing streams, and when in the waters she beholds the reflection of a hawk she is able to escape it. Here is the gift of wisdom. 2. The dove selects the best grains of corn, and places them by themselves in a heap. Here is the gift of understanding. 3. The dove brings up the young of others. Behold the gift of counsel. 4. The dove does not tear with her beak. Behold the gift of knowledge. 5. The dove is without gall and bile. Lo! the gift of piety or godliness. 6. The dove maketh her nest in the rocks. See the gift of true strength. 7. The dove utters a mournful plaint instead of a song. Behold the gift of fear, wherewith Christ and His saints wail for sins, whether their own, or those of others.
Again, the dove is the symbol of the reconciliation and renewal of the world, which the Holy Spirit has wrought through Christ. Hence His symbol was a dove, bearing a green olive-branch to Noah, signifying that the Deluge and God’s anger were at an end.
Lastly, because the dove is an amicable and social bird, it denotes the union of the faithful in the Church, which the Holy Spirit effects through the baptism of Christ. So S. Thomas. In fine, the dove is very fair, it delights in sweet odours, and it dearly loves its young. So too Christ is most fair, He delights in the odour of virtues, and dearly loves His children.
As the Holy Spirit thus descended upon Christ, so has He often descended in the form of a dove upon illustrious Christians, more especially upon doctors, bishops, and pontiffs of the Church, and thus, as it were, consecrated them. S. Eieucadius, the disciple of S. Apollinaris, Apostle of Ravenna, when a dove had flown upon his head, was ordained Bishop of Ravenna. After a life illustrious for sanctity he migrated to heaven, A.D. 115. (Philip Ferrar in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy.)
Thus a dove flew down upon the head of S. Aderitus, in the presence of the clergy, and designated him the successor of S. Apollinaris, and second Bishop of Ravenna.
S. Marcellinus in like manner, was designated bishop of the same city, A.D. 230.
S. Fabian, in consequence of a dove lighting upon his head, was elected Bishop of Rome.
When S. Gregory was writing his works, the Holy Spirit, in the likeness of a dove, was seen to instil into his ear what he wrote.
So S. Basil, who wished to be baptized in the same river Jordan as Christ was, in celebrating Mass, was surrounded by a celestial light, and gave orders for a dove to be made of pure gold, and a portion of the consecrated Host to be placed in it, and suspended it above the altar. So Amphilochius. He adds that S. Ephrem saw the Holy Ghost, in the likeness of a dove of fire, sitting upon S. Basil, wherefore he exclaimed, “Truly is Basil a column of fire; truly the Holy Ghost speaks by his mouth.”
Flavian the patriarch, by the command of an angel, consecrating S. John Chrysostom to be a priest, beheld a white dove fly down upon his head. Leo Augustus relates this in his life of S. Chrysostom. (See Baronius, A.D. 456, n. 7.)
This was the reason why the impostor Mahomet tamed a dove, and accustomed it to fly to him, by placing in his ear grains of corn, which the dove picked and ate, and by this means he persuaded the people that the Holy Spirit was his friend, and dictated the Koran to him, and revealed the most secret purposes of God. He also caused the dove to bring him a scroll, on which was written in letters of gold, “Whosoever shall tame a bull, let him be king.” But he had brought up a bull, which of course he easily tamed, and was thereupon saluted as king by the foolish people. So the authors of the Life of Mahomet.
And lighting upon him. Piously says S. Bernard (Serm. I de Epiphan.), “Not unsuitably came a dove, to point out the Son of God; for nothing so well corresponds to a lamb as a dove. As the lamb among beasts, so is the dove among birds. There is the utmost innocence in each, the utmost gentleness, the utmost guilelessness. What is so opposed to all malice as a lamb and a dove? They know not how to injure or do harm.”
And behold a voice, &c. From the opened heaven a dove glided down upon the head of Christ, and whilst it sat upon Him, there came the voice, “This is my beloved Son.” The voice explained the symbol of the dove, that it had reference to Christ, and to Him alone. This voice, “in the Person of the Father, was framed by the ministry of angels,” say Victor Antioch. (in c. I S. Marc.). Here was first revealed to the world the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which had been darkly indicated to the Jews. The Father manifested Himself by a voice, the Son was seen in the flesh, the Holy Ghost was visible in the form of a dove, that it might be signified that the faith of the Holy Trinity was about to be unfolded, and that the baptism of Christ was conferred in Their Name. For although all these things-viz., heaven opened, the forming of the voice, the descent of the dove-were, as regards operations, ad extra, as theologians say, common to the whole Trinity, yet each several Person was represented by the aforenamed symbols. (See S. Augustine, Serm. 38 de Temp.)
This is my Son. Greek -i.e. the Son of God the Father, by nature, not by adoption, as the angels and holy men are sons of God. Therefore the Son of God is not a creature, but the Creator, consubstantial with God the Father, as was defined by the Nicene Council.
Mark and Luke have, in different words, but with the same meaning, “Thou art my Son.” And it is probable that these last were the exact words used, not merely because of the consensus of two Evangelists, but because, when Jesus was looking up into heaven, and praying to the Father, it is probable that the words would be immediately and directly addressed to Him. So Jansen, Maldonatus, and others.
My beloved Son. Gr. , i.e., only and chiefly beloved, through whom all others are beloved. For no one is beloved by God save those whom Christ loves. The Syriac has most beloved.
In whom I am well pleased. As it were, “Thou only, O Christ, art perfectly, in all things, and infinitely pleasing unto Me; and no one is pleasing unto Me save through Thee. For by Thee I am well pleased with all the human race, with whom I was offended because of Adam’s sin.” The Heb. signifies both to please and to be propitious, or reconciled.
“Because Thou art the Brightness of My glory and the express figure of My substance (Heb. i. 3.), Thou art immeasurably pleasing unto Me. In Thee nothing ever displeases, but all things please Me. Thou art He in whom I have always delight. And for Thy sake all Thy disciples and followers-that is to say, all holy Christians-are pleasing unto Me.” There is an allusion to Noah, who alone of his generation pleased God. (See Gen 6:9; Gen 8:20.)
As, therefore, Noah was well-pleasing unto God-especially when he offered the sacrifice unto Him, with which He was propitiated, and promised that He would no more destroy the world by the waters of a flood-so, much more, when Christ offered Himself to God as a peculiar and special victim, did He cause God to be propitious to the whole human race. “By this Voice was Christ constituted by God the Father the universal Doctor and Legislator of the World.”
The voice added, Hear ye him. “Hear Christ, believe in Him obey Him. He hath come forth from My bosom. He will show you My mysteries, things kept secret from the foundation of the world. He will open to you the way of peace, the way to heaven, the way to happiness. He will preach to you the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven, even such divine things as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they come into the heart of man.” Hence, when the Magdalen sat at the feet of Jesus, and diligently listened to Him, it was said to her, “Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her.”
Very well saith S. Leo (Serm. de Transfigurat.): “This is My Son who is from Me, and with Me from everlasting. This is My Son, who is not separated from Me in Deity, divided in power, severed by eternity. This is My Son, My very own, not created of any other substance, but begotten of Myself. This is My Son, by whom all things were made. This is My Son, who sought not by robbery that equality which He hath with Me. He attained it by no presumption, but, abiding in the form of My glory, and in order that He might fulfil Our common purpose for the restoration of the human race, He bowed down the unchangeable Godhead, even to the form of a servant. In Him, therefore, I am in all things well pleased, and by His preaching I am manifested, and by His humility I am glorified. Hear ye Him, therefore, without delay, for He is the Truth and the Life. He is My strength and My wisdom. Hear Him of whom the lips of the prophets sung. Hear Him who hath redeemed the world by His Blood; who by His Cross hath prepared for you a ladder by which ye may ascend up to heaven.”
Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary
3:13 {7} Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
(7) Christ sanctified our baptism in himself.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
John hesitated to baptize Jesus because he believed that Jesus did not need to repent. John evidently suggested that it was more appropriate that Jesus baptize him than that he baptize Jesus because he knew that Jesus was more righteous than he was. It is unlikely that John meant that he wanted the Spirit and fire baptism of Jesus. John did not know that Jesus was the Messiah until after he had baptized Him (Joh 1:31-34).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 4
His Baptism – Mat 3:13-17.
“THE baptism of John, was it from Heaven or of men?” This question must have been asked throughout the length and breadth of the land in the days of his mission. We know how it was answered; for even after the excitement had died away, we are told that “all men counted John for a prophet.” This conviction would of course prevail in Nazareth as well as everywhere else. When, therefore, the Baptist removed from the wilderness of Judea and the lower reaches of the Jordan to the ford of Bethany, or Bethabara, -now identified with a point much farther north, within a single days journey of Nazareth, -the people of Galilee would flock to him, as before the people of Judea and Jerusalem had done. Among the rest, as might naturally be expected, Jesus came. It was enough for Him to know that the baptism of John was of Divine appointment. He was in all things guided by His Fathers will, to whom He would day by day commit His way. Accordingly, just as day by day He had been subject to His parents, and just as He had seen it to be right to go up to the Temple in accordance with the Law, so He recognised it to be His duty to present Himself, as His countrymen in such large numbers were doing, to receive baptism from John. The manner of the narrative implies that He came, not as if He were some great person demanding special recognition, but as simply and naturally as any of the rest: “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptised of him.”
John looks at Him. Does he know Him at all? Perhaps not; for though they are cousins, their lives have been lived quite apart. Before their birth their mothers met; but it is doubtful if they themselves have seen each other before, and even if they have, in earlier years, they may both be so changed that recognition is uncertain. The one has had his home in the South; the other in the North. Besides, the elder of the two has spent his life mostly in the desert, so that probably he is a stranger now even to his own townspeople, and his father and mother, both very old when he was born, must be dead and gone long ago. Perhaps, then, John did not know Jesus at all; certainly he did not yet know Him as the Messiah. But he sees something in Him that draws forth the homage of his soul, Or possibly he gathers his impressions rather from what Jesus says. All the rest have confessed sin; He has no sin of His own to confess. But words would no doubt be spoken that would convey to the Baptist how this disciple looked on sin, how the very thought of it filled Him with horror, how His whole soul longed for the righteousness of God, how it was a sacred passion with Him that sin should perish from the hearts of men, and righteousness reign in its place. Whether then, it was by His appearance, the clear eye, the calm face, – an open window for the prophet to look through into His soul, – or whether it was by the words He spoke as He claimed a share in the baptism, or both combined, John was taken aback-surprised a second time, though in just the opposite way to that in which he had been surprised before. The same eagle eye that saw through the mask of Pharisee and Sadducee could penetrate the veil of humility and obscurity; so he said: “I have need to be baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me?”
Think of the majesty of this John. Remember how he bore himself in presence of the Pharisees and Sadducees; and how he faced Herod, telling him plainly, at the risk of his life, as it afterwards proved, “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brothers wife.” Remember that all Judea, and Jerusalem, and Galilee had been bowing down in his presence; and now, when an obscure nameless One of Nazareth comes to him, only as yet distinguished from others by the holiness of His life and the purity of His soul, John would not have Him bow in his presence, but would himself bend low before Him: “I have need to be baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” Oh, for more of that grand combination of lofty courage and lowly reverence! Verily, “among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.”
But Jesus answering said unto him, “Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” (R.V.). Though about to enter on His Messianic work, He has not yet taken its burden on Him; accordingly He comes, not as Messiah, but in the simplest and most unassuming way; content still, as He has been all along till now, to be reckoned simply as of Israel. This is what we take to be the force of the plural pronoun “us.”
On the other hand, it should be remembered that Jesus must have recognised in the summons to the Jordan a call to commence His work as Messiah. He would certainly have heard from His mother of the prophetic words which had been spoken concerning His cousin and Himself; and would, therefore, as soon as He heard of the mission of John, know well what it meant-He could not but know that John was preparing the way before Him, and therefore that His time was close at hand. Of this, too, we have an indication in His answer to the expostulation of John. “Suffer it now,” He says; as if to say, I am as yet only one of Israel; My time is at hand, when I must take the position to which I am called, but meantime I come as the rest come: “Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
While then Jesus came simply in obedience to the will of God, He must have come with a very heavy burden. His study of the Scriptures must have made Him painfully familiar with the dark prospects before Him. Well did He know that the path of the Messiah must be one of suffering, that He must be despised and rejected, that He must be wounded for the peoples transgressions and bruised for their iniquity; that, in a word, He must be the suffering Priest before He can be the reigning King, This thought of His priesthood must have been especially borne in upon Him now that He had just reached the priestly age. In His thirteenth year-the Temple age-He had gone to the Temple, and now at the age when the priest is consecrated to his office, He is summoned to the Jordan, to be baptised by one whom He knows to be sent of God to prepare the way before Him. Those Scriptures, then, which speak of the priestly office the Messiah must fill, must have been very much in His mind as He came to John and offered Himself to be baptised. And of all these Scriptures none would seem more appropriate at the moment than those words of the fortieth Psalm: “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God.”
At this point we can readily see the appropriateness of His baptism, and also an element in common between it and that of the people. They had come professing to be willing to do the will of God by turning from sin to righteousness. He had no need to turn from sin to do the will of God: but He had to turn from the quiet and peaceful home life at Nazareth, that He might take up the burden laid upon Him as Messiah. So He as well as they had to leave the old life and begin a new one; and in this we can see how fitting it was that He as well as they should be baptised. Then, just as by baptism-the symbol, in their case, of separation from sin and consecration to God-John made “ready a people prepared for the Lord”; so by baptism-the symbol, in His case, of separation from private life and consecration to God in the office of Messiah, -the Lord was made ready for the people. By baptism John opened the door of the new Kingdom. From the wilderness of sin the people entered it as subjects; from the seclusion of private life Jesus entered it as King and Priest. They came under a vow of obedience unto Him; He came under a vow of obedience unto death, even the death of the Cross.
This, then, is the moment of His taking up the Cross. It is indeed the assumption of His royalty as Messiah-King; but then He knew that He must suffer and die before He could enter on His glory; therefore, as the first great duty before Him, He takes up the Cross. In this we can see a still further appropriateness in the words already quoted, as is suggested in the well-known passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God.” Ah, who can understand the love in the heart of Jesus, who can measure the sacrifice He makes, as He bends before John, and is baptised into the name of “the Christ,” the Saviour of mankind!
The act of solemn consecration is over. He comes up out of the water. And lo, the heavens are opened, and the Spirit of God descends upon Him, and a voice from heaven calls, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
“The heavens were opened.” What was the precise natural phenomenon witnessed we can only conjecture, but whatever it was, it was but a symbol of the spiritual opening of the heavens. The heaven of Gods love and of all holy Angels, shut from man by sin, was opened again by the Christ of God. Nothing could be more appropriate, therefore, than that just at the moment when the Holy One of Israel had bowed Himself to take up His heavy burden, when for the first time it was possible to say, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” the heavens should open to welcome Him, and in welcoming Him, the Sin-bearer, to welcome all whose sins He came to take away.
“And He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him.” This was His anointing for the work He had come to do. The priests of the line of Aaron had been anointed with oil: He was anointed with that of which the oil was but a symbol, -the Holy-Spirit descending from the open heaven. From His birth, indeed, He had been guided by the Spirit of God. But up to this time He had, as we have seen, nothing more than was needed to minister to that growth in wisdom which had been going on in private life these thirty years, nothing more than was necessary to guide Him day by day in His quiet, unexacting duties at home. Now He needs far more. Now He must receive the Spirit without measure, in the fulness of His grace and power; hence the organic form of the symbol. The emblem used when the apostles were baptised with the Holy Ghost was tongues of fire, indicating the partial nature of the endowment; here it is the dove, suggesting the idea of completeness and, at the same time, as every one sees, of beauty, gentleness, peace, and love. Again let it be remembered that it is on Him as our representative that the Spirit descends, that His baptism with the Holy Ghost is in order that He may be ready to fulfil the word of John, “He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Heaven opened above Him means all heavenly blessings prepared for those who follow Him into the new Kingdom. The descent of the Spirit means the bestowment on Him and His of heavens best gift as an earnest of all the rest.
Last of all there is the voice, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” spoken not merely to Himself individually, -all along, in the personal sense, He was Gods beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased, -but to the Messiah, as the Representative and Head of a new redeemed humanity, as the First-born among many brethren, as One who at the very moment was undertaking suretyship on behalf of all who had already received Him or should in the ages to come receive Him as their Priest and King-“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual and heavenly blessings in Him: with an open heaven, a present Spirit, a reconciled Fathers voice. Blessed be our loving Lord and Saviour that He came so humbly to the Jordan, stooped so bravely to the yoke, took up our heavy Cross, and carried it through these sorrowful years to the bitter, bitter end. And blessed be the Holy Spirit of all grace, that He abode on Him, and abides with us. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us all!