“11 I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am
not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
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.” –Matthew 3:11-17
The beginning of Jesus’s ministry foreshadows the very purpose
of his ministry. He came so that we
could be baptized, not just with water, but with the Holy Ghost and with
fire. He came that we might be
sanctified by the Spirit of God.
We find in the scriptures that all four gospels echo the above
account of how Jesus came onto the scene (so to speak). Let us take a moment, and put ourselves
there. Here is this man called John: He is rough looking, hairy, oddly dressed;
and probably poor as dirt. The son of a
priest, he totally rejected his priestly duties so that he could go out into
the wilderness and preach the gospel (certainly we must reject things of this
world to go out and preach the gospel).
He we find John on a Jordan bank preaching the gospel of repentance,
baptizing persons, and talking of one “mightier than I.” Within this revival of repentance, soul after
soul begins to come down confessing and being baptized; this is the atmosphere
to which Jesus chooses to come into focus.
He walks up to John, and says “I have need to be baptized”; and like a
lot of things Jesus did; he did this for our benefit. Therefore, into the water Jesus goes and after
he comes up out of the water, the Spirit
then comes down and the record is given from God himself, the affirmative
statement, announcing the beginning of his ministry…….. “this is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased”. Jesus didn’t
need what John had, John needed what he had, but we (you and I) needed what
both of them were preaching. So Christ,
was baptized to fulfill all righteousness.
The law and prophets satisfied, and the plan of salvation rehearsed
before the eyes of all mankind. Now
looking back in the pages of the Holy Bible we can understand that the
beginning of Jesus’s ministry foreshadows the very purpose of his ministry. In the plan of salvation, Repentance is a
must; you have to confess and forsake; determine in your heart that you will
never again do that which you have confessed and repented of. This brings cleansing for sins committed and
you feel the burden lifted. This is John’s
baptism and only in this state of repentance and complete death to yourself can
you experience the second coming of Christ (Sanctification-see Acts 2). When you have first repented and God has
pardoned your transgression(s); then the Spirit can come down and the record
can be given from God himself, the affirmative statement, announcing the
beginning of his ministry in your life and through your life.
With the second coming of Christ, which is the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost in the heart of a believer; you become a child of God, and heir with
Christ. The Spirit of Jesus Christ; the “Holy Ghost whom I will send in my name” (John
14:26) comes in and he remains. When you are born of God, and have the Holy
Spirit abiding within, it enables you to live a life pleasing to God. It enables you to live a life where you do
not willfully transgress against God, because you don’t want anything but what
God wants. He is able “to keep you from falling, and present you
faultless” (Jude 1:24). We it comes
to God’s plan of salvation, we need look no further than Jesus and the Jordan
bank.
