Why in the world was Jesus baptized?

Steve Brown:
Why in the world was Jesus baptized? Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’ve suffered too long under a do more, try harder religion, Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free. Steve invited Justin Holcomb to teach us this week. Justin is a priest, a seminary professor, and the author of God With Us: 365 Devotions on the Person and Work of Christ.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’re just joining us this week, Dr. Justin Holcomb is joining us and we decided as a ministry, we were going to recognize some of the major events in the Christian church throughout the year. And Epiphany is one of those. And if you’re a Baptist or a Presbyterian, you’re probably not really sure what that is. And so, Justin is taking some time to cover some of the themes of Epiphany. And they are life changing. Let me read some Scripture to you, and then we’ll pray, and then we’ll get down. This is what Mark writes in the 1st chapter of Mark.

In the days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John and the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

All right, let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the Incarnation, for the revelation of Jesus in our lives, and for the amazement and the surprise of it. You are a good God and a big God, and a God who is in charge of everything and we worship you. And now, as we study, oversee it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Justin Holcomb:
All right. Let’s jump in, again on Epiphany, this is a season after Christmas and before Lent and all that, where we we’re focusing not on, I mean, you just brought it up in the prayer. Jesus is, you know, fully man, fully God, the Incarnation. So, that tells us who Jesus is, but Epiphany highlights, what is he doing? And it’s God’s mission for the world to fix the effects of Satan, sin, hell, death in the grave. And Jesus is the way God is doing that because Jesus is the God man.

Steve Brown:
And Epiphany means what?

Justin Holcomb:
Appearance and manifestation. So, the manifestation of who Jesus is, fully God, fully man. And God’s mission for the world. And so, the themes are revelation, mission for the nations, and light and darkness. The baptism of Jesus is, and what we’re doing this whole week is we’re looking at passages that are in the lectionary, the Scripture readings for many traditions. This is across, this is global. So, globally, a lot of Christians are celebrating Epiphany, the time of Epiphany, and I’m picking passages for us to discuss that are being read during this time. This is one of them, the baptism of Jesus, and you said it at the beginning. Why in the world is Jesus being baptized and just in general, but let me tell you some stuff about baptism and what John was doing, because John the Baptist fulfills the prediction of a messenger who announces and prepares for the one who is to come. That’s from Matthew 11, who is Yahweh.

Prepare the way of the Lord.

And so, John the Baptist is calling for radical repentance while other Jewish groups of the time were calling for stricter performance of the Mosaic Law. And so, what John the Baptist is doing is at the Jordan, many Jewish people were undergoing a baptism of repentance. It’s a baptism of returning to God, which is usually required for repentant Gentiles converting to Judaism. And so, this is shocking that Jesus shows up and says, I want in on that because he doesn’t, he is Yahweh. He doesn’t need, he’s not a Gentile. So, he’s doing something that a Gentile would do. And he also has nothing of which to, for which, to which. He didn’t sin.

Steve Brown:
He was perfect.

Justin Holcomb:
So, I mean, it’s a baptism of repentance. And so what first, the first thing that’s beautiful about this, is that this is the God man identifying with sinners as if he was a sinner. He had, there’s no reason for him to repent, so this was him, I mean think about the humility is, you look at the cross like he had no business being on the cross. He was treated like he was the scum of the earth. And that’s what we deserve. Well, that started at the baptism. He had no business, there was no reason for him to be there for a baptism of repentance, but he was he wanted to identify with us so much. He said, You know what? I can do this. I mean, the humility of Jesus Christ to be baptized as if he was a repentant Gentile. So, John’s even shocking people. I mean, there were people who are not happy with Jews being, getting the baptism for repentant Gentiles. That’s one thing that should just be jumping out to us is that his identification as if he were a sinner. Well, it goes straight from his baptism to his temptation after this, right after his baptism. This is the start of his public ministry. And we learn later on that he is a great high priest who can sympathize with us because he was tempted in every way. I have no idea what that means and how that applies, except that he was tempted in every way, yet without sin. And so he, the beauty of this is that that results in he shouldn’t have been baptized, he identified with us, he was pure and followed the law. And then you see this Trinitarian picture of the Father’s declaration, the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus. This is the plan of the Triune God from the foundations of the world that we learn about in Ephesians. This was the plan before creation is we’re going to create, they’re going to mess it up and we’re going to get them back. And the whole Trinity is in, every member of the Trinity is involved in this. And then, but the fact that Jesus said, that the Father says.

This is my Son in whom I’m well pleased.

That’s about Jesus. This is, he is God’s Son, but because we are in Christ, which is Paul’s favorite phrase in Scripture, 260 times.

You are in Christ.

We’re in union with Christ in baptism. We’re in union with Christ when we have faith in Christ. We are in Christ. It’s not too far to say that those words also apply to us because we are declared righteous. Our sins are forgiven. And the our judge, our Father, who is the Judge, says you are declared righteous, not because you are, but because Jesus was and we get everything that he won, the favor of God, his righteousness, all of the blessings of his obedience are given to us and imputed to us. So, it’s not far for us to say those words to Jesus apply to me that you are my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased because you’re in Christ. And so it’s, we’re writing his coattails and we get all the benefits of that.

Steve Brown:
That is so cool. And so amazing again. We talked yesterday about the amazing way God worked with the wise men. I haven’t thought about it that way in terms of the baptism. You know people always say, well, he didn’t sin. There was no reason for baptism. But yes, there really was. And it’s amazing in the way that applies to me. I’m something else. You have to treat me with great respect because I’m a beloved son of God and he is pleased with me. Not the me that was, but the me who is because of Christ.

Justin Holcomb:
And this from Hebrews again, I quoted Hebrews earlier about the great high priest before that. It says.

You could enter boldly.

The command is.

Enter boldly into the throne room of God, making your petitions and requests.

You don’t saunter in to a king’s throne room. That’s how you get your head cut off. Right? And so, but we’re told go for it because you actually belong there. And Tim Keller used to say.

No one wakes up a king at two o’clock in the morning asking for a glass of water, unless you’re the king’s kid.

Because you don’t saunter into the throne room, you don’t pester the king, but the picture that you have in Hebrews is, oh no, go into the throne room, you belong, go ahead and make your request, you might not get them all, you’ll get an answer, but you might not get what you always want, but go ahead and make your request. That’s important for people to see. Yeah, God is Holy, and we have some repenting, and we don’t belong there in our own merits. But he dealt with that and because of that you’re adopted into the family like that adoption. This is J.I. Packer said.

In justification, your sins are forgiven and you’re declared righteous.

The fruit of that is adoption. And that’s the crown jewel of salvation that you’re adopted into the family of God with all the rights and benefits and inheritance and future. So that’s, Jesus’ baptism is a picture of our identity as children of God and all the benefits that come from that. That influences prayer, that influences who we are, that influences how we view ourselves, other Christians. I mean, this messes up all the people I don’t like who are Christians. There’s lots of implications. The Holy Spirit will lead people through how to apply this, but yeah, this is, it’s shocking that he got baptized.

Steve Brown:
And we saw yesterday on our study of Epiphany that the wise men rejoiced greatly when they fell down and worshiped the baby Jesus. Do you think they got this, or they knew something like this was happening, and that it was really big, even if they couldn’t articulate it?

Justin Holcomb:
I’m just guessing on this one, but I think some of the scrolls from Isaiah, I think some of the stuff got out there. I don’t think they were just looking at some stars and showed up. I think that there was, there’s some research that shows that some of the Scriptures actually expanded beyond. So, I think they were looking at the Scriptures and looking at the stars and God was gracious and nudged them through his providence.

Steve Brown:
So, there you have it. Listen, you’re something else. If you belong to Christ, you’re a beloved son or daughter, and not only that, he’s not angry at you, he’s pleased with you. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve and Justin. If you’re just joining us, we’re in a standalone teaching series this week called Epiphany: Light for the Nations. Full disclosure, in my faith background, we didn’t talk about Epiphany, so I’m finding this very insightful. More with Steve and Justin tomorrow, do join us. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very exciting announcement to share with you. The 2025 print edition of Key Life Magazine has now been released. Articles in this issue touch on perverting the gospel, the downside and upside of distractions, finding hope, and our tendency to wander. This issue is part of our year long celebration of Key Life’s 40th anniversary. Yeah, 40. Claim your free copy of Key Life Magazine by calling us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to order the magazine. Or to mail your request go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the U. S. and Canada. Again, just ask for your free copy of Key Life Magazine. And finally, if you’re blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Giving is easy. You just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now give safely and securely through text. Just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.