Jesus, Son of God, was born to Earth as a flesh and blood child, that we might be able to relate, one on one, with God. He took on the features and flesh of man. He grew among the Jewish people. He partook in all that life had to offer… except sin. He identifies with us in every emotion, every feeling we have, because He, himself, felt those in his ‘humanness’.
At about the age of thirty years He knew that the time had come to begin His ministry. He knew what He should do to accomplish the work that God, the Father, had set before Him. One of those things was to go to His cousin, John the Baptist, to be baptized. When John saw Jesus at the river, he asked why he should be baptizing Jesus. He said that Jesus should, instead, be baptizing him. Jesus answered that it was necessary for himself to be baptized to ‘fulfill righteousness.” (Matt 3:15Matt 3:15
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
15 Jesus answered, “For now this is how it should be, because we must do all that God wants us to do.” Then John agreed.
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At Calvary, Jesus, who was sinless, (John 8:7John 8:7
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
7 . They kept on asking Jesus about the woman. Finally, he stood up and said, “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!”
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Charles Swindoll in Signposts Along Life’s Journey (1997), Insight for Living, CA, p. 10, wrote that the word ‘baptize’ comes from the “root word, bapto, which was a term used in the first century for immersing a garment first into bleach and then into dye, both cleansing and changing the color of the cloth. (Note its similarity to baptism’s cleansing of sin and becoming a new person through Christ.) Stated another way, when you process cloth to change its color, you are said to “baptize” it.
When Jesus was baptized, He set an example for believers to follow. When we accepted Christ as our Savior by faith, we were cleansed by His blood. At that moment, we were completely forgiven of all of our past, present and future sin. When we followed His example of baptism, we were plunged beneath the water, symbolic of the cleansing we’d received at Salvation. Our baptism was a testimony to the world that we have been changed! We signified that were burying our sin, and rising in life anew. In such a way, we identified ourselves with Jesus, both inwardly and outwardly for all to see. (It is not the baptism that renews us, it is the faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection that does that work. Baptism is a testimony that we have been changed…renewed by the power of His righteousness.)
Let us, daily, renew ourselves in Him, as we remember that our sins are dead to us, and go forth to live in the newness of Life in Christ!
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