Mat 3:13-16 | KingComments | STEP | Here we find the first public activity of the Lord Jesus. Scripture does not say much about the time between His birth and His first public activity. Only Luke mentions something about Him when He is twelve years old ( ). There it turns out that He is busy with the things of His Father and submissive to His earthly parents. This characterizes Him Who reveals God to men and at the same time perfectly presents Man to God. He lives, also in the years before His public activity, as God has meant that man shall live. In Him the word is true that God is well-pleased in man and indeed in this Man. The Lord Jesus comes to John to be baptized by him. Baptism is the door through which He must enter as the Shepherd to begin His ministry ( ). He does not come from Jerusalem. He never lived there, just like John. He wants to be baptized to identify himself with those who, through baptism, have indicated that they are looking forward to Him. By His baptism He recognizes them as His people. John feels unworthy to perform this act on Christ. He wants it to happen the other way around. The Lord gently reprimands him. This must be done. John must permit it. In His grace He connects John with Himself when He says, “it is fitting for us.” He says as it were: “In fulfilling the will of God, I have My part and you yours.” If the Lord Jesus is baptized, it is to fulfil “all righteousness”, that is, to do what is right and to do it in all aspects in which God asks it of Him. If the people are baptized, it is under confession of their iniquity. The Lord Jesus has no sins to confess. He can say: “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?” ( ). But because He has taken His place as Man, it is appropriate that He unites Himself with the pious who thus take their place before God. He does so in grace, as He does everything in grace. He thus fulfils “all” righteousness and not just what the law demands. When Christ comes up from the water, the first great revelation of the Divine trinity takes place. Never before has heaven opened to let God’s pleasure be heard about anything or anyone on earth. Now it is. Also for us the heaven is now open, the veil is torn. We are sealed and anointed just like Him ( ). The Father also acknowledges us as sons of His pleasure. The Lord Jesus is this in His own power and right, we have come into the relationship of sons to the Father through grace and the redemption that the Son has brought about. Heavens open above Him. This is not to give him an object there, as was the case with Stephen ( ). He Himself is the Object of the opened heavens. When heavens open, it is always to show Him and glorify Him ( ; ). Then we hear the wonderful testimony of God the Father: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” This testimony is the result of the fulfilment by Christ of all righteousness in the waters of the Jordan. At the same time it is God’s jealousy for the honor of His Son. He does not want the inappropriate idea to arise in any way among the bystanders that the Lord Jesus is a man like all those who have been baptized. He is the unique, sinless Son of God. That He is the Son of David and the Son of Abraham ( ) speaks of what He is officially. This is connected to the glory of the throne and the certainty of the promises. He is also the Son of the virgin ( ), the Seed of the woman ( ). This is His relationship to the human race. But the voice of the Father proclaims Him as His beloved Son, the object of His special pleasure. He is the Son in His Manhood with the express intention of, by His death, bringing others into that holy relationship with the Father to share with Him in the Father’s love. Here is a Man on earth, sealed by the Father, Who shows us what the place of the Christian is today on earth. The Lord Jesus is the example to us in four ways with regard to the place He has by virtue of His personal dignity, which we have received and may share with Him through the redemption which He has secured for us: 1. Heavens are opened to us. 2. The Holy Spirit is given to us. 3. We have received our part in sonship. 4. We are objects of the Father’s pleasure.

‏ Matthew 3:13-16

The Baptism of the Lord Jesus

Here we find the first public activity of the Lord Jesus. Scripture does not say much about the time between His birth and His first public activity. Only Luke mentions something about Him when He is twelve years old (Lk 2:41-52). There it turns out that He is busy with the things of His Father and submissive to His earthly parents. This characterizes Him Who reveals God to men and at the same time perfectly presents Man to God. He lives, also in the years before His public activity, as God has meant that man shall live. In Him the word is true that God is well-pleased in man and indeed in this Man.

The Lord Jesus comes to John to be baptized by him. Baptism is the door through which He must enter as the Shepherd to begin His ministry (Jn 10:2). He does not come from Jerusalem. He never lived there, just like John. He wants to be baptized to identify himself with those who, through baptism, have indicated that they are looking forward to Him. By His baptism He recognizes them as His people.

John feels unworthy to perform this act on Christ. He wants it to happen the other way around. The Lord gently reprimands him. This must be done. John must permit it. In His grace He connects John with Himself when He says, “it is fitting for us.” He says as it were: “In fulfilling the will of God, I have My part and you yours.”

If the Lord Jesus is baptized, it is to fulfil “all righteousness”, that is, to do what is right and to do it in all aspects in which God asks it of Him. If the people are baptized, it is under confession of their iniquity. The Lord Jesus has no sins to confess. He can say: “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?” (Jn 8:46). But because He has taken His place as Man, it is appropriate that He unites Himself with the pious who thus take their place before God. He does so in grace, as He does everything in grace. He thus fulfils “all” righteousness and not just what the law demands.

When Christ comes up from the water, the first great revelation of the Divine trinity takes place. Never before has heaven opened to let God’s pleasure be heard about anything or anyone on earth. Now it is. Also for us the heaven is now open, the veil is torn. We are sealed and anointed just like Him (2Cor 1:21). The Father also acknowledges us as sons of His pleasure. The Lord Jesus is this in His own power and right, we have come into the relationship of sons to the Father through grace and the redemption that the Son has brought about.

Heavens open above Him. This is not to give him an object there, as was the case with Stephen (Acts 7:55-57). He Himself is the Object of the opened heavens. When heavens open, it is always to show Him and glorify Him (Jn 1:51; Rev 19:11).

Then we hear the wonderful testimony of God the Father: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” This testimony is the result of the fulfilment by Christ of all righteousness in the waters of the Jordan. At the same time it is God’s jealousy for the honor of His Son. He does not want the inappropriate idea to arise in any way among the bystanders that the Lord Jesus is a man like all those who have been baptized. He is the unique, sinless Son of God.

That He is the Son of David and the Son of Abraham (Mt 1:1) speaks of what He is officially. This is connected to the glory of the throne and the certainty of the promises. He is also the Son of the virgin (Mt 1:21), the Seed of the woman (Gen 3:15). This is His relationship to the human race. But the voice of the Father proclaims Him as His beloved Son, the object of His special pleasure.

He is the Son in His Manhood with the express intention of, by His death, bringing others into that holy relationship with the Father to share with Him in the Father’s love. Here is a Man on earth, sealed by the Father, Who shows us what the place of the Christian is today on earth.

The Lord Jesus is the example to us in four ways with regard to the place He has by virtue of His personal dignity, which we have received and may share with Him through the redemption which He has secured for us:

1. Heavens are opened to us.

2. The Holy Spirit is given to us.

3. We have received our part in sonship.

4. We are objects of the Father’s pleasure.