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Road to Easter: Why Was Jesus Baptized?
00:38:06
Why did Jesus—God in the flesh—need to be baptized? And is his baptism Christian baptism? Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Walter Strickland, and Bob Hiller help uncover how this incredible event kicks off Jesus’s ministry and what it means for...
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- [00:00]
Jonathan Landry Cruz
The Jesus we know today is the risen Jesus. While people once knew him as a teacher and a miracle worker, it's the empty tomb that defines him. For every believer this Easter rediscover the significance of meeting Jesus after the Resurrection. Our free five day devotional, written by Jonathan Landry Cruz, explores key moments when Christ met his followers, showing us how he meets us in our fears, our doubts, our failures, and ultimately that he is alive, faithful and for us. Get your free Easter Devotional today at SoloMedia.org offers.
- [00:41]
Mike Horton
What he's doing here is fulfilling the law, not for himself. He doesn't need to be baptized for repentance, but he's doing it for us. And this is a signal to us that this is going to be his whole ministry. It's going to be marked by this suffering life where, as Calvin says, he began to win our salvation from the moment he was conceived in the virgin's womb.
- [01:07]
Walter Strickland
And Mike, I think this is so important because if we look at John, he is someone who is in the line of Aaron, he's the tribe of Levi. And Luke specifies that John's parents were a part of the priesthood and then one of their duties is to present the sacrifice before the Lord. And then John the Baptist baptism of Jesus. It could be seen as the priestly presentation of this ultimate sacrifice.
- [01:43]
Jonathan Landry Cruz
Applying the riches of the Reformation to the modern church. This is White Horse Sin, a weekly roundtable discussion about theology and culture.
- [01:59]
Walter Strickland
Welcome to this episode of White Horse Inn. We're beginning a new series exploring epiphany themes. In this episode we'll discuss important questions, including why was Jesus baptized? Could Jesus be tempted to sin? And how does Jesus's baptism fit into his larger mission and ministry? These are just some of the questions that we'll explore here in this episode. I'm here with Mike Horton, Bob Hiller, Justin Holcomb, and I'm Walter Strickland. Let's go ahead and begin by setting the context for Christ's baptism. When was this event in Jesus life? And what's the significance of baptism in Jesus life?
- [02:33]
Bob Hiller
This is launching of the public ministry. This is the coming out party. This is it. John the Baptist is having this radical baptism of repentance. I love that we're talking about it because this is a confusing moment. If you just read it and go, wait, wait. This is a call for repentance. This is like a baptism for gentiles to come on in and Jesus is submitting to it. What in the world's going on with this? And so that's what's happening. You have this huge moment where Jesus is baptized. The Holy Spirit descends. The Father says, this is my Son, in whom I'm well pleased. This thing is loaded up. I mean, talk about the launch party for a minute. I mean, this is it.
- [03:15]
Mike Horton
Yeah, Even John the Baptist was confused.
- [03:17]
Justin Holcomb
Yeah, exactly.
- [03:19]
Mike Horton
The one who said, I'm not. The one one is coming whose sandals I'm not worthy to unlatch is baptizing him. He says, I should be baptized by you. I shouldn't be baptizing you. And so, yeah, even he was confused.
- [03:36]
Walter Strickland
So I love the launch of Christ's ministry here. I also see a large theme of identification here. So we see Jesus identifying with the ministry of his forerunner, John. We also see Jesus sort of identifying with sinful humanity. Not that he himself was sinful, but beginning his very public sort of march towards the cross and his resurrection. We see his identification with basically the Trinity. We see the quote From Psalm chapter 2, verse 7, this is my son is what the Father's. The Father's voice. There, in there. And then you see the descending of the dove.
- [04:15]
Bob Hiller
And.
- [04:15]
Walter Strickland
And so this is one of the few moments, and maybe, if I'm not mistaken, this is the moment where you see Father, Son and Spirit all appearing at the same time. And so you see the triune God affirming the earthly ministry of the Redeemer here. And so that's a very powerful moment.
- [04:32]
Justin Holcomb
It's interesting to me with the triune God showing up here at the baptism. It seems like in Matthew's gospel, especially baptism and the Trinity just go together. So we start the ministry of Christ with the Father, the Son and the Spirit showing up at the waters of baptism. Baptism. And then Jesus towards the. At the end of the Gospel, says, now go forth and make disciples and bring him into the same thing. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And there's this thing that happens where God, he associates his name with baptism. He's showing up at baptism and he's. He's making people his own there in the waters. It's a naming and initiating ceremony of sorts. It's more than that, to be sure. At least it is in mine and the biblical tradition. But at least this we can say that it is an initiation into the life of the Spirit given by the Father in the power of the Son.
- [05:26]
Bob Hiller
I preached on this recently, and I wish I would have made that connection. That's an awesome connection to make at the end of Matthew, because To start out here and then to have at the end of Matthew, baptism and Trinity again would have been a really good close for the sermon.
- [05:42]
Walter Strickland
Nice.
- [05:43]
Bob Hiller
What I thought was interesting is that you have religious leaders at the time which were calling for stricter adherence to the law, like, follow this law more closely and better, which, again, there's nothing wrong with the law. But you have people saying, hey, let's do this law. And then John the Baptist is saying, let's repent of the law. And so that's noteworthy. So you have Jesus doing a thing that sinners would do. What's happening here is he's sinless, but he's doing something of repentance, baptism of repentance, which is going back to what you said, Walter, the identification. He always identified with the sinners. You know, he hung out with tax collectors, drunkards, gluttons, prostitutes, who for the most part, were actually victims of trafficking and abuse. So much so that he was identified with them and he ate with them. To. To eat with someone in that culture was to identify with them. It was to treat them as if your peers. And so he treated people who good religious people didn't think were equals to a rabbi. So he condescended in eating with them in an as if neath there. And then this is how double U amputation works. I mean, it was embodied in his ministry. He was treated as if he was like them. And they're treated as if they're pure, perfect, righteous. That's what we're getting. He so identifies with sinners and sufferers. That's what's happening. He's submitting to this baptism he doesn't need. It's amazing, amazingly humble act that he's doing.
- [07:23]
Mike Horton
And I think it's important also that he says, Jesus said, when John the Baptist wondered, why am I doing this to you? Jesus said, it must be done to fulfill all righteousness. And so that's a clue, I think, to us that Jesus is performing something here. He's fulfilling something that is required for his ministry and that it is a baptism of repentance. He's not only identifying with a sinner, but he is entering into a ministry where the job he has assumed is not only to die for people's sins and to be raised for their justification, but to fulfill all righteousness, to fulfill the law. And so what he's doing here is fulfilling the law, not for himself. He doesn't need to be baptized for repentance, but he's doing it for us. And this is a signal to us that this is going to be his whole ministry. It's going to be marked by this suffering life where, as Calvin says, he began to win our salvation from the moment he was conceived in the virgin's womb.
- [08:36]
Walter Strickland
And Mike, I think this is so important because if we look at John, he is someone who is in the line of Aaron. He's, you know, the tribe of Levi and Luke specifies that John's parents were a part of the priesthood. And then one of their duties is to present the sacrifice before the Lord. And then John the Baptist baptism of Jesus, it could be seen as the priestly presentation of this ultimate sacrifice. And so that's. Yeah, so that's, that's another way to sort of underscore your point, Mike. If he's going to fulfill all righteousness, it's because he's living this life of sacrifice. And he's presented even in the symbolism of this moment, as the ultimate sacrifice.
- [09:18]
Bob Hiller
And he's presented not only as the sacrifice, but the priest who makes the sacrifice. In the Old Testament, there are at least three things that need to be done ceremonially for a priest, which is the washing with water. I'm thinking of Exodus 29 is a good place to go for that. Leviticus 8 has some things about that. Anointing with oil and then a verbal blessing and commissioning. So it's completely appropriate, I believe, to read this as also his initiation as the great high priest. I can't help but think of Hebrews 4, tempted in every way, aligning with our weakness. So he's the sacrifice and he's the priest, which is sacrifice for sin and his obedience to the laws. Mike just said, like, the reason we talk about like double imputation that our, our sins go to him and we're forgiven and his righteousness goes to us and we're declared righteous isn't because we're crowbarring it in. It's literally from the words of Jesus, righteousness will be fulfilled. So sacrifice, but also priest and following through. What were the ceremonial acts for a priest in the old testament? Psalm 2, Leviticus 8 and Exodus 29. Read through those and you can see those three instances.
- [10:30]
Justin Holcomb
This idea of righteousness also throughout the Old Testament is all is very often associated with the saving activity of God for the sake of his people. So like in Psalm 71, the two are equated when it says my mouth will tell of your righteousness and your salvation all the day. So to fulfill all righteousness is to carry out the saving activity of God for the sake of his people. And this is where we get to that double amputation stuff that you're. You guys are talking about. So Jesus, to do this, puts himself in the place of sinners so that sinners will finally be put back into the place of righteousness before God. I mean, you see, this is Jesus's whole ministry. Justin, I love that point you made. He puts himself in baptism with sinners, he has meals with sinners, and ultimately we find him in the place all sinners deserve, dying on the cross for our sins. But from there then he's brought forth to a new life, so that we who are united with him in our own baptisms will also rise to a new life, as Paul says in Romans 6. So there's, there's just so much in terms of biblical theology, pastoral preaching. I mean, there's just so much going on in this text of what Christ is doing for us. It's, it's beautiful.
- [11:38]
Mike Horton
In our baptism liturgy, we have the flood prayer, which probably a lot of our traditions have because it goes back to the ancient church and it reprises the Exodus. Well, first of all, Noah and the flood. It's how Peter interprets this. This is a baptism they went through a baptism, a typological baptism. They went into danger and Noah and his family were saved alive. And this corresponds to baptism. Peter says, you have the flood, but you also have the Exodus. Passing through the waves, you will not be harmed when you pass through the waters. I will save you. Passing through on dry land. And yet Pharaoh and his hosts are drowned, consumed. And then you have a little Exodus with the crossing of the Jordan. And where is Jesus being baptized in the Jordan.
- [12:48]
Jonathan Landry Cruz
That's good.
- [12:48]
Mike Horton
And so Moses never made it to the Jordan, but Joshua did. And they have the same name. So here is the true Joshua standing in the waters, carrying his people across to safety.
- [13:06]
Justin Holcomb
Walter, there's. This year. This is. You made such an incredible point. Here's your three point sermon next year during Epiphany. He identifies with God, he identifies with sinners. And now Mike is pointing out he also identifies with Israel. He is the Israelite who's going through the waters. Soon he will. And we can talk about this too. I'm sure he goes into the wilderness to be tempted for 40 days corresponding to the 40 years. I mean, Jesus is. Especially with Matthew's way of describing. He is the ideal Israelite and he does everything Israel was supposed to do in obedience to the Father and then credits him for it. I mean, it's just beautiful.
- [13:43]
Mike Horton
As you point out, Bob, what's the next thing that happens, he is taken into the wilderness. The verb there actually he's thrown. The Holy Spirit throws him into the wilderness for his trial. The gentle Holy Spirit. He's the new Adam. He is where Adam said, I think want to do it my way. Jesus said, this isn't going to work on me the way it worked on the first Adam. Satan. Man is created to listen to every word that comes from the mouth of God, not to decide on his own what's right and wrong and just recapitulating the whole thing.
- [14:24]
Bob Hiller
I was going to jump on that one point. You brought that up, Mike. You brought up the recapitulating and then you jumped on it, Bob, and started talking about the third point of the sermon that we're all preached next year on the connection with Israel. That's what's so neat about. About that. This is my son. You are my beloved Son. This is not only a Father, Son, Holy Spirit, eternal Father, Eternal Son, eternal Holy Spirit. But this is a linking to Psalm 2, Isaiah 42, where the Spirit descends, echoing the Spirit's movement over the water in creation. But this is more than a display of divine glory. He's stepping into Israel's story and into their place. That's what we have to see, the biggest, you know, kind of canonical thread, seeing what's happening here. So he's entering into Israel's story, into their place, identifying with sinners. But he didn't get baptized just to show you you should get baptized. Some people this like, well, he, you know, we have to get baptized, but he's taking on the role of Israel. He is the new Israel and he is the new Son. He's the new Adam, but he's also the new Israel, the new Son who's going to be obedient for mission and redemption. And that's that third point you made. Can't be lost on this because that's also what's reverberating through the whole story.
- [15:39]
Walter Strickland
I'd love just sort of put those. If someone's wondering how are you making these connections with Israel and Adam and all these things. Just to put the cookies on the very bottom shelf. By the way, Bob, thanks for the three points. That's very Baptist of you. And so I'm going to take that and run with it. I love the idea of Jesus being the ideal Israelite because as we've sort of alluded to, he's thrown Egball out into this wilderness for 40 days. That direct link, if you're not thinking about the 40 years in the wilderness, then, I mean, keep on thinking about it a little bit. The typography of wilderness. And here Jesus is in the desert. So the reality of the typography is also important and is at play here. And if you're missing the new Adam bit, we have Adam, the first Adam, falling to the lies of the adversary. The second Adam is actually succeeding in those three lies and traps that the adversary was setting for him. And if we look at like, even the kenosis passage, the first Adam was trying to be like God, and then the second Adam was doing everything to humble himself, yet he was actually God. And so we're seeing that he's the new Adam, he is the ideal Israelite and this is the Messiah. And so there's all these. I mean, the baptism and the temptation narrative are so chock full of symbolism and meaning and it's. I mean, we could sit here and unpack it and. Three solid points for hours.
- [17:19]
Narrator/Announcer
It's been 500 years since the Protestant Reformation. Dialogue between Catholics and Protestants has improved, but it's still not where it should be. Every day, debates rage online. Scroll through the comments and you'll find misrepresentations, strawman arguments, and recycled sound bites. That's why we wrote what Still Divides Us, a short book that uncovers four key questions that still separate Protestants and Catholics today. How are we saved? How does God speak? Who runs the church? How should we worship? We don't need to ignore our differences, we need to understand them, especially if we want real conversations, not just arguments. Get your free copy of what Still Divides Us now while supplies last@solamia.org offers.
- [18:15]
Justin Holcomb
I think that Luke is actually making this point because if you notice in Luke's Gospel, between the baptism and the temptation is you have the genealogy, which is like, why did he put a genealogy there? Well, in Luke's Gospel, the genealogy goes back to Adam, right? So here Luke is making this point that the one who is baptized is now the second Adam who will face the same temptations in every way you do, only without sin. And so then he goes off into the wilderness at that point. So, I mean, I think this is actually quite literally what the text is trying to give to us. It's just wonderful.
- [18:48]
Mike Horton
Also, Luke interestingly records Jesus saying.
- [18:55]
Bob Hiller
You.
- [18:55]
Mike Horton
Know, John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking. He kind of was strange out there in the wilderness, eating locusts and honey. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and you call him a glutton and a drunkard. He says, what? Can I compare this Generation to. You're like little children playing. And I'm paraphrasing here, but this is essentially what he's referring to, the funeral game. Kids would play the funeral game, pretending that they're at a funeral, and they'd cry and so forth. And then they had a wedding game, pretending it was a wedding, and they'd be happy and jump around and get dressed up in wedding clothes. Jesus says, that's what this generation is like. You guys can't play the part of mourners well at all. So you're really. You really are bad at the funeral game. When John the Baptist came, it was the funeral game. And you didn't weep, you didn't repent. And then the Son of Man came, eating and drinking and, hey, it's party time. You know, the Son of Man is here. The Messiah has come. Gospel after repentance, you know, and you didn't laugh, you didn't join the party. What do I compare you guys to? You can't win for losing with you guys. You can't mourn with the law under the law, and you can't rejoice in the gospel.
- [20:33]
Justin Holcomb
Wow.
- [20:34]
Bob Hiller
Before. I know, we have to move on to other points, but Mike brought up the baptism prayer, and I'm just going to read ours. It's just two paragraphs, because it's one thing to. I mean, you described it amazingly, Mike, so that was wonderful. But just so people can hear it. This is from the Book of Common Prayer, page 306, 307. We thank you, almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. Through it, you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. In it, your son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ to lead us through his death and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life. We thank you, Father, for the water of baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we're reborn by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his fellowship those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. There are so many things that we just talked. Matthew's in there. Every line has like three or four Bible verses just kind of pouring into it. And so I thought it's one thing to hear the description, but another Thing just to hear what the prayer looks like, how you pray Scripture and what that means.
- [21:46]
Justin Holcomb
Isn't it something too, the fact that the Spirit is always hovering over the waters? Like, that's what I love about that prayer. Like at creation, the Spirit's hovering over the waters. Maybe I'm pushing this one a little too far, but isn't it interesting that when the Spirit shows up over the waters, he shows up in the form of a dove? Because isn't it a dove that leaves the ark? And when the dove doesn't come back, what do they know that the. The new creation is. Is like the renewed, washed, cleansed creation is beginning. So what does Christ come to do but usher in the new creation? So where does the Spirit show up as a dove on the one bringing in the new creation? I mean, I think we so quickly pass over this passage because, oh, it's weird that Jesus is getting baptized, but there is a significant amount of everything is kind of coming to a head in the arrival of Jesus here. And this is why all the Gospels bring it up. It's why Luke launches with referring back to the baptism of John and the preaching of John, because everything kind of comes to its head here in Christ arriving at the waters of baptism as he's about to usher in the work that will bring about the new creation.
- [22:48]
Mike Horton
That's such a great point, Bob. And I think also we can include in that hovering over the barren waters of the virgin's womb. And that's not speculation because a strange verb is used there when the angel says. She says, how will this happen? And he says, the Holy Spirit will overshadow you. That is the Greek word that is used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, for the Spirit hovering over the waters in creation. The Spirit hovering over the camp of Israel with the tabernacle. And so now you have the true tabernacle with the King of Kings, the Messiah, the sacrifice, the high priest in the tabernacle of Mary's womb. And the Holy Spirit is causing the barren waters of her womb to gestate the zygote, who is God the Son incarnate.
- [24:00]
Bob Hiller
Yeah.
- [24:00]
Walter Strickland
And just continuing with the idea or the theme of the Spirit, we talked about how the Spirit was active and descended as a dove at the baptism. But also as we talk about the wilderness, when Jesus was being tempted by the adversary, what did he do when he was tempted? He responded. It is written. And it wasn't that Jesus didn't have the words to say. I mean, Jesus obviously had something to say. But Jesus knows that the word of God is alive and active and sharpening double edged sword. It's empowered by the Holy Spirit. And so, and I think that the work of the Spirit, the engagement with the Spirit with the second person in his life is often underestimated. So we see the work of the Spirit that's really good in so many different ways, both in the baptism narrative and also Jesus marshaling the power of God's word by the Spirit, even in the temptation narrative as well.
- [24:52]
Mike Horton
In fact, Jesus says later in his ministry, if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom has come. And he says all sins will be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In other words, attributing Jesus ministry and miracles to Satan rather than the Holy Spirit. And everything that Jesus did, he did in the power of the Holy Spirit. His miracles were in the power of the Holy Spirit. So as you say, Walter, he's the second person of the Trinity. But each person is distinct. They cooperate with each other in every work. The Father is always the origin, the Son is always the mediator, and the Spirit is always the perfector. And that's what's happening here. Jesus is receiving from the Father depending on the perfecter for the completion of his ministry for us.
- [25:46]
Walter Strickland
And so if you're from a tradition like mine, you know, just from the spiritual background that I come from, there's such an emphasis on the deity of Christ, we forget the full humanity of Christ. And so the fact that the Spirit is, you know, active in the life of the Messiah, it just seems sort of crazy to us. But then we sort of understand the reality of the hypostatic union and we say, oh, there's actually something really good there. There's that perfector that is there. And I never really considered that reality, the reality of the Spirit working with the second person, because I leaned so heavily on his divinity. I assume he was this sort of independent agent doing this work of redemption almost in isolation from the Father and the Spirit.
- [26:28]
Justin Holcomb
I get that question all the time in Bible study is like, why, if Jesus is God, does he need the Holy Spirit? And we. Yeah, you can't, you can't separate these guys. They just like to be together all the time. It's one God. You can't, you can't make that separation. But, but I'm with you, Walter. We have the same conversation all the time in my Bible studies.
- [26:46]
Mike Horton
And remember, he's not fulfilling all righteousness in the office of the Eternal Son of The Father, he's fulfilling all righteousness as the last Adam. He is the Son of the Father, but he's also the last Adam. This all has to be done because humans are the ones who sinned, right? A human has to save us. And if you go back to again, all the way back to Genesis, Adam did not rely on the Holy Spirit. And we can infer that because the Holy Spirit, God came to Adam and Eve in the ruach of the day, in the spirit of the day. And a lot of times that's translated in the breeze or the wind. And so that makes absolutely no sense. This is judgment day. And you know, like this is sort of a wine spritzer commercial and hair is blowing and you know, God is coming in the cool of the day. It's not the cool of the day. It's ruach Spirit, capital S. The Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of judgment coming in his day of judgment. That Spirit who was quenched, that Spirit who was not depended on. But now the last Adam is depending on the Father's word and the Holy Spirit.
- [28:16]
Bob Hiller
Luke says Jesus is fully God, fully man. I mean, yeah, we can proof text the divinity of Christ throughout Luke, but Luke presents Jesus as a spirit empowered man doing miracles by the finger of God, the power of God. There's all these traces throughout Luke. So Luke, who wrote Luke in Acts, is highlighting the Spirit empowerment. Not because Jesus wasn't God and was only a prophet and needed the Spirit, but portraying portrays a lot of the miracles and actions as spirit empowered and the consequences, spirit empowered ministry. Because he's also getting to Acts where he's going to talk about that for Christians and of course others. And we'll talk about miracles later. Other gospels talk about miracles. To be like, he's God, how in the world is he tempted like us, but sinless? What does that mean? Why is he doing this baptism of repentance? Why is this ministry of the Holy Spirit in Jesus? It feels like it's almost downplaying his divinity.
- [29:15]
Mike Horton
And it's not, it's not downplaying his divinity. It's upplaying the fact that he is fulfilling the office of Mediator for us. And also it underscores the divinity of the Holy Spirit. You know, only a God can empower God.
- [29:36]
Justin Holcomb
Yeah, yeah, that's right. I think it, it only downplays the divinity if you're not trinitarian. Right? I mean, if you're a trinitarian, this is exactly what you, what you find is that the Father sends the Son in the Power of the Spirit, like there, it's, this is the, the way God is working. If you're not trinitarian, you're almost by the text forced to sort of impose adoptionism or something like this. That Jesus couldn't do anything to lay out the Spirit. That's, that's not the point. The point is that the Spirit is guiding the ministry of Christ. And then Christ, once he is seated at the right hand of the Father, is going to send the Spirit to the church to continue the mission forth.
- [30:12]
Mike Horton
Another trinitarian heresy is modalism, which says that actually the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one person who. It's like a one man show. They play three different characters. And the death knell to that, besides tons of verses, the death knell to that is here in this scene. You don't have a one man show with three actors playing three characters. You have three actors on the stage at the same time. The Father speaking, the Son, the Word and the Spirit hovering. And that is unmistakably trinitarian. Yep, yep.
- [30:57]
Bob Hiller
I do want to go back real quick to this fulfilling all righteousness. Just because we talked about Psalm 2. I mean, this is my beloved Son in Adam in Israel. But also involved in that passage is Isaiah 53, 11, 12, which I think stands out out of the anguish. This is 11. Out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. That's not Luther, that's Isaiah. Accounted righteous. He shall bear their iniquities. Their. I mean, you have making righteous and bearing iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressor. So you have this numbered among the transgressors and make many to be accounted righteous. Right.
- [31:54]
Mike Horton
They're seating for transgressors. Yeah.
- [31:57]
Justin Holcomb
That's fantastic.
- [31:59]
Walter Strickland
So as we're thinking through the baptism of Jesus, I think one of the next questions that we are sort of prone to ask is, is Jesus's baptism different from Christian baptism? And if so, how? And what's the significance of that distinction between the two?
- [32:13]
Justin Holcomb
It's interesting because if you look at their tradition like early on in the life of the church, they actually do make this connection that what Jesus is doing here is he's purifying the waters for Our baptism and Luther will. We'll talk this way and even in some of our hymns. But I'm of the opinion that the baptism of Jesus is typologically related to Christian baptism. That is, it's a type of it, but it's not exactly the same thing. What's going on in Jesus's baptism, as we've discussed, I think plenty here, as he is being anointed, set apart as the Lamb of God who's going to take away the sin of the world. Here is him, as we've talked about earlier, the great high priest receiving his washing. Here is the sacrifice being prepared for the altar. This is what's going on here. So Jesus is being set apart as the Son of God who comes to save Christian baptism. Then that Jesus initiates at the end of Matthew 28. And when he says, go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that's the means and the mode by which God delivers the gifts of the atoning work to Christians. So it's in baptism where you are given the life and salvation. You're born again, on and on the list will go. It's what we believe he is giving to us at baptism, where forgiveness, life and salvation are granted.
- [33:30]
Mike Horton
The Heidelberg Catechism question is asked, why are you called Christian? And the answer is, because I share in his anointing. What a bold thing for us to be able to say. I share in that anointing. So I'm a recipient of that anointing, but I'm not Jesus receiving John's baptism.
- [33:51]
Justin Holcomb
Right, right, right.
- [33:52]
Mike Horton
I don't hear the Father say, this is my Son, in whom I'm well pleased in this, the Holy Spirit hovering over me.
- [33:57]
Justin Holcomb
But there is that you are united to the one who was right. That's Romans 6. If you're crucified with him in a death like his, you'll be united with him in a resurrection like his. Yeah.
- [34:06]
Bob Hiller
Our catechism says, holy baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children, makes us members of Christ's body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God. It refers to it as the inward and spiritual grace. And baptism is union with Christ in his death and resurrection, birth into God's family, the Church, forgiveness of sins, new life in the Holy Spirit. So there's. Yeah, well, there's typological. We're baptized into Christ, we're baptized in his death, resurrection. And so that's the connection is baptism. But it's Significantly different than what's happening here. And that's why you have verses like we have Acts 19. We already referred to Matthew 28, Acts 2, where we actually have the sacrament ordinance. What language do you use, Walter? Ordinance.
- [34:54]
Walter Strickland
Yeah. So most common amongst Baptists is ordinance, although neither sacrament or. Nor ordinance are inscripturated. But I mean, so I often try to assuage any anxiety in my students by leading with that. But yeah, most often in Baptist context, the word ordinance is used so as to sort of separate this sort of ordinance from any sort of salvific value in that regard.
- [35:20]
Bob Hiller
But we'd all use sight and seal language. Is everyone comfortable with. I'm curious because, you know, I don't. I don't know where.
- [35:27]
Mike Horton
Well, that would be salvific language.
- [35:29]
Justin Holcomb
We would use sign and seal, though. We would use it as the things signified is actually the thing itself. So we wouldn't make too much of a distinction there.
- [35:38]
Walter Strickland
In, in Baptist life, most. Most of the time we're talking about sealed. That's the, the ceiling of the Holy Spirit. And then this is sort of a declaration of the reality of that ceiling as. As someone's being baptized.
- [35:48]
Justin Holcomb
We can all say this though, right. John's baptism is very distinct from Christian baptism. They're not the same thing. We would all agree with that, correct?
- [35:57]
Mike Horton
Yeah. Particularly when Jesus himself contrasts John's ministry with his.
- [36:03]
Justin Holcomb
Right, right. And the Book of Acts does too. Did you receive the Holy Spirit? And they say, we don't even know about the Holy Spirit. We only have John's baptism. And they say, well, that's insufficient. You need something more.
- [36:13]
Walter Strickland
And because a lot of times as we talk about baptism, I think this is probably. This might be true in a variety of contexts, but certainly in my own, we would associate that John's baptism with a proselyte washing. Those who are. Are affirming the fact that, okay, they're affirming Israel as the people of God through whom the Messiah would come. And they're an affirmation of that in waiting for the Messiah. I think that's what we would often sort of have as a starting point about John's baptism. And then. Exactly. And then all that sort of, especially for Jewish folks who are trying to identify with the people of God in the Old Testament and then also with Christ in particular, all that identification language with his baptism. And that's how we would kind of parse that one out. So thanks for journeying with us through this episode on Epiphany, exploring the baptism and temptation of Jesus. I do pray that it's been a blessing for you to explore the reality of our Savior. How multifaceted and multi layered these two instances are in the life of our Savior. Also how this sort of connects biblically, theologically, to a lot that's going on in Scripture. And so I pray that this episode has been a blessing to you.
- [37:32]
Jonathan Landry Cruz
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