Baptism of Jesus

“And behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”

— Matthew 3:17 (ESV)

The baptism of Jesus is the event, recorded in all four Gospels (Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34), in which John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, inaugurating his public ministry. As Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended on him “like a dove,” and a voice from heaven declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16-17). Though John’s baptism was one “of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4), and Jesus alone among those baptized had no sin to repent of, he submitted to it “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15).

Confessional Definition

The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession states that Christ, in his human nature united to the divine, “was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure, having in him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell; to the end that, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of mediator and surety.”¹ The Spirit’s visible descent at the Jordan is the public, historical enactment of this anointing: the moment Jesus is publicly identified and equipped for his threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King.

Biblical Basis

John himself testified that he did not yet know Jesus was the Messiah until he saw the Spirit descend and remain on him: “I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God” (John 1:33-34). The baptism therefore serves as Jesus’s public identification and commissioning, witnessed by all three persons of the Trinity at once: the Son baptized, the Spirit descending, and the Father’s voice from heaven.

Matthew alone records the exchange in which John, recognizing Jesus, objects: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus answers, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:14-15). Reformed theology reads “fulfill all righteousness” as an instance of Christ’s active obedience: his lifelong, perfect keeping of the law on behalf of those he represents.² Rather than needing baptism for his own forgiveness, Christ identifies himself with the sinners he came to save, standing where they stand, at the very outset of his public ministry.

Historical Development

John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance was itself a departure from anything in Israel’s existing practice; Jesus “took over this message and this baptism from John,” making it the entry point for the community he was gathering around himself.³ The baptism of Jesus thus marks not only the beginning of his own ministry but a transition point between John’s preparatory ministry and Christ’s.

Objections and Responses

If Jesus was sinless, why did he submit to a baptism “for the forgiveness of sins”? Jesus’s own answer is that it was “fitting… to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15), not to obtain forgiveness he did not need. Reformed theology reads this as an instance of his active obedience to the law on behalf of his people: Christ identifies himself with sinners in his baptism just as he later bears their punishment on the cross, without himself needing what either provides.²

Related Doctrines

References

The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), chap. 8, “Of Christ the Mediator,” para. 3. ↩
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 15, “The Servant Savior: Christ’s Humiliation.” ↩ ↩²
Bavinck, chap. 21, “The Church as a Spiritual Reality.” ↩