Jesus Was Baptized By John The Baptist In The River Jordan. We Should Know The Importance Of The Dove And The Voice That Came From Heaven. The Baptism Of Jesus Helps Us To Know About His Omnipresence Nature.
Jesus has commissioned his disciples to preach the Gospel throughout the world and to Baptize them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. When Nicodemus asked Jesus how to enter into the kingdom of God, Jesus replied to him that without being born of water and spirit none can enter into the kingdom of God.
We can understand that baptism is important for our salvation. We cannot neglect it or avoid it as it is the commandment from the Lord. But the question which we often ask is why did Jesus take baptism while he did not commit a single sin. At the baptism of Jesus, the heavens were opened unto him and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and a voice came from heaven which announced that this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased(Matthew 3:16-17).
At Jesus’s baptism, we can see that the Son of God was baptized, the Spirit of God descended like a dove and a voice was announced from heaven. Three things we can observe while Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.
At first, John was trying not to baptize Jesus as he found himself unworthy. But Jesus assured him to do so that all righteousness will be fulfilled.
Luke 3:22 says that the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus in the form of a dove.
To have a clear view of Jesus’s baptism we need to remember that God can be present everywhere at a time which means God is omnipresent. We can say that Jesus is God and at the same time he was manifested in human shape on the earth. The Bible says that God never changes and when Jesus was on earth he did not leave his omnipresence which is a basic attribute of God.
We should understand that the physical body of Jesus was not omnipresent but his Spirit is Omnipresent. In (Colossians 2:9) we can see that Jesus dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This verse demonstrates that all the attributes of God dwelt in the body of Jesus while he was on the earth. Thus we can simply know that the omnipresence nature of God was in Jesus. In (John 3:13) Jesus says that he came from heaven and it is possible for him to stay in two places at a time.
To understand the baptism of Jesus we need to remember the omnipresence of God and the dual nature of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a man and at the same time, he was God. The Bible says with God everything is possible so we cannot deny it. But for human beings, it is impossible.
So, we can say that it is possible with the Spirit of Jesus to speak from heaven and to send a visible manifestation of his Spirit in a bodily shape of a dove though his human body was in the Jordan River. The dove and the voice do not reveal two different persons.
We take baptism for the forgiveness of our sins but Jesus’s baptism was not for remission of sin. He is our example and left us an example to practice. In his life, Jesus suffered a lot and the Bible encourages us to welcome sufferings in our life as Jesus suffered ahead of us.
We should ask what the dove and voice represented while they were symbolic manifestations of one God. What was their purpose in revealing this?
Many Jews did not believe that he was their Messiah. They denied him. Jesus’s baptism was a way of revealing himself before Israel and proclaiming himself that he is their savior. Jesus was born in a poor family and lived a very simple life. But the Jews expected that their Messiah would come like a worldly king and restore their kingdom. To make himself known before the people, he took the baptism.
Another way we can say is that it was the beginning of his public ministry.
At Christ’s baptism, John knew Jesus but he did not know that he was really the Messiah. When the dove remained upon Jesus, he was confirmed that he was the Messiah as he was informed of it earlier by the Spirit of God.
After knowing the reason for Jesus’ baptism now we should know how the dove and the voice accomplished their purposes.
In (Isaiah 49:3) we see that it prophesied that John would be the forerunner of the Jehovah so he should have known that Jesus is the Jehovah in the flesh. In (John 1:32-34) tells us that the dove was a symbol for John to recognize that Jesus is the Messiah. As John was warned before by the Lord that one who would baptize with the Holy Ghost would be recognized by the Spirit descending upon him. It was not possible for John to see the Spirit of God that is why God sent dove as a visible sign of his Spirit. When John saw the dove he was sure that Jesus is Jehovah and their Messiah.
In the old testament, we can find that whenever God called his people for a special purpose he always anointed them with oil before sending them into their ministry. Thus, we can view the dove as a type of anointing for Christ’s ministry.
As Jesus was God and it was not enough for him to be anointed by the sinful man, so he was anointed by the spirit of God which was manifested in the form of a dove.
The voice that came from heaven was beneficial for the people who were gathered at the baptism of Jesus. John 12:28-30 narrates that the voice from heaven confirmed the people about his deity. Jesus also proclaimed that the voice was not for himself but it was for the sake of people so that they know him as their Messiah.
At the baptism of Jesus, many people were gathered together and many were being baptized by John the Baptist. So it would be hard for John and others to identify who is the Messiah in the midst of that crowd. The Spirit of God identified Jesus to all as the Son of God by a voice from heaven.