Daily Reading

QUESTION: Jesus was not a sinner. Why was He baptized?
ANSWER: When Jesus came to the Jordan river to be baptized (Matthew 3), John at the first refused to baptize Him saying, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” What John implied by this was, ‘You (Jesus) are without sin and, therefore, do not need to be baptized for the remission of sins, but, I am, indeed, a sinner and have need to be baptized of thee!’ Jesus did not argue with the truth of John’s statement. In fact, He agreed with it in saying, “Suffer (permit) it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus knew the design and purpose of John’s baptism (Luke 3:3), and He approved of it, but by saying “Permit it to be so now,” He is telling John that they, in this one case, must make an exception to this purpose, because He was without sin. Nonetheless, Christ insisted that He be baptized in order to “fulfill allrighteousness.” In other words, God commanded all men everywhere to be baptized and because Christ was, at that time, in the flesh (as a man), in order to satisfy the will of the Father, He, too, needed to be baptized in order to fulfill His will, or all righteousness! Some people today who reject the scriptural teaching of baptism “for the remission of sins,” (Acts 2:38) say, that since Jesus was not baptized for this purpose, neither do they have to be baptized “for the remission of sins.” They, too, want to be baptized (as Christ was) to “fulfill all righteousness.” This could be the case, if they were (as Christ was) sinless, or without sin. But it is the case that they are not without sin, for Paul said in Romans 3:23 that, “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The logical and scriptural conclusion is that since “all men have sinned,” they (all men) cannot be baptized (as Christ was) solely to fulfill all righteousness, but must be baptized for the express scriptural purpose of “remission of sins,” which, in man’s case, results in the fulfillment of righteousness, or God’s will. Christ was the only one not to be baptized “for the remission of sins,” simply because He did no sin (1 Peter 2:22). There are no other exceptions, because all other men have sinned! Every man must, therefore, be baptized “for the remission of sins” in order to be saved (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:15-16)!
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