Matthew 3:13 - Meaning and Application

Our Lord Jesus, from childhood until he was almost thirty years old, had lived hidden in Galilee, as if buried alive. But now, after a long, dark night, the Sun of Righteousness rises in glory. The right time had come for Christ to begin his work as a prophet. He chose to do this, not in Jerusalem, though he likely went there for the three yearly feasts like others, but where John was baptizing. There those who waited for the comfort of Israel gathered, and to them alone he would be welcome.

John the Baptist was six months older than our Savior, and it seems he began preaching and baptizing about six months before Christ appeared. For that time, he was preparing the way for Christ in the region around the Jordan. More was done in those six months than had been done in many ages before. Christ came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized, and this teaches us not to shrink from pain and effort if we want to draw near to God in his worship. We should be willing to go far rather than fall short of fellowship with God. Those who will find must seek.

In this account of Christ’s baptism, we first see how hard it was to persuade John to allow it, Matthew 3:14-15. It was a great example of Christ’s humility that he offered himself to be baptized by John. He knew no sin, yet he submitted to a baptism meant for repentance. As soon as Christ began to preach, he preached humility. He preached it by his example, and he preached it to everyone, especially young ministers. Christ was meant for the highest honors, yet at his very first step he lowered himself. Those who want to rise high must begin low. Before honor comes humility.

This was also a great honor to John, because Christ came to him, and it was a return for John’s service in announcing his coming. Those who honor God, he will honor. John’s first reaction was to object to baptizing Jesus, Matthew 3:14. He refused him, just as Peter did when Christ wanted to wash his feet (John 13:6, John 13:8). Christ’s gracious acts of humility are so surprising that they can seem unbelievable even to strong believers. They are so deep and mysterious that even those who know his mind well may not quickly understand them, and in their weakness they may object to what Christ wills.

John’s modesty made him think this was too great an honor for himself to receive. He spoke to Jesus as his mother had once spoken to Jesus’ mother (Luke 1:43), “Why has this honor come to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” John now had a great reputation and was widely respected, yet he was still humble. God has more honors in store for those who stay low in spirit even as their name grows.

John thought it was necessary that he himself should be baptized by Christ. “I need to be baptized by you with the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” he means, the baptism Christ gives, Matthew 3:11. Though John had been filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb (Luke 1:15), he still confessed that he needed that baptism. Even those who have much of God’s Spirit still see, while in this imperfect life, that they need more and must come to Christ for more. John also needed baptism though he was the greatest person ever born of a woman. Yet, being born of a woman, he shared the pollution of Adam’s race and knew he needed cleansing.

The purest souls feel most deeply the impurity that still remains in them, and they seek spiritual washing with the greatest urgency. John needed to be baptized by Christ, because Christ can do for us what no one else can, and what must be done for us or we are lost. Even the best and holiest people need Christ, and the better they are, the more clearly they see that need. John said this before the crowd, who greatly admired him and were ready to accept him as the Messiah. Even so, he openly confessed that he needed to be baptized by Christ. It is no disgrace for the greatest person to admit that he is undone without Christ and his grace.

John was Christ’s forerunner, yet he still owned that he needed Christ’s baptism. Even those who were born before Christ in time depended on him, received from him, and looked toward him. And while John dealt with the souls of others, he spoke deeply and personally about his own soul: “I need to be baptized by you.” Ministers who preach to others and baptize others must be careful to preach to themselves and to be baptized with the Holy Spirit themselves. They must watch themselves first and seek their own salvation (1 Timothy 4:16).

John then thought it was very wrong and unreasonable that Christ should be baptized by him. “Do you come to me?” he asks. Does the holy Jesus, who is set apart from sinners, come to be baptized by a sinner, as though he were a sinner, and among sinners? How can this be? What explanation can we give for it? Christ’s coming to us is something that should fill us with wonder.

Jesus overruled John’s objection, Matthew 3:15. “Let it be so now,” he said. Christ accepted John’s humility, but not his refusal. He wanted the act done, and it is right that Christ should follow his own way even when we do not understand it and cannot explain it. Christ insisted on it. “It must be so now.” He did not deny that John needed to be baptized by him, yet he would now be baptized by John. “Let it be so for now,” he says.

Everything is beautiful in its proper time. Why now? Why at this moment? Christ was now in a state of humiliation. He had emptied himself and made himself of no reputation. He was not only found as a man, but also in the likeness of sinful flesh. So let him now be baptized by John, as if he needed washing, though he was perfectly pure. In this way he was made sin for us, though he knew no sin.

John’s baptism was also now in honor. This was the work God was presently doing, the present way God was dealing with people. So Jesus would now be baptized with water, while his baptism with the Holy Spirit would come later, many days afterward (Acts 1:5). John’s baptism had its own time, and that time should be honored. Those who attended it should be encouraged. Even those with the greatest gifts and graces should still, in their own place, support God’s appointed ordinances by humble and faithful attendance, so they may set a good example for others. What God approves, we should also approve. John was now increasing, so it had to be this way for the moment. Soon he would decrease, and then things would be different.

It must be so now because this was the time for Christ to appear publicly, and this would be a fitting chance for that. In this way he was to be made known to Israel and marked out by wonders from heaven, in an act that was deeply humble and self-lowering. (John 1:31-34)

The reason he gives is this: “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” There was a proper beauty in everything Christ did for us. It was all fitting and lovely (Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 7:26), and we should aim to do not only what is required, but what is fitting and honorable as well.

Jesus saw it as right to fulfill all righteousness, that is, as Dr. Whitby explains it, to acknowledge every divine command and show his willingness to obey all God’s righteous instructions. In this way, he honored God and approved God’s wisdom in sending John to prepare his way by baptism of repentance. In the same way, we should support and encourage everything good, both by our example and by our words.

Christ often spoke of John and John’s baptism with honor. To honor John even more, he was baptized himself. So Jesus began by doing, and then by teaching, and his ministers should follow that same pattern. In this way, Christ also fulfilled the righteousness of the ceremonial law, which included various washings. He also gave honor to the gospel ordinance of baptism, placed value on it, and showed the power he meant to work through it.

It was fitting for Christ to submit to John’s washing with water, because it was God’s appointment. But it was fitting for him to oppose the Pharisees’ washings with water, because those were only human rules imposed on others. He also defended his disciples when they refused to follow those man-made washings. When John heard Christ’s reason and will, he was completely satisfied and allowed him to be baptized. The same humility that first made him refuse the honor Christ offered now made him do the service Christ required. No show of humility should ever lead us to neglect our duty.

When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately out of the water. Others who were baptized stayed to confess their sins (Matthew 3:6), but Christ had no sins to confess, so he came up at once. The wording means he came up from the water, from the edge of the river, where he had gone down to be washed with water, likely on his head or face (John 13:9). There is no mention of taking off or putting on clothes, which would likely have been noted if he had been baptized naked.

He went up at once, as one eager to begin his work with full purpose and energy. He would lose no time. How pressed he was until it was finished. Then, as he was coming up out of the water and everyone was looking at him, the heavens were opened to him. Something above the starry sky was made visible, at least to him. This encouraged him to continue his mission, with the joy and glory set before him. Heaven was opened to receive him when he had completed the work he was now beginning.

This also encourages us to receive him and submit to him. In and through Jesus Christ, heaven is opened to people. Sin shut heaven and broke off all friendly fellowship between God and man. But now Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. God’s light and love are sent down to people, and we are given bold access into the holy place. We receive mercy from God and offer back our duty to God, and all of it comes through Jesus Christ. He is the ladder with one end on earth and the other in heaven, and through him alone we can have any real fellowship with God or any hope of reaching heaven at last.

The heavens were opened when Christ was baptized to teach us that, when we properly attend to God’s ordinances, we may expect fellowship with him and gifts from him. He saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and settling on him. Christ saw this (Mark 1:10), John saw it (John 1:33-34), and it is likely that the others present saw it too, since this was meant to be his public beginning.

The Spirit came down and rested on him. At the beginning of the old world, the Spirit of God moved over the waters (Genesis 1:2), like a bird hovering over its nest. So here, at the beginning of this new world, Christ, as God, did not need to receive the Holy Spirit. Yet it had been foretold that the Spirit of the Lord would rest on him (Isaiah 11:2; Isaiah 61:1), and now it did so. He was to be a prophet, and prophets always spoke by the Spirit of God, who came upon them. Christ was to carry out the prophetic office, not by his divine nature, as Dr. Whitby says, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He was also to be the head of the church, and the Spirit came on him so that the Spirit might be given through him to all believers in gifts, grace, and comfort. The ointment on the head ran down to the edges of the garment. Christ received gifts for people so that he might give gifts to people.

The Spirit came like a dove. Whether it was a real living dove, or only the likeness of a dove in a vision, is not certain. If a bodily shape had to be seen (Luke 3:22), it could not be a man’s shape, because appearing in human form belonged only to the second person of the Trinity. So no shape was more fitting than one of the birds of heaven, since heaven had now been opened, and none was more meaningful than the dove.

The Spirit of Christ is like a dove, not like a foolish dove with no sense (Hosea 7:11), but like an innocent dove without bitterness. The Spirit did not come in the shape of an eagle, though that is a royal bird, because an eagle is a bird of prey. Instead, the Spirit came as a dove, one of the gentlest and least harmful creatures. So the Spirit of Christ is gentle and peaceable. “He will not quarrel or cry out,” and Christians should be harmless as doves.

The dove is also known for its eyes. Both the eyes of Christ (Song of Songs 5:12) and the eyes of the church (Song of Songs 1:15; 4:1) are compared to doves’ eyes, because they share the same spirit. The dove is also a mourning bird (Isaiah 38:14). Christ often wept, and repentant souls are compared to doves of the valleys.

The dove was the only bird offered in sacrifice (Leviticus 1:14), and Christ, by the Spirit, the eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish to God. The news that Noah’s flood was going down was brought by a dove with an olive leaf in its mouth. So it was fitting that the good news of peace with God should be brought by the Spirit in the form of a dove. It shows God’s goodwill toward people, that his thoughts toward us are thoughts of good and not evil. When the Song of Songs speaks of “the voice of the dove” heard in the land (Song of Songs 2:12), the Chaldee paraphrase takes it to mean the voice of the Holy Spirit. The message that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, is joyful news that comes to us on the wings of a dove.

To explain and complete this solemn event, a voice came from heaven, and we have reason to think all who were there heard it.

The Holy Spirit showed himself like a dove, but God the Father spoke with a voice. When the law was given, the people saw no form, only heard a voice (Deuteronomy 4:12). In the same way, this gospel came, and it truly is good news, the best news ever sent from heaven to earth. It tells us clearly and fully of God’s favor toward Christ, and toward us in him.

See how God owns our Lord Jesus: “This is my beloved Son.” First, notice the relationship he has with him. He is my Son. Jesus Christ is the Son of God by eternal generation, meaning he was begotten of the Father before all worlds (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3). He is also the Son of God by his supernatural conception, because he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). Yet that is not all. He is the Son of God by special appointment to the work and office of the world’s Redeemer. He was set apart, sealed, and sent for that task, brought up with the Father for it (Proverbs 8:30), and appointed to it: “I will make him my Firstborn” (Psalm 89:27).

Next, notice the Father’s love for him. He is my beloved Son, my dear Son, the Son of my love (Colossians 1:13). He has rested in the Father’s embrace from all eternity (John 1:18), and has always been his delight (Proverbs 8:30). But especially as Mediator, meaning the one who brings God and people together, and in taking on the work of saving people, he is the Father’s beloved Son. He is my chosen one, in whom my soul delights (Isaiah 42:1). Because he agreed to the covenant of redemption and delighted to do God’s will, the Father loved him (John 10:17; John 3:35).

Think, then, and wonder at the love the Father has shown us. He gave up the Son of his love to suffer and die for people who deserved his wrath. More than that, he loved him because he laid down his life for the sheep. Now we know that God loved us, since he did not spare his Son, his only Son, his Isaac whom he loved, but gave him as a sacrifice for our sin.

See also how ready God is to accept us in him. He is my beloved Son, not only with whom, but in whom, I am well pleased. God is pleased with all who are in Christ and joined to him by faith. Until then, God had been angry with the children of men, but now his anger is turned away, and he has made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6). Let the whole world take notice: this is the Peacemaker, the Daysman, that is, the one who stands between both sides and puts his hand on both of them, and there is no coming to God as Father except through him as Mediator (John 14:6).

In him our spiritual sacrifices are acceptable, because his is the altar that makes every gift holy (1 Peter 2:5). Outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire, but in Christ he is a reconciled Father. This is the heart of the whole gospel. It is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance, that God has declared by a voice from heaven that Jesus Christ is his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased. With faith, we should gladly agree and say that he is our beloved Savior, in whom we are well pleased.