Matthew 3 - A New, New Year's Resolution!

Matthew 3 Click on Link 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+3

The Baptism of Jesus

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

A question many people ask is, "Why did Jesus get baptized if he was sinless.  Isn't baptism done for the forgiveness of sin?" So let's start with the basics.  As we seek to answer hard questions we need to start with the teaching of the whole bible.  Throughout the bible we are taught that Jesus was without sin. Why is that important?  Because if Jesus was sinful, he was not God. God cannot sin.  Secondly, when Jesus died on the cross he would have to die for his sins as well as ours.  So he would be taking on the penalty for his own sin not ours. He could not do both.   

Here is how the apostle Paul explains it in 2 Corinthians 5:21, 

"For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." (NLT)

Jesus himself gives John an answer for why he should baptize him.  He says, "Let it be so now for it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness." 

Jesus is doing the right thing here by being baptized by his cousin John in obedience to His Father. Since Jesus would fulfill all the requirements for true righteousness, which was not based on man's self effort, he is showing that being baptized is acknowledging you need a righteousness not your own.  When John preached repentance, his message was to turn from trusting in yourself to trusting in God.    

Jesus is modeling what it means to obey God and find righteousness in Him alone. Eventually Jesus would become our righteousness when he died on the cross for our sins, and rose again conquering sin and death forever and proving He was truly the Son of God!

What does this mean for us?  Many of us profess to be a Christian but still rely on our own efforts to be righteous.  When we do "religious stuff" to be recognized by others, it is a clue that we are still relying on our own righteousness.  This can be manifest in new year's resolutions to change some bad behavior.  Why do they usually not work?  Because self effort is not usually enough to overcome habits of the flesh. But if we stop trying to earn our own righteousness and trust in Christ alone, we are freed to live a righteous life. We live our lives not to earn God's love and acceptance but because we have it in Christ. This takes a long time to get into our heads I have found because every part of us wants to earn it.

So how about this for a new year's resolution, "I will no longer keep trying to earn my own righteousness but die to myself and rely on what Jesus has done for me!"  Guess what? Ths is really what baptism is all about! Dying to self, and being raised in Christ to live a new life!