Why was Jesus baptized if He was sinless?
Question 3011
This is a question that naturally arises from the Gospel accounts. John’s baptism was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). People came confessing their sins and being baptized in the Jordan. But Jesus had no sins to confess. He needed no forgiveness. So why did He insist on being baptized? Even John the Baptist was puzzled: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14). Jesus’ answer gives us the key: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
To Fulfil All Righteousness
Jesus’ explanation to John is the starting point for understanding His baptism. He did it “to fulfil all righteousness” (πληρῶσαι πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην, plērōsai pasan dikaiosynēn). But what does this mean?
Righteousness in Matthew’s Gospel often refers to doing what is right in God’s sight, fulfilling God’s will completely. Jesus came to fulfil the Law (Matthew 5:17). Every aspect of God’s requirements for humanity, Jesus would accomplish. Although He Himself did not need baptism for repentance, baptism was part of what God was doing at that moment in redemptive history. John’s ministry was ordained by God as the preparation for Messiah. By submitting to John’s baptism, Jesus endorsed John’s ministry, identified with the people John was calling to repentance, and demonstrated complete submission to the Father’s plan.
In other words, even though Jesus had no personal need for baptism, God’s will at that moment called for righteous people to respond to John’s message. Jesus, the supremely righteous one, would not stand aloof from what God was doing. He entered fully into the movement of repentance and renewal that John initiated, not because He needed it but because obedience to the Father required it.
To Identify with Sinners
A second reason for Jesus’ baptism is His identification with sinful humanity. This is one of the great themes of the incarnation. Jesus came not to stand apart from us but to stand with us. In His birth, He identified with us. In His baptism, He identified with us. On the cross, He would bear our sins in our place.
When Jesus stepped into the Jordan, He was stepping into the place of sinners. He was lining up with those who confessed their sins, though He had none. He was beginning His public ministry by taking His place among the people He came to save. Isaiah prophesied that the Servant of the Lord would be “numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12). At His baptism, Jesus was numbered with the transgressors, standing in line with them, going through the same water they went through.
This identification continued throughout His ministry. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. He touched lepers. He allowed Himself to be anointed by a sinful woman. He was called “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Matthew 11:19). And ultimately, He was crucified between two criminals. His baptism was the first public act of this lifelong identification with sinners.
To Inaugurate His Public Ministry
Jesus’ baptism also marked the beginning of His public ministry. For thirty years, He had lived in obscurity in Nazareth. Now He was stepping onto the public stage. The baptism was His anointing and commissioning for the work ahead.
Immediately after Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened, the Spirit descended like a dove, and the Father’s voice declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). All three Persons of the Trinity were present and active. The Father testified to the Son. The Spirit anointed the Son for ministry. This was Jesus’ coronation for His messianic mission.
In the Old Testament, priests were washed with water before beginning their service (Exodus 29:4; Leviticus 8:6). Although Jesus was not from the Aaronic priesthood, He is our great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14), and His baptism can be seen as a kind of priestly consecration for His ministry of intercession and sacrifice. He was being set apart for His redemptive work.
To Foreshadow His Death and Resurrection
Baptism in Scripture often symbolises death and resurrection. Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). Going under the water pictures death and burial; coming up pictures resurrection.
Jesus’ baptism pointed forward to His ultimate work. When James and John asked for prominent places in His kingdom, Jesus asked, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38). He was referring to His coming suffering and death. Later He said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). His baptism in the Jordan was a symbolic anticipation of the “baptism” of His death, when He would go down into the waters of judgment and rise again for our salvation.
To Provide an Example
While Jesus’ baptism was unique in many ways, it also provides a pattern for believers. Jesus told His disciples to baptize new disciples (Matthew 28:19). Christian baptism is not identical to John’s baptism, but it follows the same basic form: a public identification with the people of God, a symbol of repentance and cleansing, a picture of death to the old life and resurrection to the new.
If Jesus Himself was baptized, though He had no need, how much more should we be baptized in obedience to His command? His baptism demonstrates the importance of this ordinance and removes any false pride that might make someone think themselves above it.
The Father’s Approval
The heavenly voice at Jesus’ baptism is significant. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The Father expressed complete approval of the Son before any of His public ministry had taken place. Jesus was approved not because of what He would do but because of who He was. This affirmation would sustain Him through the trials ahead, including the forty days of temptation that immediately followed.
This same approval extends to all who are in Christ. We are accepted not because of our performance but because we are united to the beloved Son. What the Father said of Jesus, He says of us in Him. We are loved. We are approved. This is the foundation of the Christian life.
Conclusion
Jesus was baptized not because He needed forgiveness but to fulfil all righteousness. In His baptism, He identified with sinners, was anointed for ministry, foreshadowed His death and resurrection, provided an example for believers, and received the Father’s public approval. What might seem like a puzzling act becomes, on reflection, a profoundly fitting beginning to His public ministry. The sinless one stood where sinners stand, and in doing so, He began the journey that would take Him to the cross and the empty tomb, where sinners could be made righteous in Him.
“Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15
