"Baptism unto Repentance, Death unto Rebellion"
Read Matthew 3:11-17
Read Romans 6:3-4
Paul says we are baptized into death, also that we are baptized into Christ! That's a strange symmetry, almost making "death" equivalent with "Christ"!
To make it more complicated, John the Baptist identifies the act of baptism as an "immersion into repentance."
So what is it: repentance? death? Christ?
And the reality is, of course, that it's all of these.
"Into death" and "into repentance." The symmetry testifies that repentance is a kind of death. It is a necessary death to our own rebellion against God.
That's what baptism proclaims, even the baptism to which Jesus submitted Himself in order "to fulfill all righteousness." Without this death to rebellion against God, there is no righteousness.
Even the Sinless One submitted himself to the Act of Repentance, which is absolutely what that Baptism was, on behalf of sinners who were utterly incapable of opening that door, blazing that trail, launching that spiritual trajectory, themselves. No wonder Jesus announced He was the "Door" and the "Way"!
As C.S. Lewis very insightfully pointed out, only the Perfect One Who was in no need of repentance at all could perfectly commit the perfect repentance (return to God) that those who desperately needed to commit it...couldn't.
I hope it gives us all extra insight into just why Jesus said this Baptism was indispensable to the "fullfillment", i.e., the bringing about, the materialization, the realization, "of all righteousness."
It was imperative. It was imperative for Jesus to materialize, for us, in our place, on our behalf, for our sake--whatever phrase you can possibly think of that indicates the connection to us!--imperative for Jesus to materialize this "death to rebellion against God." It was imperative, so He did. Love made it imperative.
Such are the measureless depths of His love.
Death to rebellion against God is the beginning of the way to God, the beginning of Return to God.
The Hebrew word signifying repentance is literally their word "return." When the Hebrew prophets preached "Repent!", they were actually saying "Return! Return to God!" The baptism John proclaimed was a Baptism of Return. And Jesus in His love submitted, to take that Way of Return and, by so doing, become that Way for us.
This is why I am saying that without death to rebellion there is no possibility of righteousness--because without this death there is no way back, no way of return to God.
But, hallelujah, there IS a way back.
"I am the way," says our Savior. That's the sense of it, that's why the Lord Jesus is the sole Way to the Father. Because it is He alone and exclusively Who materialized in His Own Self the way of return to the Father. He became the Way in the flesh.
Only He accomplished the ultimate death to rebellion against God--by perfectly rejecting it in life and extinguishing its power in death. Let me repeat that: by perfectly rejecting it in life and extinguishing its power in death!
That's why the Lord so adamantly dismissed John's adamant plea that He not do this. There was never the least shred of a possibility that Jesus would concede to John's plea. It simply was not going to happen! Jesus HAD to do this, it was a non-negotiable imperative: "to fulfill ALL righteousness."
All righteousness or no righteousness.
There's a frightful thought, isn't it: to fulfill NO righteousness and, so, leave you and me high and dry?
We would have ended up how, who and where without the Lord's adamant, unswerving, non-negotiable feat of love?
The Living Way, the Lamb of God, Christ, right here and now at this moment by the Jordan River, is launching the redemptive feat, the way of return, for you and me. There is no other way. It's...IMPERATIVE.
That's love.
God is love.
And so, Jesus is GOING to DO this, no matter what. Nothing and nobody, not even John the Baptist, is going to stop Him. It's...
IMPERATIVE.
In His unconditional dedication there is a lesson for us, but, praise God, so much more than a lesson.
Christ always gives us more than just a lesson, or an example.
We are incapable in our flesh of reproducing His "example" or "lessons." If all we had from the Lord were His examples and lessons then we would be "most of all people to be pitied."
No.
Christ always gives us more. He gives us His very life, His grace, His Spirit. The Risen Lord inhabits us.
Therefore, from the unconditional dedication of the Living Way, who materialized everything imperative for return to God, we take, yes, a lesson, yes, an example, but more than that we receive the interior power and life by which alone such dedication can manifest in us, in unity with Him.
That is the key and whole secret to the Christian life: "Christ in you."
That's why it was imperative. For "Christ in you" to ever happen.
That's why Jesus' submission to this baptism fulfills all righteousness--because every step of the Redemptive Way materialized by Him fulfills all righteousness, the righteousness that saves us and transfigures us into Christlikeness.
For my conclusion, I'd like to repeat the conclusion of another sermon I once preached on the Baptism. I think it is perfectly fitting here, too:
"In light of everything we've said, and knowing what events are going to follow Christ's baptism, I think we can see in the very act of the baptism a prefiguration of the entire Redemptive Feat that will be realized by God in Christ.
"Look for instance, with the eyes of your imagination, at Christ as He humbly, identifying as one of so many gathered there to repent, presents Himself to John for baptism, to take the way of return to God, through death to sin. In the same way God's Son will bear the sins of the world on the Cross, the Sinless Lamb identifying to the bitter end with us to make our way back to the Father possible.
"And then, Jesus goes down into the water, just as one day He will go down into the waters of death and the grave after passing through the righteous wrath of a holy God for the sin of the world.
"And then, Jesus emerges from the water, as one day He will rise, resurrected, victorious, from the grave, having overcome and crushed the powers of evil, shattered the authority of sin and death.
"And then, the heavens open above Him, as one day they will open up to receive the Risen Son back again, redemption won, salvation made real.
"And then, God's Spirit descends upon Christ, just as one day the Holy Spirit will again descend on the Body of Christ, His Church, to indwell Her and fulfill the Father's will through Her.
"And then, the voice of the Father emanates from heaven in supreme commendation of the Son: in the Son dwells all the Father's joy; wherever the Son is, there the Father's sacred will and love are manifested. Just as one day the Father will again exalt His Son before all creation and unfold in the Son His sublime purpose to dwell forever with His redeemed people, as King of kings and Lord of lords.
"And in that day, as God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, 'before Me every knee will bow, and every tongue will swear by Me.'
"And the apostle Paul, led by the same Holy Spirit, in the light of Christ, further unfolded the ultimate meaning of Isaiah's words:
"'As a result God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow--in heaven and on earth and under the earth--and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
