Fulfilling Righteousness
Why do men need to be baptized? The answer from Scripture is that baptism is for remission of sins (Acts 2:38). Prior to the events of Acts 2 baptism for remission of sins in the name of Jesus had not been preached. We know, likewise, from Scripture that John baptized people for remission of sins prior to the events of Acts 2 (Mark 1:4). However, when John was baptizing people for the remission of their sins it was not done in the name of the Lord Jesus. The reason being that a man's will cannot come into effect until after His death (Hebrews 9:16,17). Jesus had to die first in order for His will to be made binding on men.
The events in Acts 2 was the first time that the will of Christ was explained to men from the view that it was now in authority. From the Jewish world, yearly trips to Jerusalem to kill animals was required to deal with the sin issue. The writer of Hebrews explains to us that the blood of such animals could not remove sin (Hebrews 10:4). The book of Hebrews, likewise, shows us that without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22). The only blood that could remove sin was the blood of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God (Ephesians 1:7). As surely as the death of animals was required to shed their blood, so the death of Jesus was required in the shedding of His blood.
When Jesus died there was a fountain opened up to those of Jerusalem and to the house of David (Zechariah 13:1). On the day that Jesus died, His blood was shed. His will could not come into force until after His death. Zechariah, therefore, pointed to a time not when Christ died but when His will would go into effect. The great sadness of the day when Jesus died was necessary to bring us to the joy of the events beginning in Acts 2. It was on that day that the will of Christ came into effect. It was on that day that Jews and proselytes had the first opportunity to contact that fountain filled with blood for the remission of their sins (Acts 2:10; 38). Years later, the same saving message would go to the land of Samaria (Acts 8). Still farther in time, it would extend to the Gentile world through the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). A few short years before the fall of Jerusalem, Paul declared that the gospel had gone into all the world (Colossians 1:23).
It is by the authority of Jesus the Christ, that we teach all men to be baptized into water in order to remove their sins. The message is clear that, in the water, man is able to obey God and contact the fountain filled with the blood of Christ. It is faith in the operation of God (Colossians 2:12). What a beautiful idea is given to man that when we submit to Christ's will and are immersed in water that Jesus washes us from our own sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5). Given these truths, we ask the question then, why was Jesus baptized?
John was baptizing people for the remission of their sins. When they came to John for his baptism, they did so, confessing their sins (Matthew 3:6). Jesus had no sins to be washed away or to confess. He was sinless. That is why He was the perfect sacrifice to die for man. He was the lamb without spot or blemish. John recognized the problem in his own mind. He did not think that Jesus needed to be baptized (Matthew 3:14). The reason Jesus gave on that occasion explains why Jesus had to be baptized.
The reason Jesus gave was it became both of them to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15. Righteousness is doing the will of God for the right reasons. The scheme of redemption was worked out by the Godhead before the creation of the world (Titus 1:2). Part of that plan was for Jesus to come and be baptized, not for sins but to bring righteousness to its fullness. He was willing to do the will of the Father to bring about man's salvation. The joy set before Him was so great that He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). He spent His years on earth doing the will of the Father so that, at His death, He could say, "it is finished.."
Will you be a righteous person? Then be baptized in water to remove your sins and remain faithful to the Lord until death (Revelation 2:10).