Why Was Jesus Baptized?

(This post is part of a mini-series on Baptism.)

Why Was Jesus Baptized?

Jesus himself established Baptism as a Sacrament by receiving Baptism from John the Baptist.

"Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?" Jesus said to him in reply, "Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." ~ Matthew 3:13-17

This is fascinating! Jesus had no need to be baptized! He had no sin to wash clean. He was already the Son of God. So then why be baptized? To set an example of what we should do? To show the Trinity? To show obedience?

Keep Pursuing,

You Are Loved

I really hope this gets to you.  I had no idea how to reach you, so I put it here and prayed you would find it.

This is the most important thing I will ever tell you.  And it may be the only thing I ever get to tell you.

So, please stop what you are doing.  Please listen to what I am saying for 5 minutes.  I need you to really hear this...deep down...in your innermost being.


You are loved.


You are loved by God.
God!  The creator of the sun, the moon, and the stars, loves you.

He loves you like you can't believe.  With a love unlike anything you have ever experienced.  A love that is given freely, whether you ask for it or not....whether you return it or not...whether you want it or not.  God loves you.

And He knows you.  God knows your thoughts.  He knows your dreams.  He knows everything about you.  And He thinks you are beautiful.  He finds you fascinating.  To Him, you are so important.

He takes great joy in you and is with you wherever you go.  He laughs with you.  He cries with you.  He feels your joy and He feels your pain.  He hates it when you get hurt and He wants more for you...so He did something about it.

He came down to Earth.  To us.
God became man.  For us.

His name was Jesus.
And for thirty years He lived.
Eating, sleeping, working, and breathing like a normal person.

Then He started teaching because He wanted us to know the truth.
Then He started healing because He wanted us to know love.

And then, we killed Him.
We killed Him by nailing Him to a cross.

But He had a plan.
You see, He had experienced the hurt and the suffering in our lives.
He saw that our pain was caused by the bad things we did when we turned from God.
So he offered Himself as a sacrifice to pay for these sins.

He paid the price for every bad thing we would ever do.
He forgave while we were still sinning.
He did it because He loved us.
He freed us from slavery to sin.

And then, because he didn't want us to die, he rose from the dead.
He rose up and conquered death, so that when our bodies die our souls won't.
We can go to Heaven, and be with Him for all eternity.
Which is what He wants more than anything.

And to make sure you heard this, before He died He created a Church.
He gave the keys to heaven to Peter, the apostle.
He told Peter to spread the good news to all nations.
And for 2000 years, the Church has existed so you could hear the truth.

That truth is:
That God loves you, no matter what.
That He wants you to live forever with Him.
That He's already paid the price and set you free from sin, by dying for you.
That He is offering you the gift of eternal life and all you have to do is receive the gift.
That He is waiting to enter your life and all you have to do is welcome Him.
That even now, He is there.  Waiting lovingly.  To be loved back.

God loves you that much.


That's it.
That's what I needed to tell you.
I am alive today so I could tell you that.
I pray that you hear me.
Jesus I trust in you.



Keep Pursuing,

Who is Jesus?

Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.  How do we respond to that?

I've struggled with how to write this entry for a long time.  I finally accepted that I cannot improve upon C.S. Lewis' writing on the subject.  Here is what he says on the subject in his book, "Mere Christianity":

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. 

We are faced, then, with a frightening alternative. This man we are talking about either was (and is) just what He said or else a lunatic, or something worse. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form.

This premise seems reasonable.  And if reasonable then no one can casually dismiss Jesus as a nice guy or a prophet.

Other Options? 

In the past, many have asserted a fourth option: Legend.  This fourth option implies that Jesus is a fictitious character created by the apostles.

However, in a future post, I will discuss the historicity of Jesus and show that no serious historian doubts His existence.  Further, the Bible has been shown time and again to be incredibly accurate, verified time and again by other historical accounts and modern archaeological findings.

Lunatic

The gospels give us a cogent description of Jesus' ministry.  He spoke strongly, acted lovingly, and performed unbelievable feats.  There is nothing in the gospels that would lead one to question His sanity.

Liar

Now it could be posited that Jesus did all of this to form the biggest deceit of all time.  That He consciously acted and spoke in such a way to give us hope when He knew it all to be false.  If this was the case, then He is the biggest con artist of all time and is, most certainly, an incredibly evil person.

However, there is absolutely no evidence in the gospels to support such a hypothesis.  Further, having the advantage of 2000 years of Church history and billions of Christians to look back on.  The teachings of Jesus seem to be true.

Lord

That leaves us with the conclusion that Jesus was who He claimed to be, the Son of God.

This position is supported by the testimony provided by the gospels.  It is supported by the prospering of the Catholic Church.  And, I will also say it is supported by my experience with God.

Given that Jesus was Lord and Christ, His other claims become trustworthy and believable.
He does have the power to forgive sins.
He did resurrect after dying on the cross.
His Father is in Heaven.
He went to Heaven to be with Him.
And He will come again.


Keep Pursuing