The Father's Acceptance

Recently I was conducting a baptism preparation class and we were reading about Jesus being baptized by His cousin John at the beginning of His public ministry. Going into the river where John was preaching and baptizing, Jesus presented Himself to undergo the same public ritual as everyone else -- a ritual that symbolized cleansing, repentance, and new life. The question came up, why did was Jesus baptized? He was sinless -- no addictions, no shameful past, just righteous innocence. The case can be made that since baptism also symbolizes death and resurrection, He was predicting His own sacrificial death and saving resurrection by being immersed in the waters of the Jordan. But in reading the story, I think there is another equally important reason. Jesus was God "incarnate" -- He became human (John 1:14) in order to forever identify Himself with us. He entered into our world of brokenness, fear, trouble, and need. And in doing so He gave us the opportunity to enter into His life, His experience. 

I remember a few years ago reading the part where the heavenly voice says, "This is my Son that I love. And I am so happy with Him." (my version). The thought occurred to me that in that moment Jesus gave me the opportunity to hear my heavenly Father saying the same thing about me -- "Terry, you are my beloved child and I am delighted with you." It's not because I have performed well, or have a spotless record. It's because the heart of God is just that way toward all of His repentant children. Whenever we surrender our self-centeredness, our sins and failures to the spiritual baptism of Christ's death on the cross -- we get to come "back to life". By faith we get to be resurrected to a clean new life  and hear the voice of our Father's acceptance. 

Today you can hear God's affectionate love to Jesus -- you can experience His unconditional acceptance -- because Jesus went down into the dark water of our human misery and came up out of it clean, righteous, and victorious.

--Terry