THE CEREMONY
COMING BETWEEN
Between these periods
there came the solemn and significant ceremony of the baptism. As Jesus left
that in His life which was preparatory, and entered upon the actual work of the
ministry, He devoted Himself to the ultimate issue of His work, that namely,
of identification with men even to death. His being baptized was an act by
which He consented to take His place among sinners. John's baptism was that of
repentance. There was no room for repentance in Jesus, and yet because of His
devotion to their redemption, He took His place with them. This will be referred to again in subsequent considerations. It
is named here as helping to explain the value of the supernatural
manifestations accompanying the baptism. As in the act of baptism He yielded
Himself, a sacrifice and an offering; the opened heavens, the descending dove,
the living voice, each having its own significance, unite in the attestation of
the perfection of the One so yielding Himself, to the mightiest phase in the
purpose of God, that of redemption by the way of sacrifice. The
significance of this threefold fact may be considered briefly.
THE OPENED HEAVENS suggest the
perfections of the thirty years, and declare in sacred sign and symbol that no
act of His has excluded Him from the fellowship of the perfect. Heaven which
must forever exclude whatsoever is imperfect could have enfolded Him without
the violation of any principle of the Eternal Holiness.
THE DESCENDING SPIRIT in the form
of a dove was a recognition of the character, the Spirit, the disposition, of
this Man, which lay behind the outward expression in conduct. Never anywhere
else, is it recorded that the Spirit descended in the form of a dove. It
rested upon Christ as the symbol of purity and of meekness. And yet it was also
His anointing for the work of the three years. Seeing that the Spirit of
anointing, which was preparation for the future, came in the form of a dove,
which sealed the past; the fact was signified that the ministry in public would
be exercised in the strength of, and carried forward in the Spirit of, the
purity and the meekness which had characterized the past.
Superadded to these signs there was
THE SOUND OF THE LIVING VOICE. First in identification of this Person as the
One Who was referred to in the prophetic writings, and in the words of the
Psalmist,
“I will tell of the
decree:
Jehovah said unto Me,
Thou art My Son;
This day have I
begotten Thee . . .
Kiss the Son, lest He
be angry, and ye perish in the way." (Psa. 2:7, 12)
The great word coming out of the old economy is "the Son." Now at the baptism
God says, "Thou art My beloved
Son." (Luke 3:22)
Thus the description has reference to His office, and
appointment and anointing for service. The second part of the Divine pronouncement
declares that God is well pleased in Him. This sets the seal of the Divine
approbation upon the thirty years, and declares therefore the perfect fitness
of the approved One for the carrying out of the work of the three.
Thus the thirty years of privacy
merge into the three years of publicity, by the way of solemn and significant
ceremony.
By these last articles the baptism
is placed in its relation to these two periods in the ministry of Jesus. The
next article will deal more fully with the perfections of the thirty, and the
following one will indicate more fully the true meaning and value of the three.
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