John's Baptism

Why did Jesus get baptized by John? What did He mean when He said "Permit (it); for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15)?

John baptized for repentance of sins (3:11). Jesus didn't have any sin. And yet Jesus insisted on being baptized in order to "fulfill all righteousness." Let those words soak in.

"Fulfill"
To satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.)
This word was later used by Jesus to describe the law, recorded by the same writer, in Matthew 5:18. "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."

"All"
Meaning ALL. The complete set. Leaving nothing out. "All righteousness." Not human righteousness. Not religious ceremony. Not regulations. Not appearances. Not imperfect righteousness. Not incomplete righteousness. All. The consummation of righteousness. The completed circle. Leaving nothing out, leaving nothing to chance. Leaving no possibility of insufficiency. All righteousness.

"Righteousness"
Meaning perfect right standing with God. Absolute holiness, inside and out; perfectly clean, completely and utterly acceptable; fit for unbroken fellowship with God, oneness with the Father, intimacy with God.

Matthew 5:48
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Jesus was thorough in Matthew chapter 5 to destroy any illusions that we could attain to this standard of perfection on our own. He drew a spotlight onto our thoughts and intentions in such a way as to reveal our selfish and imperfect natures and to contrast that against God's perfect and absolute standard of holiness.

If the law could make you righteous, then it would have done so. But it didn't. It exposed our unrighteousness.

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

So why did Jesus get baptized? Jesus was not a sinner. So how was a baptism unto repentance necessary for Him to "fulfill all righteousness?"

Remember that Jesus was not just a man. He was not even just the perfect man. He was the incarnation of God as a Man. He was the Son of Man described in Daniel 7:13; the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah of God. He was the suffering servant described in Isaiah 53...

4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

He was the "lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

And, so, this God-Man, this King, this Suffering Servant Who takes upon Himself our sorrows and our sicknesses and the punishment for our sins, came not only to show us God's perfect righteousness, not only to demonstrate it, and certainly not to condemn us with it, but to serve us and to save us.

Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

John 3:17
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

So why was Jesus baptized?

First of all, symbolically, receiving John's baptism represented a consequential shift in God's dealings with mankind. John's baptism represented the attitude of repentance toward God and a repudiation of all self-righteousness; a confession that we do not and cannot please God through our flesh or through our attempts at keeping the law or any sort of religion. Notice that the portion of scripture that stands between the description of John baptizing for repentance and the appearance of Jesus to get baptized is a scorching condemnation by John of the scribes and Pharisees. This is significant. This signals that John's baptism is a repudiation of the Pharisaical system, of misplaced confidence in one's own righteousness according to the law. John's baptism demanded that one confess that they are incapable of following the law to the extent of being perfect before God. It represented the beginning of the end of the religious system in which any possible hope exists for sinful man to redeem himself from God's wrath by means of good works. It was the removal of the fig leaf and the offer of true cleansing from sin through the sacrifice that only God Himself could provide.

1 Corinthians 2:5
that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Jesus's participation in the sacrament of baptism of repentance and confession represented the death of the old system and the plunging of humanity into "a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh" (Hebrews 10:20). Through Jesus, humanity was baptized into repentance.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Romans 8:2-4
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

As we walk in Jesus, we have been set free from the law and from all condemnation into the freedom of the sons of God. Not only did Jesus take upon Himself our sins and our weakness and our flesh, but He also repented on our behalf. He offered Himself as the propitiation for our sins and as our living hope. He is our High Priest and our Advocate with the Father, and He is our friend and our brother.

1 John 2:1
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Hebrews 2:17
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

John 15:15
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

John 20:17
Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ”

Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, humanity was baptized and cleansed and raised from all things, including dead works of religion, spiritual death, ignorance and confusion, fear and doubt, and condemnation, into new life in the Spirit through faith in Him, unto eternal life, enjoyed here and now and forever more.

1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

1 Peter 1:23
having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever