Episode Transcript  

One

The Baptism of Jesus 

Mark chapter one tells us, “John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptized by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.”

All who came to John to be baptized in the Jordan River understood that it signified a confession of guilt, a plea for forgiveness, and a resolution to change one’s life. So, if you came to the Jordan River and got in line you were admitting that you were a sinner and you want to put off the old failed life, and I want to put on a new life. 

But then something surprising happened. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.” Mt 3:13

The real novelty is that He, Jesus, wants to be baptized, that he blends into the gray mass of sinners waiting on the banks of the Jordan. And we just heard that they were confessing their sins, that Baptism itself was an admittance of sin, an attempt to put off the old, failed life and put on a new one. Is this something that Jesus could do? 

John was thrown off by this and he wanted to prevent Him, “Behold, you are the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 

John is totally confused because it seems all backwards. Or is it? 

Two

The Scapegoat 

When did Jesus first take on our sins? The Garden of Gethsemane? On the Cross? No, it is right here at the Jordan River. 

Jesus comes to the Jordan River, gets in line with all the other sinners, and is baptized. Because it’s then that Jesus stepped into the place of sinners, He loaded the burden of all mankind’s sin and guilt upon His shoulders and bore it down into the depths of the Jordan, going down under the water like going down into a grave. 

Every year, on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the High Priest put all the sins of the people on the Scapegoat and then drives it into the desert toward the Jordan River. Jesus became the Scapegoat right here at the Jordan River.  

At His Baptism, Jesus takes on our sin and its consequences, death, and carries it all the way to Calvary, where He will complete the work of our redemption. 

Three

The Great Exchange 

At His Baptism, Jesus takes on our sin and death. At our Baptism, we take on His Resurrection and His Life. According to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with Christ’s death, is buried with Him, and rises with Him. In Romans 6:3-4, Paul says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

There is a great exchange going on. Jesus comes to you and says, “At My Baptism, I took your sin and the price of your sins, your death. Then at your Baptism, you get My divine life.” 

That is an amazing exchange rate! 

We often take for granted what actually happens at our Baptism. There is an exorcism in the Baptismal Rite. Yes, we are created by God, but that alone makes us creatures, not sons and daughters of God sharing in His divine life. We are born into a fallen world under the dominion of Satan, sin, and death. At Baptism, we are set free from the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of Light. Like Israel passing through the Red Sea, we are delivered from slavery and brought into freedom, the freedom of the children of God. At that moment, the Most Holy Trinity comes to dwell in our soul. The power of Satan is broken within us, and the divine life of God is poured into our hearts. We are no longer merely God’s creatures; we become His adopted sons and daughters. In the letter to the Galatians, Paul writes, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Four

Led by the Spirit 

And what is the practical implication of this? Paul tells us in Romans 8, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” At Baptism, we did not receive a spirit of slavery, therefore fear-based self-management is over. We received the Spirit of adoption. Now we are supposed to be led by God’s Spirit. Sonship means allowing oneself to be guided Therefore, to insist on self-reliance is to live below your baptism. Because we are sons, the Father does not leave us to manage our lives alone; He gives us His own Spirit to lead us from within to do what would have been humanly beyond us before. We now have the power to live on a completely new level, a divine level. That is, of course, if you learn how to be led by the Spirit! 

Five

Delight 

At the end of the Baptism of Jesus, “a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I delight.’" God the Father delighted in Jesus. God, your Father, also delights in you. That is what God is trying to tell you in your Baptism. You are His child, and He loves you not because of what you do or have failed to do, but because of what you are, His son or daughter. 

Why do you love your children and think they are amazing? Because they are your children! God loves you for the same reason! You say, “No, that is not possible. I have so many sins, how could God delight in me?” A good Father or Mother doesn’t love their child because they are a high-performance kid. They love their child because it’s THEIR CHILD. And that’s why God, your Father, loves you just because you’re His kid! 

Recognizing that love should take away your anxiety about measuring up. Recognizing that love should make you strong, should make you confident that you belong in the world, and that the universe is better, and that God is pleased, because you exist.  

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