Baptism Pictures Identification with Jesus

Pray – (1/2 minute)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by your, and do you come to me?’ ” (Matthew 3:13-14)
       Passage: Romans 1:16-17 

      The baptism John practiced and called people to do was a baptism that was a living picture of their commitment to God and how He washed away sin when they repented. Jesus did not have any sin to repent of, and John knew that. John recognized that the Superiority of Jesus to Him and pointed out that if either of the two were baptized, it needed to be John baptized by Jesus. However, Jesus would insist on being baptized, but not because He had any sin. One key reason was because Jesus was showing His identification with us through His baptism.
     In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul writes, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” When Jesus was conceived and later born, God the Son became fully human as well as fully divine. He did so in order that He could identify with sinful man and then offer Himself as a substitute to pay the penalty of sin for every person ever born. As Jesus identified with us, we identify with Him when we are baptized after we have believed and received Him as Lord and Savior. Baptism says to the world, “I am not ashamed to identify as a follower of Christ.”

 Apply - (2 1/2 minutes)
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Pray - (1 1/2 minutes)