Luke 3:21,22

THE FIRST CALVARY

‘How when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.’

Luke 3:21

The Baptism of our Lord in the River Jordan is one of the most significant events in the Gospel history.

I. The Baptism of Jesus was a prophecy.—It is not always remembered that our Lord’s public ministry lay between two Calvarys: it not only culminated in Calvary, it started from it. The baptism in Jordan was nothing less than an anticipation, a prophecy, of the Cross itself; it was the deepest act of self-abasement of which our blessed Lord was capable. As the sinner’s representative He felt bound to take the sinner’s place, to be treated, in short, as the sinner needed to be treated. It was in the supreme hour of Christ’s humiliation that the most signal manifestation of Divine favour was revealed.

II. The baptism of Jesus was a pattern.—In this great humiliation we have a mirror in which the eye of faith may see reflected the conditions and the effects of the reception of the Spirit still. These conditions are:—

(a) Faith. It is unnecessary to refer to this in the case of our Lord, but it is very necessary for us. We must believe the blessing is for us, or we shall never seek it.

(b) Obedience unto death. Upon our obedience without a question our reception of the Holy Ghost depends. ‘We are His witnesses of these things,’ said St. Peter, ‘and so is also the Holy Ghost, Whom God hath given’ (not to every one, but) ‘to them that obey Him’ (Acts 5:32). Truly there must be an absolute consecration of ourselves to God.

III. The effects of the reception of the Spirit.—They are so manifold that it is impossible to exhaust them, but the three indicated by the narrative before us are: (a) peace, the peace of an assured sonship; (b) purity, exemplified by the Holy dove and the mystic voice, ‘In Thee I am well pleased’; and (c) power—power with God and with man, for ‘Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee’ (Luke 4:14).

Rev. E. W. Moore.