Luke 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, I. 1. The preaching of John the Baptist was the sign that the active ministry of the Messiah was now to begin. The Incarnate Word had been hidden among men. His presence must now be manifested and His kingdom set up. 2. His first act in passing from His hidden to His active life, is to identify Himself with that sinning race in whose likeness He had come. 3. This humiliation was temporary and voluntary — "Suffer it to be so now," i.e., "for the present time"; "for thus it becometh us" — not "it is necessary" — "to fulfil all righteousness." 4. Notice how He who in His boyhood "must be about His Father's business," in His manhood must "fulfil all righteousness." II. 1. There is a deep sense in which this undergoing the baptism of John was a fulfilling all righteousness. It was a revelation that man's nature needs not merely improvement but renewal. Baptism represents the death of the old man and the resurrection of the new. 2. It is that He who thus humiliated Himself for us may fulfil all righteousness in us that we pray, "By Thy baptism,... good Lord, deliver us." (Canon Vernon Hutton, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, |
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