How does baptism show your submission to God’s plan for your life?
Let’s take a trip back to the day that Jesus was baptized. John the Baptist had been preaching and seeing people repent and turn to the Lord. He baptized many, many people.
On this particular day, as he was preaching and baptizing, John saw Jesus coming to him, and he announced, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus Christ, the Messiah, had come!
But then something very special happened, and it took John by surprise. Jesus submitted to John for baptism! Matthew 3:14 tells us, “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?”
Jesus answered him in the next verse, “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” With that, John baptized Jesus.
I can understand the hesitancy of John to baptize Jesus. Jesus – God in flesh – was standing before him. Jesus clearly “outranked” John in terms of importance on every level. Yet John – the last of the Old Testament prophets - represented God’s earthly authority for that time before Christ established the church. It had been prophesied in Scripture that John the Baptist would come and prepare the way for Jesus. If Jesus did not submit to John in baptism, how would He be any different than any zealot that sought a following out of some self-appointed authority?
However, by submitting to baptism by John, He was able to “fulfil all righteousness.” He was able to publicly show that He was following God’s plan and walking in obedience to the already-established, God-given authority on earth. By following Jesus’ humble example here, we can learn a valuable lesson.
Too often in today’s world, Christians want to be loners or “secret service” Christians. It is true that baptism does not save you. However, you can publicly show your salvation in a submissive act called baptism. By being baptized, it shows to the world that you are proactively submitting to God’s plan for your life, and yielding to His established authority on Earth – the local church.