John the Bap­tist was a pi­o­neer. He pre­pa­red the way for Je­sus to en­ter pe­op­le’s he­arts. This hap­pe­ned through a ser­mon: “Re­pent, for the king­dom of he­a­ven has come near.” (Matt. 3:1–3.)

His words touc­hed pe­op­le’s he­arts. This was not surp­ri­sing. His words were ones that went straight to the mat­ter. His words hurt. For ins­tan­ce, to the Pha­ri­sees and scri­bes he said: “You brood of vi­pers! Who war­ned you to flee from the co­ming wrath? Pro­du­ce fruit in kee­ping with re­pen­tan­ce.” (Matt. 3:7–8.)

John’s words awo­ke cont­ri­ti­on and along with it, dist­ress. For­ced by this dist­ress, pe­op­le con­fes­sed their sins. John’s bap­tism was the bap­tism of re­pen­tan­ce. Those who knew and con­fes­sed their sins were bap­ti­zed by John.

Je­sus’ bap­tism

Je­sus al­so came to John at the Jor­dan ri­ver to be bap­ti­zed. Ac­cor­ding to Mat­t­hew, John knew Je­sus. He knew that Je­sus was wit­hout sin. This is why John won­de­red why Je­sus had come to the “sin­ner’s bap­tism.” This is al­so why John tried to pre­vent him from co­ming. “I need to be bap­ti­zed by you, and do you come to me?” Je­sus qui­ets John by sa­ying: “Let it be so now; it is pro­per for us to do this to ful­fill all righ­te­ous­ness.” (Matt. 3:13–15.)

God is a righ­te­ous and fair God. He re­qui­res per­fec­ti­on and thus ato­ne­ment for of­fen­ces. Fal­ling in­to sin brought God’s an­ger and pu­nish­ment upon man­kind. To be re­le­a­sed from God’s an­ger, man­kind nee­ded to ato­ne for their of­fen­ces. When no sin­ner was ap­p­rop­ri­a­te for this, God de­ci­ded to ato­ne all of man­kind’s sins through His Son.

God the Fat­her lay the whole world’s ini­qui­ty on the in­no­cent and sin­less Son’s shoul­ders. In this way, the Lord’s righ­te­ous ser­vant jus­ti­fied many. (Isa. 53:11). Je­sus, as the be­a­rer of our sins, was con­si­de­red to be an evil­do­er.

Even though Je­sus Him­self was wit­hout sin, as the be­a­rer of our sins, he was sin­ful. He came to be bap­ti­zed by John to ful­fil the righ­te­ous will of God. John bap­ti­zed Je­sus in the same way that he bap­ti­zed the ot­her pe­op­le who had con­fes­sed their sins.

The Fat­her, Son and Holy Spi­rit pre­sent

When Je­sus aro­se from the wa­ter, the skies ope­ned and Je­sus saw the Holy Spi­rit des­cend upon him in the form of a dove. At the same time, a voi­ce was he­ard from he­a­ven: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well ple­a­sed.” (Matt 3:16–17.)

The Triu­ne God was pre­sent in that mo­ment: God whose voi­ce was he­ard, the Son who rose from the wa­ters and the Holy Spi­rit in the form of a dove. The pre­sen­ce of the Triu­ne God in its en­ti­re­ty told of the be­gin­ning of the Fat­her, Son and Holy Spi­rit’s col­lec­ti­ve in­tent and re­demp­ti­on phase.

In His time, our Fat­her had con­cur­red to cre­a­te the world and man­kind. He knew what would hap­pen when man would be fa­ced with the temp­ta­ti­ons of the ene­my of souls: man would fall in­to sin. This is why our Fat­her plan­ned for the re­demp­ti­on with His Son al­re­a­dy be­fo­re Cre­a­ti­on. His Son pro­mi­sed to ful­fill this. (Ps. 2:6–8).

Christ’s work would have been left un­fi­nis­hed if the Holy Spi­rit had not con­ti­nu­ed the work af­ter Christ’s suf­fe­ring, de­ath, re­sur­rec­ti­on and as­cen­si­on in­to he­a­ven.

The work con­ti­nu­es

The Triu­ne God still works. He has not left His cre­a­ti­on and the world He re­dee­med to us on its own. The Fat­her as the Lord of life and de­ath cre­a­tes new life. He has so­ve­reign au­tarc­hy in this mat­ter. Man has not been gi­ven do­mi­na­ti­on over life and de­ath.

The Son’s re­demp­ti­on work is still in ef­fect. Neit­her gold nor sil­ver is enough to pay for our sins. On­ly God’s Son’s re­demp­ti­on blood is ade­qu­a­te to pay for our sins. Even to­day, this re­demp­ti­on is made true by the Holy Spi­rit.

Christ’s work con­ti­nu­es in the work of the Holy Spi­rit in his king­dom. The call to re­pent is ec­hoing in the word of God’s king­dom, but at the same time, the sweet mes­sa­ge of the for­gi­ve­ness of sins can be he­ard. When Je­sus sent his own dis­cip­les to work, he pro­mi­sed: Take the Holy Spi­rit. Those who you for­gi­ve, their sins are for­gi­ven them.

Text: Ai­mo Hau­ta­mä­ki

Sour­ce: Päi­vä­mies 1/2016

Trans­la­ti­on: A. H.

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä nu­me­ros­sa 10.5.2017