Why Was Jesus Baptized? | Patrick Schreiner on Matthew 3:13–17

Kirk E. Miller welcomes New Testament scholar Patrick Schreiner on to What in the Word? to tackle the question: Why was Jesus baptized? John’s baptism was for repentant sinners, yet Jesus was without sin.

They discuss the different interpretations of Matthew 3:13–17, focusing on what it means for Jesus to “fulfill all righteousness.” What is meant by “righteousness,” and how does Jesus’s baptism “fulfill” it? Finally, they consider the significance of the Spirit’s descent and the heavenly voice declaring Jesus “my Son.”

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Episode guest: Patrick Schreiner

Patrick Schreiner (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Associate Professor of New Testament and biblical theology and Endowed Chair at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. He is the author of many books, including the following:

• The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross
• The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading
• The Ascension of Christ: Recovering a Neglected Doctrine
• The Visual Word: Illustrated Outlines of The New Testament Books
• The Four Gospels: Jesus, the Hope of the World
• Acts (Christian Standard Commentary)
• The Mission of the Triune God: A Theology of Acts (New Testament Theology)

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Episode synopsis

Why did Jesus need to be baptized?

John the Baptist was baptizing people for “repentance” (Matt 3:11), and those who received John’s baptism did so “confessing their sins” (Matt 3:6). So why does Jesus, who is without sin or need for repentance, have John baptize him (Matt 3:13–14)? And what does Jesus mean when he answers John’s protests by saying he must be baptized in order “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt 3:15)? Of note, this line is unique to Matthew’s account, so how does it contribute to, and how might it be explained by, the rest of Matthew’s Gospel?

Finally, we might wonder what it means for Jesus to receive the Spirit at his baptism. Was he without the Spirit prior, and does God’s declaration that Jesus is his “beloved” Son imply an adoptionist Christology (the idea that Jesus was merely a man who was elevated to divine status)?

Matthew’s concern with Jesus’s identity

In his infancy narrative (chs. 1–2), Matthew seeks to answer the question, Who is Jesus? He begins with a genealogy that situates Jesus within the story of Israel: son of David, son of Abraham. He provides his answer through a series of fulfillment quotations (Matt 1:18–2:23).

As Matthew continues, we find Jesus walking in the footsteps of Israel, reflecting her experience in his own. As Patrick Schreiner explains, Jesus comes out of Egypt, passes through water (Matt 3:1–17), goes into the wilderness for forty days (recalling Israel’s forty years of temptation in the wilderness; Matt 4:1–11), and then ascends a mountain to deliver an exposition of the law, the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:1). All of it echoes Israel’s own journey in the Pentateuch. Jesus is messiah who has come to represent his people. He recapitulates Israel’s story in order to do what Israel could not.

In this context, Jesus’s baptism functions, then, as his identification and anointing as that messiah: this is the moment where Jesus is formally set apart and empowered for his public ministry. In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with oil and empowered by the Spirit for their God-given tasks (e.g., 1 Sam 16:13). So here the Spirit descends upon Jesus and the Father speaks, declaring his messianic identity.

Jesus identifies with Israel and Israel’s need for repentance

By receiving baptism, Jesus is not confessing sin, as if he himself were in need of repentance. (John’s resistance reflects this; see Matt 3:14.) Rather, Jesus is identifying with sinful Israel and her need for repentance. John’s call to repentance was addressed to a nation that had broken covenant and needed to return to God. Jesus, by entering these waters, confirms John’s message and participates in Israel’s act of turning back to God. He aligns himself with those he has come to represent and save.

Patrick also suggests, however, that Jesus’s baptism here previews the cross—the climax of Matthew’s Gospel—where Jesus will die. In the Old Testament, waters often function as a symbol of judgment. Think of Noah’s flood, where the waters of God’s wrath swept over a sinful world. So Jesus, by undergoing baptism, shows how he will take Israel’s sins upon himself and undergo God’s judgment in their place.

Jesus’s baptism is not an isolated event at the start of his ministry. It is a window into the entire purpose of that ministry.

In these ways, Jesus’s baptism is not an isolated event at the start of his ministry. It is a window into the entire purpose of that ministry. Jesus is effectively announcing, from the very beginning, what he has come to do.

“To fulfill all righteousness”? 2 views

Fittingly, then, Jesus’s very first words in Matthew’s Gospel consist of his explanation for being baptized: “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt 3:15). This phrase brings together two of Matthew’s most important concepts, fulfillment and righteousness, further indicating how Jesus’s baptism sets the tone for the whole of his ensuing ministry.

But what exactly does it mean for Jesus “to fulfill all righteousness”? Patrick outlines two interpretations.

1. Ethical righteousness

One common understanding is that Jesus was baptized to complete (fulfill) all aspects of the Father’s will for him (righteousness).

In favor of this view, righteousness often does carry an ethical sense in Matthew. For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus calls for a “righteousness” that “surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees” (Matt 5:20) and says “not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them” (Matt 6:1). In these passages, righteousness refers to moral conduct or moral virtue. On this reading, Jesus submits to baptism as an act of necessary obedience to God.

Patrick agrees with what this first view affirms, but he believes “to fulfill all righteousness” conveys something additional.

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2. Eschatological righteousness

In the Old Testament, God’s righteousness often functions coterminously with God’s saving activity. So, for instance, in passages like Isaiah 46:13 and Psalm 98:2, God’s righteousness stands parallel to his salvation. His salvation is a demonstration of his righteousness. Righteousness in such texts is not a mere ethical concept, but an eschatological reality—the eventual in-breaking of God’s saving purposes.

We see a similar use of righteousness in Matthew’s Gospel where righteousness is placed alongside God’s eschatological kingdom: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matt 6:33). This pairing, Patrick argues, indicates that righteousness here has an eschatological and redemptive flavor.

Furthermore, throughout his Gospel, Matthew typically uses fulfill and fulfillment in an eschatological sense. In Matthew, Jesus fulfills the Scripture, bringing its story to its appointed eschatological completion.

So, especially as these two words occur together (“to fulfill all righteousness”), Patrick believes Jesus announces that his entire ministry—beginning with, and foreshadowed in, his baptism—will accomplish God’s eschatological salvation that the Old Testament foretold and that Israel could not produce on her own. Jesus’s baptism, in other words, is the opening movement of God’s eschatological rescue operation.

In short, Patrick agrees, yes, Jesus completes the Father’s will (view #1). But that is specifically to bring about salvation for his people (view #2).

Didn’t Jesus already have the Spirit?

If Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and there has never been any separation among members of the Trinity, why does the Spirit need to come upon him at his baptism?

Although Jesus is one person, he possesses two natures, divine and human. Thus, as Patrick explains, Jesus receives the Spirit here with respect to his humanity to empower him for his new and uniquely incarnate ministry. Just as the Spirit came upon prophets and kings in the Old Testament to empower them for their specific callings, so Jesus, as God’s appointed messiah, receives the Spirit to be anointed for his.

Why does God declare Jesus his “beloved Son”?

God’s declaration “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” weaves together at least two Old Testament texts:

• Isaiah 42:1, which anticipates a Spirit-anointed figure in whom God delights who will bring righteousness to the nations.
• Psalm 2:7, a royal enthronement psalm in which its Davidic king is declared God’s begotten Son.

Patrick also notes that “my beloved son” may echo Genesis 22:2, where Abraham is told to take “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,” who then was nearly sacrificed.

Thus, when God declares that Jesus his beloved Son, he is declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed king, the Spirit-filled servant, and his Son bound for sacrifice. (See also where God makes this same declaration of Jesus at his transfiguration; Matt 17:5.)

Interestingly, whereas Mark and Luke read “You are my beloved Son” (emphasis added), Matthew uses language that sounds more like a public announcement: “This is my beloved Son” (emphasis added). Patrick suggests that this change fits Matthew’s broader purpose of establishing Jesus’s identity as the Messiah.

Logos’s Parallel Gospel Reader comparing and highlighting the differences between the gospel accounts.

Practical significance of Jesus’s baptism

Matthew’s Gospel opens with baptism (Jesus’s) and ends with baptism (the Great Commission). At the end of the Gospel, the risen Jesus commands his disciples to make disciples, baptizing them “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19), the same three persons present at Jesus’s baptism in Matthew 3.

Patrick explains, Jesus went under the waters of judgment on our behalf. So in Christian baptism, we imitate Christ’s own baptism by identifying with that death to sin and resurrection to new life.

Second, Jesus’s baptism displays the gospel. It is a window through which to see exactly what Jesus came to do. The Gospels, like Matthew’s, are not ethical manuals, primarily giving us things to do. They are presentations of the gospel, the good news of what Jesus has done for us. The account of Jesus’s baptism is no exception to this.

Advice for teaching and preaching

Which is why we must resist the temptation to read this passage in isolation from the rest of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus’s baptism makes far less sense without the infancy narrative behind it and the passion narrative ahead of it. Teachers and preachers should attend to the way Matthew casts Jesus as recapitulating Israel’s story—and so here in his baptism. Jesus is the new Israel who succeeds where the old Israel failed. Likewise they should read Jesus’s baptism in light of where Matthew’s book is heading: the cross. There he will undergo a baptism of death, thereby accomplishing (fulfilling) eschatological salvation (righteousness).

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Logos values thoughtful and engaging discussions on important biblical topics. However, the views and interpretations presented in this episode are those of the individuals speaking and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Logos. We recognize that Christians may hold different perspectives on this passage, and we welcome diverse engagement and respectful dialogue.

Let us know what you think

What does it mean for Jesus to “fulfill all righteousness”? Join us in the Word by Word group to share your thoughts.

Patrick Schreiner’s suggested resources on Matthew

France, R. T. Matthew: Evangelist and Teacher. Wipf and Stock, 2004.

Further resources on Matthew

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• 1 Jesus, 4 Portraits: Why You Need Each Gospel’s Narrative Theology