I recently had a debate with a Muslim
concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ. One of the arguments which he brought
forth as evidence against the godly nature of the messiah was that Jesus was
baptized by John the Baptist in the wilderness of Judea, just like all men
were, for the forgiveness of sins. If Jesus was indeed God, why would he get
baptized? Furthermore,
how can God be forgiven of any sins at all?
In order to answer the question, we will
look into the 3rd chapter of Matthew:
Within the following passages, we see
that John came into the wilderness of Judea to baptize the multitudes. What we also
read is that John was the promised messenger spoken of by Isaiah the prophet,
who was to come into the world to prepare the way for the coming Lord.
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[1] In those days came John the
Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
[2] And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
[3] For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
[2] And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
[3] For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
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What we now come to read is very
important in terms of answering the above argument. We read that MANY
individuals came to John’s baptism to be baptized of him in the Jordan river.
In other words, the area in which John was baptizing was flooded with people.
And these people were baptized by john upon confessing their sins and
wrongdoings.
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[4] And the same John had his
raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat
was locusts and wild honey.
[5] Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
[6] And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
[5] Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
[6] And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
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We are now going to skip to the
relevant passages which will help us bring about the answer to the argument fashioned by those who stand in opposition to the divinity of Christ. As we
said before, MANY people came unto where John was baptizing. But
what we see within the following passages is that John was NOT only baptizing,
but was telling the people about the coming messiah.
Here is something I wrote on a previous post
called ( Did John the Baptist believe Jesus to be God) concerning the following
passage:
"Right away what we notice is that
Jesus is greater than John. This here is very important to understand because
it displays to us that Christ was not limited to being just a prophet
because Jesus was greater than a prophet. So the question arises: why did
John believe Jesus to be so much greater than he? What made him so
special? The answer is given by John in the following passage:”
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[11] I indeed baptize you with
water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose
shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and
with fire:
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Concerning the following passages, I
wrote a commentary within another post on my blog:
“This little
story about the wheat and the chaff is pointing to Judgement day. As we
know from the scriptures, God is the only one who is fit to judge
mankind on the last day. Yet what we see here
is John believing that Jesus will take this role upon
himself. It is Christ who will bring the believers (wheat) into heaven
(the garner) and it is he who will burn the unbelievers (chaff) with fire.
Another thing that is important for us to notice is John’s wording when it
comes to Christ purging the floor. The phrase does not say THE floor, but HIS
floor. The floor as we can see from the context refers to the world. In other
words, the world belongs to Jesus Christ.
So what we see when we examine the
story is that as God is the judge of mankind, Jesus is the judge of mankind. As
the world belongs to God, the world belongs to Jesus.
So the reason why John believed Jesus
to be greater than he was not because he was some better prophet. It
was not because he was some enlightened being. But because he was God in the
flesh.”
Now many might say that the word "HIS" can be a translation error on the part of the translators of the bible. But when we look at the Greek, we see that this is not the case. When we look at this section, the Greek word for HIS threshing floor is ἅλωνα αὐτοῦ. What we come to see is that the word HIS (afto/afton) is actually there in the Greek language and hence, not an error on the part of the translator. I am now going to post the rest of the Greek to display unto the reader that the word HE/OF HIM is actually there, further proving that this parable applies to Jesus.
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[12] Whose fan is in his hand, and
he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
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Now we finally come to the part
which has pushed many away from the belief that Jesus was anything more than a
man. What we read is that Jesus came to be baptized by John. But John’s
response is quite interesting. John told Jesus that it is HIM who needs to
be baptized by Christ. This
is because John was aware that Christ was sinless, seeing as he believed him to
be Judge and Lord ( as we just saw above). Note that John also stood in
confusion to why Jesus came to be baptized by him. But more importantly, notice
the response Jesus provided. He didn't say because he needed to, he didn’t confess any
sins as the people did, he didn’t say because he was imperfect. Rather, what he
said was that it was the right thing to do.
When we read everything in context,
we see that:
1)There
was a GREAT MULTITUDE which came to John
2)John
talked to them about Jesus
3)He
told them that he was greater than he
4)He
told them that he was God
Jesus getting baptized was not
merely an act of proving the aspect of his
manhood, but one of great humility. Because the
people were now aware of who he was, him getting baptized served as a drive. It
served as a means to get the multitude to humble themselves and do the same. In
other words, IF GOD IS WILLING TO HUMBLE HIMSELF AND GET BAPTIZED, THEN ALL THE
MORE SHOULD WE. Jesus humbled himself and got baptized NOT FOR HIS BENEFIT, but
for the benefit of them which were present during this time. It was to push
them to get baptized and repent of their sins and wrong doings. Jesus doing such things is not uncommon within the gospels. Jesus does something very similar within
the gospel of John,13th chapter verses 12-14: So
after
he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again,
he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call
me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If
I then, your Lord and Master, have
washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
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[13] Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
[14] But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
[15] And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
[14] But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
[15] And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
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