The Baptism of Our Lord (A)
January 11, 2026
Text:
Matt. 3:13-17
“Let it be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15; ESV).
John would have prevented Jesus from
submitting to his Baptism. John’s
Baptism, after all, was for repentance, and Jesus had no sins for which He
needed to repent. True enough. Jesus, though fully Man, is nevertheless the
sinless Son of God. But here He is in
the water with John, and with all the sinners lined up for the bath. John, for his part, recognizes that he
ought to be baptized by Jesus.
John is a sinner, and he knows it.
But here is Jesus, desiring to be baptized, and let it be so now,
John, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
All righteousness does need
to be fulfilled, you know, or it is not righteousness. Any amount of unrighteousness is unrighteousness. Well, that is our problem. We cannot fulfill all
righteousness. We cannot fulfill God’s
Commandments. We break them all over the
place, and we never really live up to them.
That is already true in terms of outward behavior. Stealing, adultery, murder, gossip or
slander. Hurting or harming our neighbor
in his body. Hurting or harming our
neighbor in his soul. Something…
or several somethings… on that list got you as you heard it. That is, the Law convicted you. So, that is bad enough. But then Jesus goes and points out to us that
Commandment keeping isn’t just an outward matter, but a matter of the heart. And now we’re all nailed by every
single one of the Commandments… “You have heard that it was said to
those of old, ‘You shall not murder’… But I say to you that everyone who is
angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matt. 5:21-22). “You have heard that it was said, ‘You
shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to
you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already
committed adultery with her in his heart” (vv. 27-28). And how about, simply, “You shall not
covet” (Ex. 20:17). See, the heart. Not just outward behavior. And whether outward or inward, the sins we
commit are really only a symptom of the problem. We are conceived and born in
sin. Inherited from Adam. And that is really the problem. Original sin, we call it. It is the mortal disease that infects
our nature to our very core, and it is that which gives birth to our actual
sins of thought, word, and deed.
Before we even have a chance to sin, we are sinners. See, it is not that we are sinners because
we sin. It is that we sin
because we are sinners.
Understand? Original sin is the
disease. Actual sins are the
manifestations of that disease. Okay,
so, we’re unrighteous, as we confessed right off the bat at the
beginning of Service. And, as a result,
if there is any hope of fulfilling all righteousness, it can’t
come from us.
And that is the answer to John’s
conundrum. Why would Jesus present
Himself to be baptized? He isn’t doing
it for His sake. He’s doing it for
us. Jesus comes to be baptized into
us. Into our sin and death. Into our unrighteousness. Into our breaking of the Commandments and
failure to perform them. Into our fallen
flesh. He soaks it all up into Himself, as
He is baptized, there, in the Jordan.
And He does something else in His
Baptism. He leaves something behind
in the water. What? Himself. His righteousness. His death, and resurrection life. His keeping and fulfilling of the
Commandments. His new, pure,
and sinless flesh. Why? So that John’s Baptism of repentance may
give way to the fulness of Christian Baptism when our Lord rises again. So that ever after, we may be baptized
into Christ. And all that is His
becomes ours, even as He takes up all that is ours, and bears
it to the cross, to bleed all over it and die for it.
The Great Exchange, or Happy
Exchange, as it is sometimes called. The
Sweet Swap. St. Paul defines it this way
in 2nd Corinthians: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor.
5:21). And in Romans: “For God has
done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the
righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4). And in Galatians: “Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is
everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13). Again, see… He takes what is ours, and gives
us what is His.
The exchange takes place in the
water. There, we are clothed in Christ,
the Sacrifice for our sins, and He is clothed… or better, unclothed…
in us; like Adam and Eve in the Garden, in the shame and nakedness of
our guilt. “For as many of you as
were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Clothed. “And when they had mocked him, they
stripped him of the purple cloak,” unclothed, “and put his own
clothes on him,” clothed with our sin… “And they led him out to
crucify him” (Mark 15:20). He dies
our death. We live His life. “We were buried therefore with him by
baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). The Great Exchange.
So… one with Christ in the
water. That means all His perfect
keeping of the Law is credited to us.
We heard last week about our Lord’s keeping of the first three
Commandments by being in the Father’s House, about the things of His
Father, and His keeping of the Fourth Commandment as He goes back to
Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and submits to them (Luke 2:41-52). He did that for us, in our place,
so that where we have not kept those Commandments, He has,
and He gives His keeping of those Commandments to us as a gift. Again, it happens in Baptism. His righteousness is our righteousness. And then the guilt of our not keeping
those Commandments, He takes upon Himself, to be punished and put to
death on the cross. There are a couple
theological terms that are helpful to learn in this regard. We call our Lord’s keeping of the
Commandments in our place, His active righteousness. He perfectly fulfills the Father’s will in
His earthly life, in thought, word, and deed, and He gives us the credit
for it. Then, we call our Lord’s suffering
the punishment for our sins, in our place, His passive
righteousness. Passive, not
because He isn’t doing anything, but according to the meaning of the Latin
root, passivus, meaning to suffer or endure. He is baptized into us to be able to do that
for us. We are baptized into Him to
receive it. And in this way, all
righteousness is fulfilled.
What else happens in the water? The things that happen visibly and audibly
to Jesus in His Baptism, happen invisibly, but still
audibly in the rite and in the preaching, to us. That is to say, there is Jesus in the
water, to receive us into Himself. And heaven
is opened. And there is the
Spirit descending and coming to rest on us, to enkindle faith in us and fan
it into flame, to guide us into all truth, sanctify us, and keep us in Christ. And there is the voice of the Father,
declaring of Jesus, and therefore of you in Jesus: “This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). That is justification language. God is well pleased with us, because all
righteousness is fulfilled in Christ.
All of it. And then, all
of it, given to us. As a gift. By grace. Understand this, because this is the heart
and center of the Christian faith: Now that you are in Christ, when God
looks at you, He sees perfect righteousness.
It is a righteousness from outside of you. It is the righteousness of His Son. Jesus takes away your sins. He gives you His righteousness in
exchange. That is the reality of your
Baptism into Him.
So, first thing when you arise in
the morning beloved, and last thing before you go to sleep at night, you can
make the sign of the holy cross (as Dr. Luther recommends), and invoke the
blessed Name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And you can remember that you are a beloved,
blood-bought child of God, united to the death and resurrection of Christ,
immersed in His Holy Spirit. And,
therefore, all your sins are forgiven, and all righteousness is fulfilled for
you. And you can live, and die,
and live forever in that reality.
Let it be so now. It is. Because Jesus is in the water with you. For you. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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