Jesus’s baptism at the Jordan points forward to the baptism of his death (Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50). But it also points to the glorious blessings merited by his righteous life. After Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened. God’s Spirit came down like a dove, and a voice from heaven declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16–17). These verses tell of Jesus’s identity as the anointed Servant (Isa. 11; 42; 61) and Davidic Son (2 Sam. 7; Ps. 2); they also reveal what’s true of all those united to him by faith (Rom. 8). Jesus’s baptism reveals the beauty of his person and the fullness of his saving work.

John the Baptist thought the idea of Jesus being baptized was ridiculous. After all, John had come to preach about God’s holy wrath against sin. He’d come declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). He baptized with water, which would’ve reminded the people of the judgment flood that overwhelmed God’s enemies in the days of Noah and at the Red Sea.

Crowds flocked to the Jordan to drown their old lives of sin and to commit themselves to a new start. Then Jesus came with them, and he got in line. On its face, Jesus’s baptism makes no sense. Frederick Dale Bruner described it this way: “It’s as if one were to announce the coming of a great preacher at a series of evangelistic meetings, and one night the preacher arrives—not at the platform but at the altar, not at the podium but at the penitents’ bench, not to preach but to kneel.”

Jesus isn’t unworthy or a sinner. He’s the One whose sandals John isn’t worthy to untie. Jesus doesn’t need to be baptized. He’s the One who will baptize his people with the Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11). Knowing this, John reacts viscerally: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (v. 14).

Jesus answered, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (v. 15). What could Jesus mean by this statement? How does his baptism fulfill all righteousness? Here the Savior says his baptism was essential not for his sake but for ours. Jesus’s baptism was part of the perfect obedience necessary to accomplish our salvation.

“Fulfillment” in Matthew’s Gospel

Matthew is fond of the verb “fulfill” (plēroō). Already in the first two chapters of his Gospel, he’s used the term repeatedly to show how Jesus’s life is the deeper, prophetic goal to which the Old Testament Scriptures point.

Jesus is the virgin-born Immanuel whom Isaiah predicted (Matt. 1:22). Jesus survived Herod’s Pharaoh-like slaughter of innocents, then, just like Israel, he was brought up out of Egypt (2:15). Already in Matthew 3, we see that John fulfills the first prophetic announcement of the nation’s restoration (v. 3; Isa. 40:3). Just as Israel went through the sea and then was tested in the wilderness, Jesus will now pass through the waters of judgment (Matt. 3:13–17) then be tempted in the desert by the Devil (4:1–11).

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