THE BAPTISM OF JESUS AND CHRISTIAN BAPTISM

The events of Jesus' baptism in the Gospel of Luke marked an important transition in God's historic work to redeem the world. Nothing would be quite the same after Jesus was baptized, prayed and received the Spirit, and heard God's voice acknowledging him in terms reminiscent of Isaiah 42.1, with distant echoes of Psalm 2. This paper will explore the place of the baptism of Jesus in the overall narrative context of Luke-Acts; relevant nuances of the meaning of John's baptism affecting this context; Jesus' baptism and subsequent ministry in the Spirit; and a brief connection of the meaning of Christian baptism relevant to Jesus' baptism. This will be followed by a necessarily brief comment on the early Church Fathers' approach to the baptism of Jesus, and a conclusion suggesting a path forward toward appropriate expectations and application in our own time. This paper was a final project for my BIBL 503 Exegesis at Regent College, taught by Dr. V. Phillips Long.