Why was Jesus baptized?
Here's the answer:
Jesus was baptized to show His obedience to God.
When Christians get baptized, we do it to show God and others that we are following Jesus.
Each of the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—record the baptism of Jesus. But because Jesus was perfect, and because He is God, He didn’t need to be baptized. So why was He?
First, Jesus answers it for us by saying, "It carries out God’s holy plan." This means that Jesus did it because it’s what His Father wanted Him to do. God showed His approval of Jesus’s baptism to everyone who saw it: "A voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, and I love him. I am very pleased with him'" (Matthew 3:17).
Second, Jesus’ baptism showed that He was the Messiah, or "anointed one" who would save the people from their sin (John 1:29).
Finally, Jesus was baptized as a picture of His own death, burial, and resurrection. When we are baptized today as believers in Jesus, we are buried (placed under the water) and raised out of the water to show that we have received Jesus Christ as our Savior and now have new life in Him. Jesus experienced His baptism to show us what He did for us, and to be an example for us to follow.
Bible Truth
"When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened. The Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove. A voice came from heaven. It said, 'You are my Son, and I love you. I am very pleased with you'" (Luke 3:21–22).
"All of us [believers] were baptized into Christ Jesus. Don’t you know that we were baptized into his death? By being baptized, we were buried with Christ into his death. Christ has been raised from the dead by the Father’s glory. And like Christ we also can live a new life" (Romans 6:3–4).
