Getting baptized is a wild and surreal event.

I remember when I was baptized... I was in my 20s. I had been saved for a long time, but put off getting baptized for a long time. But then, finally, it was time.

And my friend, Pastor Tim Ramsden, baptized me in the church where I grew up and had gotten saved as a kid.

I had to overcome a lot of resistance to being baptized.

I don't like being out of control, and when I got baptized, I had to let somebody lay me back and literally push me underwater.

I don't like being the center of attention... hard to believe, I know, but it's true. But when I got baptized, I had literally hundreds of eyes staring and me like I was the only person in the room.

I don't like getting wet... Margi will tell you I'm not a good swimmer, I don't like it, and I don't like getting wet at all. Maybe there's a therapist who could help me out with this. And of course, in baptism, it's all about getting totally wet.

So there were a lot of reasons I put off getting baptized... some of them were theological reasons, some bad teaching I'd received. That delayed me.

But one of the biggest reasons was that at that time I was in a battle with a force called legalism.

Legalism, if you're wondering, refers to the belief that we can earn God's approval through our efforts and adherence to laws. It's a contrasting force against grace, which is God's unearned favor towards us.

To me it felt like getting baptized was just another form of legalism... Yeah, God loved me, but I wasn't fully in the club until I was baptized. It felt wrong to me. Like a burden, a rule, a legalism. Another duty in a long list of duties I had to do to make God happy with me. Deep inside, I couldn't square baptism and grace.

But then I made a discovery.

I'll come back to that.

My breakthrough came when I delved deeper into the meaning of Jesus' own baptism. This wasn't just about ritual or religion; it was about something profoundly more significant.

Here's how that went down:
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?' But Jesus answered and said to him, 'Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'" (Matthew 3:13-17).

Right with God?

Jesus comes to John to be baptized by him. John is shocked. For John, baptism meant repentance from all your sin.

But Jesus had no sin, and therefore needed no repentance.

So John objects. "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?

Jesus says, "John, just go with the flow."

And then Jesus gives his reason for being baptized. And this reason has been hugely misunderstood by a whole lot of Bible teachers. Jesus says he needs to be baptized "to fulfill all righteousness."

What does that mean?

Well, righteousness means goodness. Specifically righteousness means goodness that is good enough for God.

 

So Jesus says he is going to somehow fulfill that.

When most Bible teachers read this verse, they say that Jesus getting baptized is a mark of his obedience to the Father's plan. He's fulfilling righteousness by being a good and righteous person. And therefore the primary meaning of baptism for us today is obedience to show ourselves good and righteous people.
But I did some extra study on that, because really, is that all Jesus was saying when he went to be baptized? I'll obey God to show you that you should obey God?

I don't think so. Let me make a different case here.

There's a big question that runs beneath the surface of all human psychology... and, because of that, also runs beneath the surface of all of Scripture. That question is:

That question is actually asked twice in the most ancient book in all the ancient books of the Bible.

That was the question that plagued me for a long time.