On Jesus Baptism- Bobby Killmon Around 77 percent of the Bible is the Old Testament. That is not accidental. It is the necessary revelatory foundation to correctly understand Christ (Gal. 3:24). Jesus, as a man, came to operate in His role as the Messiah. When you say Messiah the term would resonate with Jews intimately familiar with the OT. Messiah means “anointed.” The Bible shows kings, prophets and priests were anointed with oil (as prophet: 1 Kings 19:16; as priest: Ex. 29:4, 40:12; 2 Chron. 4:6; as king: 1 Sam. 10:1, 16:13; 1 Kings 1:39). So at His baptism Jesus came to be the true and final prophet, priest and king the OT anticipates (Acts 2:25-32; 3:22-26; Heb. 7). Anointing was seen as God empowering a human being to do a task. So our trinitarian friends must be consistent acknowledging God cannot empower God in a correct “co-equal” trinitarian construct. So the human being, or the man God became, was empowered. Even the Theological Dictionary of the NT distinguishes between anointing for healing and anointing for service saying the latter “...is to be distinguished from anointing as a legal action. According to the witness of the OT the latter involves pouring oil over the head of the one concerned ... The aim is to give to the one anointed power, strength, or majesty.” So why the baptism if our claim about anointing is correct? There was in the OT a washing of priests before they began to serve (Ex. 29:4, 40:12; 2 Chron. 4:6). Jesus was not baptized to wash away sin, because He was sinless. Jesus was baptized into the priesthood. Luke 3:21-23 shows Jesus was 30 years old when he was baptized and Numbers 4:3, 23-30 shows this was the minimum age for a Levitical priest to start public ministry. Matt Slick, a trinitarian says, “Quite simply, Jesus was baptized so he could enter into the Melchizedek priesthood so He could be the High Priest and offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.” So we can make sense of this by listening through the OT instead of a later developed doctrine. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The title makes sense of all the rest. Jesus is Christ, the anointed one, because he is a man, the son of God. Now in this role He can enact the rule of God as King (Rev. 17:14 note: “lamb” or man who suffers is King), the true prophet (came to do will of Father, reveal Father, speak things of the Father - Lk. 22:42; Mt. 11:27; Jn. 8:28); and be the Priest as mediator (1 Tim. 2:5 note: “the man Christ Jesus”). The first line comes from Psalms 2, the coronation ceremony of the King of Israel, who is referred to as “God’s anointed.” This is the same word as Messiah or Christ. That is why Jesus is declared “Lord of Lords” to which “every knee shall bow.” The second line comes from Isaiah 42. It’s about the suffering servant, who will come save God’s people. So at His baptism the declaration over Jesus holds together two great truths: God became the man Jesus, the chosen and anointed prophet, priest and king; then, He would serve, suffer and die to save His people and through this reign.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 00:47:22 +0000
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