Reading the Red Gospel Commentaries

MATTHEW 3:15 Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness

Not that our Lord had any need of baptism toward repentance. Jesus was guilty of no sin his whole life. That is why He was the ultimate innocent lamb slain while guiltless of sin for those guilty of breaking God’s commandments. Moreover, Jesus led by example, commanding humility and exemplifying humility in baptism. The baptism of Jesus was an act of obedience to His Father’s will, and the Father was pleased. So, likewise, the Father is pleased with our good deeds as we submit to the Father’s will in our lives. Jesus said in John 13:15, For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Jesus displayed His love for His sheep as he guided the way of obedience as our shepherd.

We follow the example of our master as we are His proud servants, and servants are not greater than their masters. Never let there be a moment of shame as we follow Christ’s example as Christians. In baptism, Jesus exemplified becoming sin on our behalf and washing away sin as if He needed to become pure. Therefore, let us repent of sin and be baptized as our Lord was baptized. Notice that our Lord was first baptized before beginning His ministry, before any miracle, and before preaching and teaching, He was first baptized. In the same manner, for those who desire a ministry for God. For those who desire to preach and teach. First, repent and be baptized. Then, strive daily to do God’s will and starve sin from our lives. Remember the words of Christ as He said in John 4:34, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. Let us wake up with a passionate desire to obey Christ’s commandments in love. To prepare our minds and bodies to carry our cross and sacrifice sin daily for the sake of holiness. Let us rest our heads at night with pride that we fought a good fight against sin. Let us rest our heads at night, knowing we placed God’s will first instead of giving way to disobedience. Let there exist a desire in our hearts to accomplish the work of God in our lives as Christ accomplished His work for our salvation.

Nevertheless, as every Christian warrior fights sin daily, we receive our wounds. Wounds take time to heal, and we grow weary of the fight for righteousness. Praise God that Christ fought and conquered sin and death, resurrected and ascended into heaven. As Christ was victorious, so are we victorious in Him. In Christ, all righteousness was fulfilled; therefore, we are righteous not by our good deeds but by our faith in Christ. We are relieved from the obligation of fulfilling the law of Moses as a justification to enter heaven. Our Lord fulfilled all the laws of Moses on our behalf. Even the exact time Jesus began His ministry was in obedience to the law. It is written in Numbers 4:3 that the legal age to begin ministry is 30. Jesus began His ministry at the age of 30, as stated in Luke 3:23. Jesus was righteous in observing all of God’s righteous ordinances.

11^th-century bible commentator and scholar Thophylact of Ochrid writes, “righteousness means the law. Human nature was accursed, Jesus says, because it was not able to fulfill the law; therefore, I have fulfilled all the other requirements of the law. One thing remains for Me to do, that I be baptized. When I have fulfilled this, I shall have delivered human nature from the curse. And this is befitting for me to do.” 

4^th and 5^th-century early archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom writes, “for righteousness is the fulfilling of the commandments., says He, and this alone remains, it also must be added: because I have come to do away the curse that is appointed for the transgression of the law. I must, therefore, first fulfill it all, and having delivered you from its condemnation, in this way bring it to an end. It becomes me, therefore, to fulfill the whole law, by the same rule that it becomes me to do away the curse that is written against you in the law: this being the very purpose of my assuming flesh and coming hither.”

What a glorious gospel. The law of God is glorious because it reveals the righteousness of God. As God is righteous, so we are called to be righteous. Isaiah 42:21 reads that the LORD was pleased, for His righteousness sake, to magnify His law and make it glorious. However, man has failed to fulfill the law and is forever cursed with the inability to fulfill the righteousness of God. In sin, we are born, and our natural inclination is to disobey God’s commandments. But God, rich in His grace and mercy, came in the flesh to remove the curse of the law. Being conceived in the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit and incarnated as the Son of God, the Christ. He suffered and passed various temptations common to man, including temptations exclusive to Christ from Satan. Obeyed all commandments of God and fulfilling all righteousness went to the death on the cross guiltless, yet became sin for our sake. So that by His death and resurrection, we can be called righteous by faith in Christ and are therefore justified by our faith to enter God’s kingdom. Let us forever express our thankfulness with our love and obedience to Christ’s commandments. John 15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. Amen.