Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” 15 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. Matthew 3:14–15
The baptism of Jesus, followed closely by His temptation in the wilderness, marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. Perhaps you have wondered (as I have) why Jesus would need to be baptized. After all, wasn’t John’s baptism one that involved confession of sin and repentance (Mark 1:4–5)? If Jesus had no sin (Hebrews 4:15), why would He need to be baptized? Was it only to gain credibility for Himself in the eyes of the people by associating Himself with the popular baptist? Some commentators seem to think so. Did He do it so that people would not think Him impious or so that they would not associate Him with the Pharisees who rejected John’s baptism? Surely Jesus’ motives were not political.
It is obvious from the text itself that we are not the first to have difficulty with this question, for John himself objects when Jesus comes to him requesting baptism. John knows that the one who is coming will also baptize, but with greater consequence: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). John is apparently hoping to be a recipient of this baptism when the anointed one appears (v 14), but instead Jesus surprises him and requests the baptism that John has been sent to administer. To a perplexed John the Lord gives the reason: “Thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (v 15).
There are a number of ways that we can look at this statement. To decide which interpretation seems the most probable, we must try to determine the antecedent of the pronoun “us.” Jesus is obviously included in those who are to “fulfill all righteousness,” but who else is implicitly included in His company? We might assume that He is including John, who will be assisting Him in fulfilling this righteous requirement by immersing Him. Perhaps Jesus means to include the Jewish people to whom the law was given. If the command to be baptized truly came from heaven (cf. Matthew 21:24–28; John 1:32), then it was the duty of every Jewish person to fulfill that righteous requirement. Perhaps He is referring to the Father, whose work Jesus has come to accomplish. After all, Jesus would say in the Sermon on the Mount that He had not come to destroy the precepts and promises contained in the law and the writings of the prophets, but rather to “fulfill” them (Matthew 5:17).
Personally I am inclined to take the view that Jesus was baptized simply because the Father had required it. It mattered not that Jesus had no personal sins requiring confession or remission. Whereas Jesus frequently upset the Jewish leadership by ignoring their self-imposed requirements (Matthew 15:1–9) and their standards of righteousness (cf. Matthew 5:20), Jesus would not overlook any commandment from heaven. Although John’s baptism was not the same as the baptism to which we have been commanded to submit (cf. Acts 18:24–19:7), Jesus does set a precedent of which we ought to take notice. There are some today who refuse baptism for the remission of sins even though heaven has commanded it (John 3:5; Acts 2:38). When the Pharisees refused John’s baptism, Luke says that in so doing they “rejected the will of God” (Luke 7:30). Jesus accepted John’s baptism and “thus fulfilled all righteousness.” Whose example would you rather follow?