☆ The Origin of Baptism ☆

God promised His people that He would send the prophet Elijah to prepare the way for Him; Elijah would appear before God came to the earth as the Messiah. The purpose of Elijah's coming was to testify about the Messiah, and to "make straight" the way for Him.

Isa. 40:3 『A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."』

John the Baptist was sent to fulfill the mission of Elijah.

He preached the news of repentance to the Israelites who did not obey the words of God, being confined within their hypocritical faith.

Matt. 3:7-9 『But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'" 』

Mark 1:4-5 『And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.』

John did not baptize people by his own will, but according to the orders he had received from God, who had sent him.

God established the principle of the forgiveness of sins through baptism, so that we could realize that baptism is one of God's righteous laws, given to us for our salvation (1 John 1:33).

Therefore, Jesus set the example of being baptized, by John the Baptist, to institute baptism as a sacred law.

Matt. 3:14-15 『But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness."』

Matt. 21:32 『For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him..." 』

Baptism, the truth of righteousness, was not only an ordinance to testify about Jesus, but it was also a law of the new covenant, for Jesus himself baptized people and set the example of being baptized with water (Matt. 3:16).

John 3:22-23 『After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized.』

(to be continued.....)