The Revelation of Loyalty

This Lord’s Day we remember and celebrate the baptism of the Lord Jesus. In that baptism we see God having become man in Christ undergoing a baptism for the remission of sins. The sinless one is baptized for forgiveness of sins. This is a wonder and a glory, but it is a visible sign to us that our God has come down to us and taken upon himself even the likeness of sinful flesh. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. Furthermore, it is in this context, immediately following Christ’s baptism for forgiveness, that the Father declares, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. God the Father rejoices over his Son in a moment of great humility, in a moment when Jesus has taken upon himself the symbol of the need of salvation. Finally, it is in this moment that not only is Jesus revealed as God’s beloved Son and our brother in human flesh, but the entire Trinity is revealed as the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove. The fact that the Trinity is revealed here, in this moment of the baptism of Jesus is a glorious picture of the gospel for us. The Trinity, that endless and eternal communion of love and loyalty, is revealed in the baptism for the remission of sins. Because you belong to Christ, you are in the beloved. Because you were baptized, you are a walking revelation of the Trinity. In your baptism, you were declared forgiven and righteous because you were united to the Righteous One. You have been united to that endless eternal communion of love and loyalty. Therefore put away your treason. Put away your infidelity. Put away your lust. Stop wishing you were somewhere else. Drop your discontentment. You are in the presence of the Trinity, the loving community of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Here is fullness; here is goodness. Here are pleasures forevermore.