Day 95: Matthew 3:1–6

They were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins (v. 6).

We can almost picture John waist-deep in water with people streaming out to be baptized. They were confessing their sins, because they weren’t being baptized unto salvation. John was baptizing them unto repentance, preparing them to encounter the Savior, the only One who could bring them salvation.

I believe they were quite specific confessing their sins. In all likelihood they were crying out these confessions, maybe even wailing them, weeping over their sins. Then came Christ. We know He was not coming to be baptized unto repentance. He was the spotless Lamb of God. Complete perfection. He was the only One who had no confessing to do that day in those waters. He came for John to baptize Him.

I just want you to get the picture here. I’m not trying to make a doctrinal statement or an interpretation of Scripture. I’m just asking you to see a picture. We know that God was baptizing His Son into ministry—the representation of the death, the burial, and the resurrection. But I also see something so precious in the fact that the people had confessed their sins standing in those same waters and then were baptized. Christ comes after they’ve made these confessions. He is baptized—drenched in the same waters where they had confessed their sins. I’m just talking symbolism here, but do you almost see Him wearing the sins they had confessed in those waters?

I love the practice of daily coming to the line with Christ and naming my sins. I don’t practice a “Lord, forgive me for all of my sins.” I don’t see true biblical repentance in that. Repentance assumes we are naming the sin to acknowledge it. Then I like to discuss with God why it doesn’t agree with His Word, why the sin isn’t what He wants for me. That kind of repentance begins to get those precepts down into my soul.

I love Acts 3:19: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” Those of us who have already received Christ have been baptized into Him. Now daily confession is like refreshment to our souls. We come away from repentance cleansed. Ready to be filled. Ready to walk in the Spirit.