Matthew 3:15

And Jesus answering, said unto him,.... This is an Hebrew way of speaking, often used in the Old Testament, and answers to ויאמר יען; see Job 3:1.

And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Jesus said unto him, Suffer it to be so now. The question is not whether thou or I be more excellent. It is thy duty to baptize, for my Father hath sent thee to baptize. It is my pleasure and duty to be obedient to my Father, whose will I know, though it be hidden from thee. Baptism is a new law of the gospel church, of which though I be the Head, yet I must be conformed to the members of it, concerning which my Father’ s will is, that they should be baptized with water, as well as with the Holy Ghost. Besides that, I am to put an end to the Jewish typical circumcision, and to put a new face upon the church, by instituting another sacrament of initiation. It is therefore both just and equal that I should be baptized (though not for those ends for which others, that are my members, are baptized, not for remission of sins, but) for the fulfilling of all righteousness, in obeying my Father’ s will. Then he suffered him: he that erreth through ignorance will correct his error upon better information. We may learn from this example of Christ, that being baptized with the Holy Ghost will excuse none for contempt or neglect of baptism by water, because it is the revealed will of God, that all the members of his church should come under that ordinance; so as there is a fulfilling of righteousness in our case, as well as in Christ’ s, though in a different measure.

15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. Ver. 15. Suffer it to be so now] Or, let be now: for the Baptist seems to have laid hands upon Christ to keep him off. Our Saviour assents to that John had said, but yet shows cause why he should suffer it so to be for the present. To fulfil all righteousness] Not legal only, and of equality, but that of his present condition also, and of equity; to the end that all kind of sinners might have all kind of comfort in Christ, an absolute and all-sufficient Saviour. Then he suffered him] The wisdom from above is gentle, and easy to be persuaded, when better reason is alleged, ευπειθης, James 3:17 : as in Peter, John 13:8, first peremptory, but after conviction pliable. A humble man will never be a heretic: show him his error, and he will soon retract it. Joannes Bugenhagius (a reverend Dutch divine) lighting upon Luther’ s book de Captivitate Babylonica, and reading some few pages of it as he sat at supper, rashly pronounced him the most pestilent and pernicious heretic that ever the Church had been troubled with since the times of Christ. But a few days after, having seriously read over the book, and well weighed the business, he returned to his collegioners, and recanted what he had said among them; affirming and proving that Luther only was in the light, and all the world besides in gross darkness, so that many of them were converted by him to the truth. (Scultet. Annal.) Joannes Denckius (a learned Bavarian) held this heresy, that no man or devil should be damned eternally, because God willeth that all should be saved: and Christ saith, "There shall be one shepherd and one sheep-fold." But being a humble minded man, he was convinced and converted by Oecolampadius, and died of the plague (but piously) at Basil, A.D. 1528. Of Swenckfeldius the heretic, because he prayed ardently, and lived unblameably, Bucholcerus the chronologer was wont to say that his heart was good, but his head not well regulated. But how that could be, I see not, so long as he lived and died in his detestable opinions, and would not forego them. If the leprosy were gotten into the head, the priest was to pronounce such utterly unclean, Leviticus 13:44. And the prophet pronounceth his soul that is lifted up with pride and pertinace not to be upright in him, Habakkuk 2:4. Consentaneum est, iniecta manu Ioannem conatum vetare Iesum. Erasmus. Non defuisse Swenckfeldio cor bonum sed caput regulatum.

(15) Suffer it to be so now.—The “now” is emphatic, at the present time, in contrast with what was to follow. Hereafter, John should be the receiver and not the giver, but as yet there was a fitness in each retaining his position (the words “it becometh us” seem to refer to both, not to the speaker only). The word and the thought are the same as those of Heb 2:10. Even He had to pass through the normal stages of growth, and so an outward ordinance was even for Him the appointed way to the fulness of spiritual power. He was in His place receiving that rite. John was doing his proper work in administering it.

Verse 15. To fulfil all righteousness.] That is, Every righteous ordinance: so I think the words πασανδικαιοσυνην should be translated; and so our common version renders a similar word, Lu 1:6. The following passage, quoted from Justin Martyr, will doubtless appear a strong vindication of this translation. "Christ was circumcised, and observed all the other ordinances of the law of Moses, not with a view to his own justification; but to fulfil the dispensation committed to him by the Lord, the God and Creator of all things."- Wakefield. How remarkable are the following words of Creeshna (an Incarnation of the Supreme God, according to the Hindoo theology) related in the Bhagvat Geeta, p. 47. Addressing his disciple Arjoon, he says, "I myself, Arjoon, have not, in the three regions of the universe, any thing which is necessary for me to perform; nor any thing to obtain, which is not obtained; and yet I live in the exercise of the moral duties. If I were not vigilantly to attend to those duties, all men would presently follow my example. If I were not to perform the moral actions, this world would fail in their duties: I should be the cause of spurious births, and should drive the people from the right way. As the ignorant perform the duties of life from a hope of reward, so the wise man, out of respect to the opinions and prejudices of mankind, should perform the same without motives of interest. The wise man, by industriously performing all the duties of life, should induce the vulgar to attend to them." The Septuagint use this word often for the Hebrew משפת mishpat, judgment, appointment. And in Ezekiel 18:19; Ezekiel 18:21, the person who δικαιοσυνηνκαιελεοςπεποιηκε - hath done righteousness and mercy, is he who sacredly attended to the performance of all the religious ordinances mentioned in that chapter, and performed them in the genuine spirit of mercy. δικαιωματα is used 1Mac 1:13, 49; 2:21, and in He 10:1; He 10:10, to denote religious ceremonies. Michaelis supposes that כל חק kol chok, all religious statutes or ordinances, were the words used in the Hebrew original of this Gospel. But was this an ordinance? Undoubtedly: it was the initiatory ordinance of the Baptist's dispensation. Now, as Christ had submitted to circumcision, which was the initiatory ordinance of the Mosaic dispensation, it was necessary that he should submit to this, which was instituted by no less an authority, and was the introduction to his own dispensation of eternal mercy and truth. But it was necessary on another account: Our Lord represented the high priest, and was to be the high priest over the house of God: - now, as the high priest was initiated into his office by washing and anointing, so must Christ: and hence he was baptized, washed, and anointed by the Holy Ghost. Thus he fulfilled the righteous ordinance of his initiation into the office of high priest, and thus was prepared to make an atonement for the sins of mankind.

15. righteousness] Here = the requirements of the law.

Thus it becometh us - It is suitable and proper. And though you may feel yourself unworthy, yet it is proper it should be done.

15. Suffer it — Gently the Baptist declines, gently the Saviour insists. He could command, he only requests. It becometh — Such is the divine propriety. Us — That is, it becometh not one alone, but both of us.