As soon as our LORD Jesus was baptized by John, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him, and the voice of the Father, from heaven declaring, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

What is the significance of this baptismal testimonial?

1.) The baptism of our LORD Jesus declared the fulfillment of all righteousness, v. 15. The fulfillment of righteousness for our LORD was publicly proclaimed typified in the ‘washing’ of the High Priest before entering into the service of the tabernacle. Here our LORD Jesus, at the age of 30 and upward, the age of a priest entering into the ministry, was entering into His public ministry of the priesthood, Numbers 4:3. There was no righteousness in the water, but in what water baptism typifies, ‘the death, burial, and resurrection of the LORD Jesus,’ Romans 6:3,4.

2.) The heavens opened and the descent of the Spirit like a dove declared Him as the Anointed One. Here we have Father, Son, and Spirit revealing the Person and Work of the LORD Jesus. Harmoniously, they agree to glorify and honor Him, the Eternal Son of God, come in the flesh, as the object of ALL of the glory of God as the One anointed of the Father for the fulfillment of the work of salvation for guilty sinners He came to save. The term ‘Christ’ means ‘anointed, and just as prophets, priests, and kings were anointed in the Old Testament to enter into their ministries, so here, the anointing of the Spirit, from the Father, to glorify the Son, in the form of a dove. Luke says, "in a bodily shape" (Lu 3:22); that is, the blessed Spirit, assuming the corporeal form of a dove, descended thus upon His sacred head. But why in this form? The Scripture use of this emblem is that of chaste purity. "My dove, my undefiled is one," says the Song of Solomon (Song 6:9). Again, "Be ye harmless as doves," says Christ Himself (Mt 10:16). This is the same thing, in the form of inoffensiveness towards men. "A conscience void of offense toward God and toward men" (Acts 24:16) expresses both. And was not HE that "holy, harmless, undefiled One," the "separate One from sinners?" Hebrews 7:26. He was to be the Sin-Bearer, yet undefiled by that sin.