Luke : Day 8

Read Luke 3: 21-38

Yes, you did just read a long list of names - well done if you read them all!

Luke traced Jesus’ ancestry all the way back to Adam, who is described as the son of God, meaning that he had no father – he was created by God as the first man. But whereas Adam disobeyed God, bringing sin into the world, Jesus is the perfect Son with whom God is ‘well pleased’ (verse 22).

If Jesus is perfect, why did John baptise Him – doesn’t that mean Jesus needed to repent? No, the Bible is very clear that Jesus had no sin.

This was a significant event on many levels, but here’s some simple explanation. Jesus was confirming that he and John were on the same page; they were both following God’s plan.

Secondly, remember that John the Baptiser was the son of a priest (Zechariah). Normally he would have been a priest himself by now. In Judaism, the priest offered a lamb as a sacrifice for the sins of the people. Now, John was baptising Jesus, who he described in another gospel as the ‘Lamb of God’.* This was a picture of what would happen to Jesus later. He would be the sacrifice for the sins of people like you and me, dying in our place – but the story doesn’t end there. Remember, as we thought about on Day 7, baptism is a picture not only of death, but of new life!

“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Luke 3:22