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. Matthew 3:15
Management at an automobile assembly plant in Ontario informed one of the plant employees that he could no longer park his car in the company’s employee parking lot. The indignant employee went to his supervisor to find out why he was being denied parking privileges when every other worker at the plant was allowed to park in the lot. The supervisor informed the worker that, because he was driving a car made by a competitor, the company did not want that car in its lot. The worker was entitled to drive whatever car he wished, but it was an embarrassment to the company to have a competitor’s car in its employee lot. And the worker was not showing faith in his employer’s product or commitment to the company cause. Today’s text shows us a different attitude on the part of John the Baptist, as he subjects himself to the desires of His Lord and Master.
Recognizing Jesus as the Lamb of God, John at first objects to baptizing Him. But when Jesus tells him that the baptism was a sign of fulfilling righteousness, John at once agrees. John was fully aware that, as the Son of God, Jesus was totally committed to righteousness. Seeing himself as Jesus’ humble servant, John placed righteousness on the same paramount plane. As the servants of the Lord Jesus, do we place such a high priority on righteousness?
What is meant by the term fulfilling all righteousness? We know that righteousness is God’s character. It should be ours as well. We should be honest and fair, we should be faithful and true to our word, we should be kind and generous, we should be mindful of the needs of others, we should be fervent in worship and in our Gospel testimony, we could go on and on, but you get the picture. However, there is one aspect of righteousness that we sometimes overlook. That is the commitment to appearing righteous. There are often places where we can go, or things that we can do, or people who we can associate with in a clear conscience. But those same places and actions and people might not appear right to another Christian or to an unsaved person who is observing us. God places a high priority on not only our being righteous but also on our appearing to be righteous.
It was important to the Lord Jesus to fulfill all righteousness. Let us adopt the same approach that John did, and seek to fulfill, and show fulfilled, all righteousness. -Jim MacIntosh