Jesus’ life & ministry serves as an EXAMPLE of what we should do & as an EXCHANGE FOR what we could never do. In fact this is what separates Jesus’ Gospel from every other religion. Religion is all about what you must DO to please God and EARN His blessing. The Gospel, on the other hand is about what Jesus has DONE for you. 

Everything Jesus did in His life was done for us. As we see in Mark 1:9-13, from the very beginning of the Gospel it was all about Christ in our place. Jesus faced what we would not be able to face, He overcame what we could not overcome, and He won a victory we could never win. 

In both His baptism & His temptation…Jesus is going to do FOR us what we could not do for ourselves.

Why was Jesus baptized? Jesus said it was to “fulfill all righteousness”. In other words, in order to be our Redeemer, Jesus had to live a life of perfect obedience. Jesus willingly submitted Himself to every word that proceeded from the mouth of God; He obeyed every dimension of the law in full; and He keep every requirement that God had given. Why? To do what we could never do for ourselves. 

So, even though He was not a sinner, He submitted to baptism to identify with sinners in order to fulfill all righteousness.

Immediately after Jesus’ baptism, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. For 40 days, Jesus is endured all the harsh realities of life in our fallen world. He overcame all the temptation of the enemy and all the dangers of our broken world. 

He did ALL FOR US! Jesus bore the full force of sin and temptation so that we could be forgiven. Because of His victory over sin, we too can have power over sin and darkness. 

Jesus’ live serves as an EXAMPLE of what we should do & as an EXCHANGE FOR what we could never do.