Being Made New

“After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.”

Luke 3:21-22a

Baptism is the sacrament through which original sin is washed away and through which one is made new and become children of God. Although Jesus had no sin and did not need to be made into the family of God, He was baptized. Why? Jesus asked John to baptize Him because He was one with our humanity and it was the sins of man that was washed away. “He who knew no sin was made sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus was in complete solidarity with us. He became one of us so that might be like Him and with Him.

At the Baptism of the Lord, the Trinity was publicly revealed to us: the voice of the Father, the Holy Spirit descending, and the Son in the Jordan River. The Father spoke to the Son saying, “You are my beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” The Father affirms Jesus in His identity as beloved Son, and those present witnessed and heard this. Because Jesus is Son, we too who are baptized share in the Sonship of Christ, and we too are the beloved sons and daughters of the Father. With Jesus’ baptism humanity has been made new. We have become a new creation in Christ. What was loss by our first parents, Adam and Even, Christ has restored and transformed. Sin and death shrinks in the face of grace and eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, we have been made new and we are the beloved of the Father. May we never forget this and may we always remind others of this truth.

The Baptism of Christ, c. 1690, Antoine Coypel