Baptized] Our Lord baptised only through the ministry of His disciples (John 4:2). The synoptists represent Christian baptism as not ordained till after the Resurrection (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16); but here it is said to have been practised from the beginning of the ministry. The two accounts are not really inconsistent. What had been Christ's practice during His ministry was raised to the dignity of a perpetual ordinance after the Resurrection. Some regard this preliminary baptism of Christ as a mere baptism of repentance like John's, but it is apparently called a birth 'of water and the Spirit' (John 3:5), and consequently must have been specifically Christian baptism, although doubtless the fulness of the Spirit could not be given till after the Ascension (John 7:39). That the Spirit could be given in some measure before the Ascension, John 20:22 is evidence.

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