“I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.”
(Joh. 1:32, NKJV)
We are currently examining the two prototypical gardens through which you and I have to move, as part of the Bride of Christ in our walk of faith, just like Jesus had to do. The garden of Gethsemane teaches us what the anointing of Christ in this olive garden then also means for us on a deeper level.
In the previous teaching we were able to find great revelation in Ps. 2:6: “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” From this an exploration of the term witness became the focus of our conversation. We now have a better understanding of what Jesus meant in Acts 1:8 when He said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Being a witness is not just preaching the good news of Christ – it especially means being a “fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ” (1 Thess. 3:2).
The anointing of Jesus that took place before the foundations of the earth were laid are in truth a complement of the physical baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan river – through this the spiritual baptism was then also realized in the physical realm. From the conversation between the two we can deduce that there was no legitimate reason why John had to baptize Jesus, as we read in Matt. 3:13-15: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him.”
John the Baptist’s reticence to baptize Jesus is understandable – he was after all used to baptizing people as a sort of cultic cleansing ritual. The baptism that he was known for was directed at guiding people to converting (Matt. 3:2 & 11), associated with the confessing of sins (Matt. 3:6), something that Jesus was obviously in no need of (Heb. 4:15). Jesus was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26); He “had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth” (Isa. 53:9; 1 Pet. 2:22); “in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5).
But what does Jesus’s statement in Matt 3:15, “to fulfill all righteousness”, mean? The reader should keep in mind that Jesus answers John the Baptist with the objection that John registered when Jesus said that he should baptize Him. His objection can again be better understood if you keep in mind that John was known for his strong emphasis on righteousness (which was later part of the reason why king Herod chopped his head off – Matt. 14:3-4). W. Robertson Nicoll’s Expositor’s Greek Testament explains it succinctly: “The Baptist had a passion for righteousness, yet his conception of righteousness was narrow, severe, legal. Their ideas of righteousness separated the two men by a wide gulf which is covered over by this general, almost evasive, phrase: all righteousness or every form of it. The special form meant is not the mere compliance with the ordinance of baptism as administered by an accredited servant of God, but something far deeper, which the new era will unfold. John did not understand that love is the fulfilling of the law. But he saw that under the mild words of Jesus a very earnest purpose was hid. So at length he yielded.”
Meyer’s NT Commentary translates this verse as: “all which as duty it is obligatory on us to do”.
It might also be useful to give a bit more context on the specific reference Jesus uses when speaking about righteousness, especially in the light of 2 Cor. 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This could be a very beautiful definition of to fulfil all righteousness. In other words – to prototypically have everything come to fullness, you and I need to be baptized in this way. [It then also makes sense that various apostolic fathers in their writings on this event mentions that after he baptized Jesus, Jesus baptized him in return (according to Meyer’s NT Commentary). This thus makes John the Baptist the first baptised person in the Christian tradition of baptism.]
This statement from Matt. 3:15 that we referred to above, “for thus it is fitting,” also shows that in baptiser and Baptised collective testimony (“to witness together”) ALL righteousness is fulfilled. As the prototypical first baptism the testimony between the two figures is of great importance, to establish it as truth. The testimony that John the Baptist received from God about Jesus (in John 1:31-34), through a word of wisdom and/or knowledge, also opens up a new way of understanding in the new covenant, specifically around the very important role the Holy Spirit plays in this dispensation: “I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
For our argument about the baptism that Jesus received here through the Holy Spirit, it is important to note that John the Baptist’s manifestation of the Holy Spirit is here described as “like a dove”. I’ve always found this description strange and interesting, as the Holy Spirit is clearly invisible – the visible things are after all temporary, but the invisible eternal, as 2 Cor. 4:18 presents it. Jesus notes that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6), and clearly visible. That which is born of the the Spirit is unseen. Therefore the Spirit is compared to the invisible wind: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.” (verse 8). If the Holy Spirit is by definition invisible, why is he described as looking like a dove?
Unfortunately, this given is often presented in books or in churches as a literal dove. This is in no way the case, as He clearly did not receive a physical dove. Luke 3:22’s formulation is perhaps more correct: “And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, ‘You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.’” The spirit was LIKE a dove in external form. That the Holy Spirit did not remain in the form of a dove is clear from John 1:32: “And John bore witness, saying, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.’” In short: The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in what looked like the shape of a dove. This event is – as Jesus’s baptism in water was too – on the one hand for the sake of a parable, and on the other to serve as prototype – to fulfil all righteousness. As Meyer rightly noted above – “all which as duty it is obligatory on us to do”.
On a different occasion the Holy Spirit also manifested in visible items – “divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3). In a later verse it is said the witnesses could hear and see it (Acts 2:33). But these were not literal fire tongues, but the true apocalypse of fire which came to the earth and its inhabitants in Jesus Christ as Spirit.
The next question which we’ll have to be able to answer, is why the Spirit specifically came in the appearance of a dove. Why not an eagle (as Deut. 32:11 for instance so beautifully presents), or the sparrow that makes its nest at God’s altars (Ps. 84:3), or the swallow that can discern the times (Jer. 8:7)? [Obviously we’d also have to ask why then a bird, and for instance not thunder, or snow, or whatever. In the introduction to his book The Poetry of Birds Simon Armitage points out that the birds of the heavens are used throughout history to symbolise heavenly beings.]
Clearly we need to investigate the Biblical symbolism of the dove, to find out why the manifestation had to specifically happen in the form of a dove.
The only reference to doves in Jesus’s own words is found in Matt. 10:16 – “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Not all translations use the word wise, and other possibilities include “innocent” (ACV), “harmless” (ASV), “gentle” (BBE), “guileless” (Darby), “simple” (Douay-Rheims), “don’t hurt anyone” (ERV), “unadulterated” (ERRB), “pure” (Lamsa), “inoffensive” (MSG) and “blameless” (TCNT). All these terms could be part of the characteristics of the attitude of Christ: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 2:5).
More important than these “blameless and harmless” (Phil. 2:15) spiritual characteristics, which Jesus already possessed (He thus did not need to receive it from the Holy Spirit, as He was already fully God – John 1:1) – is the fact that Strong presents the origin of this word as “unmixed”! It is pure, undiluted, uncontaminated Spirit. It is most probably for this reason that the ABP translates the word correctly as “unmixed”. Throughout the old covenant God forbids all forms of mixing (types of grapes in a vineyard, weights or coins in a pocket, Israel with other nations, etc.), merely because the pure seed is contaminated in that way. The unmixed Spirit points to God’s jealousy over his “chosen generation” (1 Pet. 2:9), that He will “make [the New] Jerusalem [which is the Bride] a praise in the earth” (Isa. 62:7). Our assignment is after all to “Be holy, as I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16).
In the Old Testament laws regarding sacrifices the dove was an option for poor believers who were subject to bleeding or were unclean after they had given birth, according to Lev. 12:8. The lamb and the dove are both manifestations of sacrifice, that points to the fact that those making the sacrifice were loyal to death, as they “did not love their lives to the death” (Rev. 12:11).
Symbolically this means to be ready for sacrifice, as Jesus was: “who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name …” (Phil. 2:6-9).
In Isa. 60:7 God prophesies through the prophet about the time when the following will happen: “I will glorify the house of My glory.” This is the coming period of the gospel of glory (1 Tim. 1:11). To illustrate this, the prophet Isaiah sees a very interesting image that he presents in the form of a question in verse 8: “Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their roosts?” The dove is thus firstly the sign of the dispensation where the glory will fill the house, but also the earth (Hab. 2:14). It is the first indication of the dispensation in which Jesus as anointed Christ will increase Himself through the Spirit of God (like the tongues of fire). In this regard it is very important that the dove specifically points to the testimony regarding the point at which the Christ begins to be revealed.
In the following teaching we continue with this glorious mystery.
- Selah: Which other history of the dove in the Old Testament still needs to be woven into this?
- Read: 4-12.
- Memorise: 4:11 (what beautiful synchronicity!)
