1In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” 3For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make the way of the Lord ready!
Make his paths straight!”
4Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. 6They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! 9Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.
11“I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”
15But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.
16Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. 17Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
This verse presents several issues. First is the use of the plural with the Creator (let us). There is a difference of view on whether "let us" refers to God the Creator and His angels or to members of the Trinity, even though understanding of God is unknown in the Old Testament, but revealed early in the Gospels (Matt 3:16, 17; Matt 28:19). Second, there is the issue of the "image of God in man." Man being in God's image is an example of theomorphic language, in which some of the attributes of God are expressed in humans. As I have explained elsewhere:
"When we speak about humans made in the image of God, we understand this as theomorphic and theopathic language. By this is meant that humans are created to be like, but not the same, as their Creator, in our form and in our spiritual expression, since God created humans physically in His image, as well as spiritually. I do not mean to suggest that God is physical or has a body but that our physical body, when joined with our spirit, has been enabled, in part, to experience and express attributes that God has without a body. Consequently, without material eyes, the infinite God sees, and without a brain, He thinks. God has created humans as finite physical beings to act similarly to God.1
H. Wayne House, Does God Feel Your Pain? (Navasota, Texas: Lampion House Publishing, 2009, rev 2023), 108 [see 109 and 110 for more information]. ↩︎