An example taken of my latest book, "The seven unions of Christ"

Jesus Christ Was Baptized as the Prototype For All of Us as God’s Children

After being baptized by John, Mathew 4:1 tells us, “Then immediately, He was brought into the desert for to be tempted (tested) of the Devil.” His victory in that desert experience not only showed Him, but us, that He had conquered the natural man’s tendencies and compulsions. He conquered, so we have conquered. We are “in Christ,” including this tremendous victory.

If we merely have Him in us, but we are not in Him, we continue to experience failure, until we have learned to completely die to self (our natural tendency to live life without God’s strength). It brings Him no glory to watch us trying to do it on our own, and never points to His ability to bring complete victory to anyone who will believe into Him.

We now must continually give Him total control over our natural strength. That is why Jesus told John it was necessary to baptize Him. It was necessary to show His people that death to our natural life in the waters of baptism was mandatory in the process of salvation and transformation, to once and for all rid us of this dominating energy.

The Trinity does the work through our faith. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all do their part in our salvation to enable us to fulfill the call to live as He did. The Father sends the only son, the Son comes as the sacrifice to shed the blood to cleanse us of sin and self, and the Holy Spirit infills us and empowers us to overcome in this life, beginning with our spiritual man, inside-out. That strength is what tears the curtain of our natural strength down from the inside-out (See Tabernacle picture). He gives us the power to deny our natural man, and allow us to remain crucified daily, even moment-by-moment, to glorify Him.

Christ attained the natural man when He became a human. To operate in His spiritual energy, He had to deny the ability of that natural man to dominate His spirit, just as we must. The devil was there, like in the Garden of Eden, to tempt (test) Adam. The devil tempted Adam and Eve, and so also Jesus, to act independently of the Father, and in self-dependence, all while in that desert experience.

Jesus is called the “second Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Where Adam failed in his own strength, Jesus succeeded both in that desert experience, and in the garden experience. He was successful because He learned how to rely on His Father to overcome temptation. The word tells us, “He was tempted of the devil, in all points as we are, and yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Sin is merely the result, or fruit, of living and acting in our own strength.

When contemplating this powerful process in our lives, the apostle Paul stated “Oh death, where is your sting” (I Corinthians 15:55). This death to our natural life, minute-by-minute, becomes our friend and ally! When we apply the cross through faith, we no longer are compelled to respond and react to temptations. The fight is over! That is why we are often tried and tested. The tests we go through allow us to see if this process is continually working out in our lives, and allow us to enter His rest.