This post is written by Matt Rogers as a companion for Unit 19, Session 3 of The Gospel Project for Adults, Volume 7: From Heaven to Earth (Spring 2023).

There were many ways that Jesus could have stepped onto the public stage. He was the eternal Son of God who was sent by the Father to save His people. He’d been patient to obey the Father’s will and submit Himself to the law. He’d lived in obscurity much of that time, while even as far back at the age of twelfth, He was astounding the religious leaders with His wisdom and insight. When it was finally time for Him to go public, He had choices for how He’d launch His ministry.

He could have swept in with a strong fist of judgment. As He would one day do in the temple, Jesus could have upended the sinful folly of the people, turning over the tables of sin and corruption, and He would have been just in doing so. Or He could have burst onto the stage with a rousing oratory speech about the law of God. His insight would have humbled the great philosophical voices of the day. He could have put Himself in the public spotlight to show off His public obedience.

Instead, Jesus chose to head out to the wilderness to be baptized by a strange voice who was trying to tell others that the Messiah was here. This would begin a pattern for Jesus of willingly waiting on God’s timing and doing the right things often in hidden places. It also started a pattern for Jesus of stepping into the story of Israel. The wilderness was a placed that marked Israel’s great failure, but it would now be the place that launched Jesus into His ministry. Soon the Son would face off with Satan in that very wilderness, demonstrating that He would succeed where Israel failed.

Because Jesus was faithful to the Father’s will, He is uniquely set apart to be the Savior of all sinners. He’s like us, yet He’s more than we are—He’s God and man. He’s faithful where all those before have fallen short. This reality should drive our hearts to worship Him because He’s greater than we are. The Gospel stories introduce us quickly to the humanity of Jesus. He was born a child in a manger, to poor parents, and He obeyed His earthly parents perfectly. Yet we must not miss Jesus’s clear deity because God the Father wants us to know who His Son is. The Father sees the perfect obedience of the Son and declares His identity to those around by showing off His glory. He rends the heavens and speaks from His throne to validate the deity of His Son. “This is My Son!” is a call that echoes through history to this day.

Those who see Jesus for who He is worship Him for both His humanity and His deity. Because He is man, He can sympathize with our weaknesses, give us comfort and care in our pain, and fulfill all righteousness through His life. Because He is God, He can perfectly obey God and offer Himself as the substitionary sacrifice for His people. Praise God that Jesus is both man and God!

Matt Rogers is the pastor of Christ Fellowship Cherrydale in Greenville, South Carolina. He and his wife, Sarah, have five children: Corrie, Avery, Hudson, Willa, and Fuller. Matt is also an assistant professor of church planting at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Director of Church Health with the Pillar Network, and a freelance author.