Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Jesus stood in the Jordan and was baptized by John and My Spirit descended on Him and remained. And so His mission to undo the works of the devil began. And My Spirit led Him into the wilderness to teach Him how to tread upon the devil and undo his works. And it was simple, you answer his lies with the truth, that is, with My Word that counters his lie and takes it down. You must learn how to wield the sword of the Spirit, which is My Word released in prayer and declarations of all kind, to live the life of the overcomer, the conqueror, the victor, but above all the one who sets the captives free and releases all those oppressed by the devil.
You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38.
But before we enter the mission, let us look at the shadow and then the substance. Let us go back to the Jordan for a moment. The very spot where Joshua had entered the Promised Land to conquer became where John preached repentance and Jesus was baptized. It is opposite Jericho. Today, it’s known as Qasr el Yahud, the Baptismal Site of Jesus.
Do you recall how I led the Israelites across the Jordan to enter the Promised Land and to go on to miraculously conquer Jericho? For just as Jesus went down into the Jordan and came up filled with the Spirit to knock down the dividing wall of sin between us and usher you back to abundant life of Eden that Adam had lost, so over a thousand years before in the same spot the Ark of the Covenant carried by the Levitical priests, the dwelling place of My presence among the Israelites, had gone down into the overflowing Jordan and rolled back that descending stream on its way to the trap of the Dead Sea past a place called “Adam.” And there in the highway to freedom and holiness, with the waters descending to death rolled back past Adam, the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land of rest, flowing with milk and honey, on dry ground. Joshua 3:14-17.
First, let Me backtrack a bit. When I gave Moses the plans for the tabernacle, the first thing I spoke to him about was the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant. The very first thing I told him to have constructed was the Ark of the Covenant (Testimony), for it was there, over its covering (propitiatory, Mercy Seat), I would speak with him and give him the directives for the sons of Israel.
What was so special about this mysterious furnishing? It foretold the Messiah, My Word made flesh, My Son, God and Man, tabernacling among you, the place of My presence among you, for My delight is to be with the children of men.
The ark was to be constructed of acacia wood in a rectangular shape and overlaid with pure gold, inside and out. Exodus 25:10-11. Wood represents man, you are like a tree planted near running water whose leaves never fade and bears fruit all year when you meditate on My Word day and night. Psalm 1:1-3. And gold represents My righteousness. I cover your wood, that is, your humanity, with My own righteousness in Christ. And Jesus was God and Man, human like you in all things but sin, He was righteous, hence the gold for His sinless nature and the wood for the humanity. But acacia wood is special, insects and blight find no place on it. And its grain is of the rainbow light, and by that, I mean catching the tones of color in the grain of its smooth wood.
And then there was a gold molding around it and four gold rings were cast for it and fastened on its four feet, and two rings on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. Poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold were constructed to put into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. The ark itself was not to be touched. It was holy. In the Ark Moses put the tablets on which I wrote the Ten Commandments, a gold urn of Manna, and later the rod of Aaron that had blossomed to show My choice of him as High Priest.
Do you see the significance? Jesus is My Word and kept all My Commandments, thus the testimony on stone, for He is the chief stone, the cornerstone, on which everything is built that will last. As foretold in the Manna, He is the bread that comes down from Heaven for you to eat and have eternal life. He sustains you through you journey to the Promised Land. And He is your great High Priest that I have chosen and anointed as priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hence Aaron’s rod with the almond blossoms and almonds, for that is the watching tree and I watch over My Word to perform it.
On top, like a lid covering the Commandments, was the propitiatory or Mercy Seat, where the blood of the lamb was sprinkled seven times to atone for your sins and the sins of the nation for breaking those commands hidden under the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat was made of pure gold, Mercy, legal mercy, is extended to you by the blood of Jesus on the Mercy Seat in Heavenin the Holy of Holies not made by human hands.
On upon the mercy seat were sculpted two cherubim of solid gold of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. One cherub was sculpted at one end and the second cherub at the other end as one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends. The cherubim had their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; but with their faces turned toward the mercy seat. And it was there that I met with Moses; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which were upon the ark of the testimony, I spoke to him about all that I gave him in commandment for the sons of Israel. Exodus 25:10-22.
This Ark of the Covenant in which was the Word of the Testimony rested in the innermost court of the Tabernacle in the sacred Holy of Holies behind the veil, but when the cloud of glory over the Tabernacle lifted as a signal to the Israelites to break camp in the desert where I had taken them after redeeming them out of the slavery of Egypt to journey with Me to the Promised Land and to go forward, the priests would cover the Ark with a blue cloth and carry it with the poles on their shoulders without touching the sacred Ark. And that Ark would go in front of the formation of the tribes of Israel in the order I had designated to follow the pillar of cloud over the Ark to their next resting place along the journey to freedom and every good thing.
And thus, going fast forward, past the forty years of wandering, the deaths of Mirian, Aaron and Moses, to the beginning of the leadership of Joshua, we come to the day I instructed Joshua that it was time to take the people into the Promised Land across the Jordan near the city of Jericho. And thus we come to the place in the Jordan where later My Son would be baptized by John.
But to see what happens here first consider this: The testimony under the New Covenant is that your sins and offenses I remember NO MORE. Hebrews 10:15-17. When you are forgiven by a fellow human being, the remembrance of the sin, though forgiven, is still there between you—it is still under there though it is forgiven, and there are times when it will be recalled and revisited. But that is not how it is when I put your sins on Christ. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, they are no longer on you at all. John 1:29. He bore your sins in His own body, I made Him who knew no sin to be sin so that in Him you might become righteous with My own righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Your sins transferred onto Him. They are no longer on you AT ALL. That is why My Holy Spirit testifies that your sins and lawless deeds I remember no more. They are gone from your life as if you never did them. Rewind. As far as I am concerned it never happened.
And this is true not only for you, but for everyone from the beginning to the end of time who, like faithful Abraham, had their faith credited to them as righteousness. Genesis 15:16; Romans 4:3-12. And I taught him the Gospel ahead of time. Galatians 3:8. Abraham saw the day of Jesus and rejoiced. John 8:56. And Moses wrote about Jesus. John 5:46. And Isaiah saw His glory and spoke about Jesus. John 12:41; Isaiah 6:1; Isaiah 53:5-6. As did all the prophets. 1 Peter 1:10-12.
For this reason Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:15.
For all those of faith, this redemption goes all the way back to Adam and all the way forward to the last person born on earth when Jesus returns. For it is an eternal sacrifice made once for all for all time. Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 9:12; 28; Hebrews 10:10, 14. In Jesus, it is as if Adam never sinned. In Christ you are holy and unblemished before Me since before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4. That is a total rewind. That is a total purification from sin—just as it is written: “When Jesus had made purification of sins He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.” Hebrews 1:3.
Your sins are completely washed away in the blood of Jesus. Revelation 7:14. Though your sins were red as scarlet I made them white as snow. Isaiah 1:18-19. The stain is no longer there. It is gone. When you come to Me in the Name of Jesus you come in pristine purity of a sinless life. 1 John 4:16-17.
And now I am coming to the going down into the Jordan, this rewind is shown in a sign, a shadow of the good things to come of whom the substance and fulfillment is Jesus. When Jesus left His glory in Heaven and stepped into that torrent of sin that Adam had released and caused to descend from him on all the human race, Romans 5:12, it is the fulfillment of Joshua 3:14-17, when the younger generation of the Israelites were led by Joshua into the Promised Land and they crossed the Jordan on their way to conquer their first city, Jericho. And this is why Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized by John in the very same spot.
So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, and rolled back past a great distance the city of Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea (known as the Dead Sea), were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho. And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan. Joshua 3:14-17.
Do you see the shadow of Christ?
The priests were carrying the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan. As I explained herein, the Ark of the Covenant represented My presence among the Israelites, Exodus 25:22, 2 Samuel 6:2, a sign or shadow of which Christ is the substance. And as I just showed you, the Ark in its construction is also a sign of Christ. As you recall, on top of the Ark, like a lid or covering, was the solid gold Propitiatory (mercy seat) with two cherubim made of solid gold also formed from its two ends with their wing tips meeting over the Propitiatory and their faces looking down on the Propitiatory. And it was on the Propitiatory that the Priest atoned for sins by sprinkling upon it the blood of the lamb. Likewise, Jesus put His Blood on the Propitiatory in the true Holy of Holies in Heaven to redeem us and shield us from the wrath to come against those who destroy the earth and have not repented and received My Son as Lord. Hebrews 9:11-12.
When the priests carrying the ark stepped into the overflowing Jordan River (and the Hebrew word “Jordan” means “descend” or “flow down”) the torrent stopped and rolled back in a great heap all the way back to and just beyond Adam (you will never hear of that city in the Torah, the Prophets or the Scriptures again after that one incidence) and the descent of the river into the Dead Sea was completely dried up.
Do you see your redemption symbolized here in what really took place historically? Jesus embraced your humanity and bore your sins and iniquities to death on the cross and as the Holy Spirit raised that standard in the flood of sin that was descending on all men from its source in the first man, Adam, Romans 5:18, that torrent descending from Adam rolled back in a heap until all its path was cleared right back to Adam. The one righteous act of the last Adam made all men righteous, just as if sin had never happened. Just as if Adam had never fallen.
And the waters no longer flowed to the Dead Sea. Instead there was a dry river bed, a highway upon which My children, redeemed from slavery of Egypt, walked into the Promised Land. Jesus is the Way, the Highway of Holiness upon which the redeemed walk to Zion, the mountain of Grace. Isaiah 35:8-11.
And Jesus tasted death for you all. Hebrews 2:9. All who believe in Him will never experience the condemnation of eternal death—“dust you are and to dust you shall return”– for Jesus embraced that sentence for all men and went down to the dust of death. Psalm 22:16 (15). I promised you eternal life before the world began and I kept My promise in Jesus, the Faithful and the True. Titus 1:2; Revelation 19:11. There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ. Romans 8:1. Your life in Christ is no longer flowing to the dead sea. It is abundant eternal life. John 10:10. He who believes in Him has eternal life. 1 John 5:13.
John protested he was not worthy to baptize the Messiah, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” Matthew3:14. But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15. What began over a thousand years before at that spot as a shadow had to have the substance now to complete the gift of righteousness. Then John permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and lighting on Him, and My voice was heard from the heavens saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Matthew 3:17.
And now for you who are baptized into Christ by water and My Spirit, I say the same! For the sin has been rolled back by that precious Lamb who was slain, that plunged down into the Jordan, the descent to death begun by Adam, was rolled back past Adam as if the flood had never been in Christ.
So they will fear the אֶת Name of the LORD from the west and from the rising of the sun His אֶת glory, when like a rushing river comes in the enemy, the Spirit of the LORD lifts up the standard against him and puts him to flight. Isaiah 59:19.
By substitution and identification in Him, when Christ died to sin you died and when I raised up Christ, I raised you up with Him. When you were baptized, you clothed yourself in Christ. Galatians 3:27.
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4.
I love you. You descend to ascend. Baptism to resurrection.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:8-11.