Day 8: Jesus is . . .

Jesus Is The Door of the Sheep

(John 10:7, 9)

Often, this question comes up in our family: “Did Jesus need to baptized?”

One answer is NO! He did not need to be baptized for the remission of sins. He was perfect. The only perfect man to every walk the earth. He did not need to be washed clean.

However, the other answer is YES! He did “need to be baptized by water to fulfill all righteousness” (1 Nephi 21:5). Although He was perfectly obedient to all of His Father’s commandments, He needed to fulfill all the commandments given to man in order to receive the fullness of His Father’s glory.

600 years before the birth of Jesus, Nephi taught his people to, “Do the thing which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and Redeemer should do,” even baptism by immersion, repentance and standing as His witness. “That ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water” (1 Nephi 31:18).

When Christ was on the earth, He taught the Jews: “I am the door of the sheep.” He said “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

The door – or gate – by which we enter His kingdom – is that of baptism into His Church. It is the way that leads us to truth and to life.

What I remember of my baptism day was that it my 8th birthday!! It was one of the birthdays I remember the most.

I remember the warm water.

I remember my father baptizing me.

And I remember pretentiously thinking that I would never, ever do anything bad from that moment forward.

Ha.

Double ha.

Because I’m pretty sure I hit one (or both) of my sisters just a few moments after leaving the baptismal services.

Which meant my clean-ness, my wholeness, my purity didn’t last for very long at all!

And I knew it.

And it hurt because I knew I couldn’t go back a few moments and erase what I had done because I had already done it!

My first day of being eight and I already had one - okay TWO - marks against me . . .

But over the years my hurts have turned to gratitude to know that through theb ordinance of baptism, coupled with faith and repentance, He will always be The Door and I will always be His sheep.