Why Was Christ Baptized? ✨ Saint Athanasius, while interpreting Psalm 45:7-8, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever...Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness," says that the Psalm speaks of the Son in the flesh. This explains to us how the Holy One is described as being sanctified: "It is said that He was sanctified because He became man. It was the flesh that was sanctified... And when it is now said that He was anointed as a man, it is we who were anointed in Him. When He was baptized, it was we who were baptized in Him" (Against the Arians 1:47). Any ambiguity surrounding this text can completely vanish if we remember a fundamental rule of interpretation: that Christ represents all of humanity. The human body He took is a body just like ours. Therefore, everything that happens to this body happens to humanity; because human nature alone accepts change and alone receives. So if the Lord was baptized, the baptism is a specific experience of His humanity. When He was baptized, humanity was receiving in Him—Jesus—something new: the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit. #ChristianBaptism #Incarnation #SaintAthanasius #Theology #HolySpirit #HumanityInChrist