Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky was opened,
(2) By so doing, he indicated the adoption of the rite of baptism to be the initiatory ceremony by which men are inducted into Christianity.  (3) Through this obedience he "fulfilled" God's command.  (4) His baptism, as revealed in the Scriptures, prefigured the importance of the ceremony in the true religion under the new covenant.  Jesus' baptism announced the importance of it for all men.  (5) His baptism symbolized the true meaning of the ordinance in Christianity: (a) one is not a child of God until he is baptized, just as God recognized Christ as his beloved Son immediately AFTER his baptism; (b) prayer, though not denied to anyone, is in many special ways the peculiar privilege of Christians, a privilege contingent upon their baptism; hence Luke indicated Christ's praying, immediately AFTER his baptism; (c) the Holy Spirit is a gift to Christians, contingent upon their being (among other things) baptized (Acts 2:38); and significantly, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended and remained upon Jesus AFTER his baptism.  Therefore, it cannot be denied that the baptism commanded in the great commission (following faith, repentance, and confession) is PRIOR to the convert's becoming a child of God, receiving the Holy Spirit, and entering into the more exalted prayer-privileges pertaining only to Christians; and we do not hesitate to add that baptism is a precondition to his ever being so endowed.