<p>3:16<em> And Jesus when he was baptized immediately came up out of the water, and the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming to rest on him</em>- Sometimes God indicates from what perspective the record is written; at other times He doesn&rsquo;t. Thus Matthew 3:16 makes it clear that the Lord saw Heaven opened at his baptism, and the Spirit descending like a dove. But Luke 3:21-22 just says that &ldquo;the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended&rdquo;. Luke doesn&rsquo;t say that this is only what happened from the Lord&rsquo;s perspective. This problem of perspective is at the root of the misunderstanding of the demon language in the Gospels.</p>
<p>&quot;To Him&quot; suggests that only the Lord Jesus saw this, although John too saw the dove descending and heard the voice (Jn. 1:33). But He uses the same language in Jn. 1:51: &quot;Hereafter&nbsp;<em>you</em>&nbsp;shall see Heaven open, and the Angels of God... descending&quot;, just as He had seen the heavens opened and the dove descending upon Him. His sense was that His experience at baptism was in essence to be that of all in Him. This connection lends weight to the idea that His baptism was an act of identification with us, He shared our experience and we are to share His. Likewise the Spirit 'lighted' upon Jesus at His baptism, and the only other time we find this idea is when He promised that although we know not from whence the Spirit 'lights' [&quot;comes&quot;], it will indeed 'light' upon every one that is born of water and Spirit (Jn. 3:8). The same term is used in Acts 19:6, where after baptism the Spirit 'lighted upon' those baptized. Thus the believer's baptism is spoken of in terms reminiscent of the Lord's. He was baptized to set us an example, identifying with us in order to appeal for us to likewise identify with Him.&nbsp;</p>