himself to the baptism of John.

He came to John to be baptized; and most would say John's baptism was of
repentance for the remission or pardon of sins. But the Lord could not
be baptized for the remission of sins, for he had never done a selfish,
an untrue, or an unfair thing. He had never wronged his Father, any
more than ever his Father had wronged him. Happy, happy Son and Father,
who had never either done the other wrong, in thought, word, or deed! As
little had he wronged brother or sister. He needed no forgiveness; there
was nothing to forgive. No more could he be baptized for repentance: in
him repentance would have been to turn to evil! Where then was the
propriety of his coming to be baptized by John, and insisting on being
by him baptized? It must lie elsewhere.

If we take the words of John to mean 'the baptism of repentance unto the
sending away of sins;' and if we bear in mind that in his case
repentance could not be, inasmuch as what repentance is necessary to
bring about in man, was already existent in Jesus; then, altering the
words to fit the case, and saying, 'the baptism of willed devotion to
the sending away of sin,' we shall see at once how the baptism of Jesus
was a thing right and fit.

That he had no sin to repent of, was not because he was so constituted
that he could not sin if he would; it was because, of his own will and
judgment, he sent sin away from him--sent it from him with the full
choice and energy of his nature. God knows good and evil, and, blessed
be his name, chooses good. Never will his righteous anger make him
unfair to us, make him forget that we are dust. Like him, his son also
chose good, and in that choice resisted all temptation to help his
fellows otherwise than as their and his father would. Instead of