87.  The reply of Jesus to the unwillingness of John to give him baptism (Matt. iii. 15) was an expression of firm purpose to do God’s will; the absence of any confession of sin is therefore all the more noticeable.  In all generations the holiest men have been those most conscious of imperfection, and in John’s message and baptism confession and repentance were primary demands; yet Jesus felt no need for repentance, and asked for baptism with no word of confession.  But for the fact that the total impression of his life begat in his disciples the conviction that “he did no sin” (I.  Pet. ii. 22; compare John viii. 46; II.  Cor. v. 21), this silence of Jesus would offend the religious sense.  Jesus, however, had no air of self-sufficiency, he came to make surrender and “to fulfil all-righteousness” (Matt. iii. 15).  It was the positive aspect of John’s baptism that drew him to the Jordan.  John was preaching the coming of God’s kingdom.  The place held by the doctrine of that kingdom in the later teaching of Jesus makes it all but certain that his thought had been filled with it for many years.  In his reading of the prophets Jesus undoubtedly emphasized the spiritual phases of their promises, but it is not likely that he had done much criticising of the ideas held by his contemporaries before he came to John.  As already remarked he seems to have been quicker to discover his affinity with the older truth than to be conscious of the novelty of his own ways of apprehending it (Matt. v. 17).  When, then, Jesus heard John’s call for consecration to the approaching kingdom he recognized the voice of duty, and he sought the baptism that he might do all that he could to “make ready the way of the Lord.”

88.  This act of consecration on Jesus’ part was one of personal obedience.  There were no crowds present (Luke iii. 21), and his thoughts were full of prayer.  It was an experience which concerned his innermost life with God, and it called him to communion with heaven like that in which he sought for wisdom before choosing his apostles (Luke vi. 12), and for strength in view of his approaching death (Luke ix. 28, 29).  His outward declaration of loyalty to the coming kingdom was thus not an act of righteousness “to be seen of men,” but one of personal devotion to him who is and who sees in secret (Matt. vi. 1, 6).  As the transfiguration followed the prayer on Hermon, so this initial consecration was answered from heaven.  A part of the answer was evident to John, for he saw a visible token of the gift of the divine Spirit which was granted to Jesus for the conduct of the work he had to do, and he recognized in Jesus the greater successor for whom he was simply making preparation (Mark i. 10; John i. 32-34).  To Jesus there came also with the gift of the Spirit a definite word from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased” (Mark i. 11).  The language in Mark and Luke, and the silence of the Baptist concerning the voice