baptism to him at that time was a measure not only expedient, but necessary : for that " thus it became him to fulfil all righteousness."
The precise force of our Lord's assertion not being perfectly clear, I shall, I. Confirm it as a truth, in relation to our Lord —
John, feeling his own utter unworthiness to admi- nister baptism to our blessed Lord, and having in his mind a persuasion that, however needful baptism was for others, it could not be so for Jesus, declined to execute the office that was assigned him. And, so far as Jesus alone was concerned, the judgment of John was right : for the rite of baptism imported, that the person receiving that ordinance needed to be washed from sin, and to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and to be saved by the Messiah who should come. But Jesus had no sin to wash away, nor any need to be either regenerated or saved ; and, con- sequently, he could have no need of this ordinance, which was intended to shadow forth, and to impart, those blessings unto men. Yet did our Lord say what was strictly true, when, in reference to this very ordi- nance, he spoke of the observance of it by himself as a necessary part of that righteousness which he had come to fulfil. It was so,
1. Because he stood in the place of sinners —
[The Lord Jesus Christ having undertaken the great work of our redemption, had " the iniquities of the whole world laid, upon him ; and therefore, as the representative of sinners, he needed all which was needed by those whom he undertook to save. Hence he had in his infancy submitted to circumcision, which was of precisely the same import as baptism. So, at the close of his ministry, he endured the full penalties of the broken law, suffering all that we deserved to suffer at the hands of a righteous and offended God. He needed not on his own account to drink this bitter cup : but, when he was found in the place of sinners, those sufferings could not be dispensed with. " Seeing, therefore, that the cup could not pass away from him," he drank it to the very dregs. Every part of his humiliation, from the first to the last, was neces- sary, for the full attainment of his end: and therefore baptism, as an essential part of that humiliation, was required by him,