ce; and,
as the Baptist had been commissioned to baptize for the remission of
sins, he saw no necessity of administering the ordinance to Jesus. He
who had received the confessions of multitudes now reverently confessed
to One whom he knew was more righteous than himself. In the light of
later events it appears that at this time John did not know that Jesus
was the Christ, the Mightier One for whom he waited and whose forerunner
he knew himself to be. When John expressed his conviction that Jesus
needed no baptismal cleansing, our Lord, conscious of His own
sinlessness, did not deny the Baptist's imputation, but nevertheless
pressed His application for baptism with the significant explanation:
"Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." If John was able to
comprehend the deeper meaning of this utterance, he must have found
therein the truth that water baptism is not alone the means provided for
gaining remission of sins, but is also an indispensable ordinance
established in righteousness and required of all mankind as an essential
condition for membership in the kingdom of God.[293]

Jesus Christ thus humbly complied with the will of the Father, and was
baptized of John by immersion in water. That His baptism was accepted as
a pleasing and necessary act of submission was attested by what
immediately ensued: "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up
straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon
him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased."[294] Then John knew his Redeemer.

The four Gospel-writers record the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the
baptized Jesus as accompanied by a visible manifestation "like a dove;"
and this sign had been indicated to John as the foreappointed means by
which the Messiah should be made known to him; and to that sign, before
specified, was now added the supreme testimony of the Father as to the
literal Sonship of Jesus. Matthew records the Father's acknowledgment as
given in the third person, "This is my beloved Son;" while both Mark and
Luke give the more direct address, "Thou art my beloved Son." The
variation, slight and essentially unimportant as it is though bearing on
so momentous a subject, affords evidence of independent authorship and
discredits any insinuation of collusion among the writers.

The incidents attending the emergence o