Meaty Food for Meditation

On my way out the door this morning I picked up The Death of Christ by James Denney with the hope of finding some meaty food to meditate upon throughout the day. I opened it to a section I highlighted about two years ago. Meaty food was found. What a Blessed Savior we have! James Denney writes concerning Jesus' submission to the baptism of John:

"It was a baptism of repentence with a view to remission of sins, and there is undoubtedly something paradoxical, at first sight, in the idea of Jesus submitting to such a baptism...What we see there is Jesus, who...knew no sin, submitting to a baptism which is defined as a baptism of repentance. It would not have been astonishing is Jesus had come from Galilee to baptize along with John, if He had taken His stand by John's side confronting the people; the astonishing thing is that being what He was He came to be baptized, and took His stand side by side with the people. He identified Himself with them. As far as the baptism could express it, He made all that was theirs His. It was as though He had looked on them under the oppression of their sin, and said: 'On Me let all that burden, all that responsibility descend.'

"Jesus numbered Himself with the transgressors, submitting to be baptized with their baptism, identifying Himself with them in their relation to God as sinners, making all their responsibilities His own. It was 'a great act of loving communion with our misery', and in that hour, in the will and act of Jesus, the work of atonement was begun. It was no accident that now, and not at some other hour, the Father's voice declared Him the beloved Son, the chosen One in whom His soul delighted. For in so identifying Himself with sinful men, in so making their last and most dreadful responsibilities His own, Jesus approved Himself the true Son of the Father, the true Servant and Representative of Him whose name from of old is Redeemer" (pp. 21-22).