John was baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sin in the Jordan river! Jesus was baptized by John! Did Jesus need to be baptized? He was doing this in obedience to the Father and showing us by example the right path! Confirmation was given afterwards by the Holy Spirit descending on him! The Holy Spirit will come into the life of a believer to accomplish the work God has given us! For Jesus it was preparation for the Cross! In this verse sinners were confessing their sin! The word confessing means to be in agreement with God! That is i have broken his laws! I have broken his commandments! I am guilty as charged! If we have truly made the first confession then a second confession will follow! That is Jesus has saved me! We will not be able to keep quiet about this! Your second confession is the result of your first confession! That is confirmation of your salvation! People that claim they are saved but never want to talk about it are suspect? People that are saved will act like it! Excited! The world will try to shut you up! They hate your testimony because it exposes them! Don’t wear your religion on your sleeve they will say! People that have never made the first confession are uncomfortable about your second confession! Think if our criminal justice system worked this way! You confess your crimes to the judge and then he says you are free to go! However if you truly repented you will not repeat your crimes! Jesus is our judge because he took your judgment upon himself! This is why only Jesus can forgive our sin! Would you forgive someone who you had to go to prison for 30 years yet you did not do the crime? God took our death penalty upon himself! People cannot forgive because they do not understand someone has taken the punishment for their sin so they need to get vengeance for themselves rather than to forgive as they have been forgiven! Happy Easter! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com