By submitting to John’s baptism, Jesus took the sins of the world upon his shoulders so that he could carry them to the cross and bury them in his tomb.

It’s a delivery of historical facts that tells us who Jesus is and what he has done for us through his dying on the cross and his rising from the grave.

Baptism doesn't get us into a religious club that we join by a voluntary decision.

Pelagius maintained an orthodox appearance while rejecting original sin and the distinction between law and gospel. 

The following is an excerpt from Finding Christ in the Straw written by Robert M. Hiller (1517 Publishing, 2020).

We sing, and in so doing, we are blessed as we are instilled with the word of God in word and song.  

Faith is a certainty about something one has encountered, something factual, an experience— just as certain as any experience in the external world.

We confuse salvation and vocation in our quest to determine who is in control of our salvation.

Indeed, the law said, “You shall love the Lord your God,” but the law cannot give me such love, nor can it take my hand to grasp on to Christ. 

What then does this sequence of stories teach us? It teaches us a pertinent lesson about the Christian life.