Tell me, do you need to obey, even if you're perfect like Jesus? John the Baptist baptized people upon their confession of sins. So when Jesus came to John to be baptized too, John tried to dissuade Him. John, felt that he needed to be baptized of Jesus!

However Jesus replied, "Let's just do it, because it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness." At this John agreed.

As Jesus was coming up out of the water, the Spirit of God, in the form of a dove, suddenly lighted on Him, and a voice from Heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased."

It is clear here that Jesus felt it was important to show obedience to this step of public repentance, even if He was perfect and had no sin. John agreed to that argument, so he must have understood it too.

I have heard it surmised before in sermons, that this step of Jesus' is a strong reason why all Christians should go through the waters of baptism. If Jesus felt He needed to set an example here, though He had nothing to repent of, then surely we, who do, need to be publically baptized as a sign of our repentance and decision to follow Christ.

What if this applies to other situations too? Are there times in our lives when we need to obey simply because it is the right thing to do? Even if we don't feel a strong desire to do that right thing?

Perhaps the earliest instances we can think of are - when a child, our parent tells us to stop just as we are about to step into traffic after something that rolled away, or because we see someone we love on the other side. Obviously, we need to obey for our own safety's sake. Even though our mind is not on safety at all at that moment, and we are not intending to do anything bad. Plainly, there are times when obedience is imperative over desiring to do a harmless, right thing.

Now it should be easy to see there are many other situations in our lives, when it is better to obey - even if perfect like Jesus.

We don't need to debate that none of us are perfect like Jesus, do we? Everyone who understands the basic concepts in the Bible knows that Jesus, as the Son of God, come to earth in a human form, was sinless and pure. He never sinned. Though He experienced serious temptation in the desert, so that Jesus could truthfully say He knew what it was like to be tempted. By God's power He was able to resist.

This reinforces our main point here; if Jesus, who was perfect, and didn't have to be baptized in repentance for any sin, felt it was the right thing to do, then surely, it is very right for us to demonstrate to our public circle, that we have repented and chosen to trust and follow Christ.