It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness

I have always been puzzled when I read the story of Jesus receiving the baptism of John the Baptist. I would read in the Gospels that John's baptism was connected to the forgiveness of sins and Matthew tells us that people would confess their sins at baptism. Why would Jesus come to John the Baptist to submit to a baptism for the forgiveness of sins when Christ had no sin to receive forgiveness for? In reading the exchange between Jesus and John the Baptist we get clues to the answer. In Matthew 3:13-15 we read:
"Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him."
In this passage we observe the same shock in John the Baptist that we have in the thought of Jesus receiving baptism.
I believe the answer is found in the phrase, 'to fulfill all righteousness' and especially the answer is found in the future cross and resurrection of Jesus.
First of all, the term righteousness can be understood as submitting to the will of God or by observing God's will. Many Jews in the 1st century would have understood righteousness as allowing themselves to take on the yoke of the Torah. We see Christ perfectly subject Himself to God's yoke His entire ministry, and we see the toughness of that yoke in the Garden of Gethsemane. At that time Christ answers God's call to finish the work of redemption by going to the cross. I believe that we should read Jesus' baptism with the cross in mind. We can see that Jesus is going into baptism with a mind to connect Himself with man's condition. He would actively take the sin of man to the cross as a propitiation for us. At His baptism he 'identifies' with man and his malady by 'fulfilling all righteousness'. It is the righteousness of God that sent Christ to save mankind, and it is the eternal plan that had Jesus redeem us by the cross.
Finally, I believe that this view of Jesus' baptism changes our outlook of our own baptism. Because Jesus 'identified' with man in His baptism we now crucify our old man and allow ourselves to buried with Christ in baptism. We are identified with Christ in the most extreme way possible. We have become crucified with Christ or what Paul calls 'obeying the gospel' in 2 Thessalonians.
We see the connection with baptism and our identifying with Christ in Paul when he draws the analogy of the children of Israel and Moses in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 when he states,
"For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea"
Paul uses similar language of Christian baptism in Galatians 3:27when he states, "All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."

Christ in His baptism took another step on his steadfast mission of going to the cross and part of that mission was to identify with man's pitiful condition. When we submit to His baptism we should always remember the solemnity of identifying with our crucified Savior. When we come out of that watery grave let us remember the Risen Christ that conquered death and has opened up life to us. Let us keep the words of Paul fresh on our minds when we renew our baptismal vows daily when he states in Galatians 2:20 that, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me"