He Must Increase ...

Verse 22 of the Gospel of John chapter three, begins with Christ traveling to Judea with His disciples and staying for a while to baptize in the waters there.  This act in itself is unusual, as outside of John the Baptist, the Bible does not record many baptisms taking place conducted by the religious leadership of the day.  The entire temple based worship system makes no mention of baptism, from what we can tell.  Yet in the desert emerges John, calling for repentance, and conducting this ritual.  And Christ does not begin His own important ministry until His own baptism is completed.  Christ who needed no repentance, yet thought it important enough to do anyway.  Now having been some time since His own baptism, He and His disciples while traveling to Judea begin baptizing others.

While baptism itself may have been a novel concept among the Jewish religious leadership of the day, purification was not.  Ritual washing of hands and feet were done for ceremonial purification, and while doing this, they took occasion to question John the Baptist about his apparent competition with one of his recent clients.  In verse 26 they begin … “Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.”  This may well have been an attempt at getting John to declare himself the Messiah, and this young upstart just another faker.  Or perhaps failing that, this may have been an attempt at making John jealous over the idea that now Christ and His disciples were now doing the baptism ritual even more than John was.  Imagine the reaction of a modern day Christian pastor, who learns that a former colleague is now “stealing” his flock.  Would you predict joy or jealousy in such an occasion?  What no-one might imagine was the rather elegant sermon John would respond to this query.

John begins in verse 27 … “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.”  Never were more true words spoken.  This single idea flies in the face of self-determination, and self-reliance.  American idealism is rebuffed by John.  He does not say, you earn what you get.  He does not say, you should pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.  He does not say, if you are poor or unemployed, it is your own fault for laziness.  And he does not say, you should take pride in your wealth and success having earned it with all your hard work.  Instead he says, you get NOTHING, except it be GIVEN you from heaven.  Literally everything in your life, is a gift of God.  Nothing you own, is truly yours by your own hand, but by the grace of heaven.  Your intellect, your looks, your physique, your possessions, and your spiritual gifts and enlightenment – are NOT your own by luck, or hard work, or genetics – you have what you have from a source outside of yourself.  To take pride in those gifts then, is to assert ownership and attempt to take credit for something that you could never really deserve or earn.  This is a humbling concept.  This lets the wind out of the sails, of both rich and poor alike.  No matter what your state in life, there is always someone richer, and someone poorer.  Where you find yourself, is not by the power of your own hand, but by the gift of heaven.

We do not like John’s counsel.  Even within the Christian faith, there is an idea that by reading more, praying more, and doing more for the less fortunate, that somehow we can earn a higher position than our spiritual peers.  We like to teach that the answer to purity comes from our deeds, not necessarily our motives, and definitely not from gifts born within us by a power we can no more control than the wind.  Here John opens his sermon by declaring that everything you own, or he owns, or would like to ever receive comes from an act of mercy and love, not power or control.  This idea should have hinted to his audience where this sermon was going to go.  For if the intent was to make him jealous, he open by admitting he can earn nothing, not fame, not popularity, not even spiritual superiority.

In verse 28 he continues … “Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.”  Here John declares again to his rather stiff necked audience, that if they intend for him to declare himself as the Messiah, he will remind them he is clearly not.  At this point, his listeners might have even preferred to have John declare himself rather than face that Christ character who for all their efforts, seemed to defeat their intentions with love.  But no such luck.  John again points them back to Christ as the only Messiah.  He will offer Christ no competition where it comes to this role.

In verse 29 he uses an analogy to describe how he feels about what they have just told him … “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.”  John is not jealous about this news; he is rather completed by it.  To once again receive an assurance from others, that the mission of Christ is real.  Christ has picked up the mantle and is now baptizing as well.  John knew too, that the baptism Christ offered was not merely of water, but of the Holy Spirit as he had foretold.  John knew the results of the baptism of Christ was more than an admission of the need to repent, but the beginning of a life renewed by the Spirit.  A life reborn with a fire within that only the Holy Spirit could bring.  John could not offer his hearers this gift, Christ alone could.  And to the delight of John, he is now hearing that is exactly what is happening.  The unrepentant hearts of those around him might not have been able to perceive it, but to John there was no greater joy.  John compares himself to the best man, at a wedding, honored to stand next to the groom, and happy to see the groom so happy.  An occasion of joy, shared by those who love someone else; John does not wish to be the groom, instead he is happy to be near the wedding.

But to the delight of John, the fulfillment of the deeper meaning of baptism has begun.  More than a ceremonial ritual of purity, more than an admission for the need of repentance, but a new beginning founded in the one true God.  This new beginning would start because of the fire of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, a gift, from outside of ourselves.  It is not a power we control, it is a power that controls us.  It is a power to free us from the slavery of serving self.  It is a power that enlightens our minds to finally see truth for what it is.  Through the aide and control of the Holy Spirit, we can decipher deeper meaning in the same scriptures we have read many times.  We can see Christ for what He is, the truth.  We can see love for what it is, everything.  These truths are revealed to John, even if who he speaks to at the moment cannot understand his joy.

Then in verse 30, John summarizes the entire process of salvation … “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  To be saved, is to die to self, and be reborn in Christ.  Christ must increase, not just in fame with the locals of His day, but within me.  It is not just about sharing my life with Christ, but rather letting Christ have all of it.  It is about holding nothing back from the change Christ brings.  It is about having no regrets in doing so.  Nothing He will take away, was ever something I really needed.  And everything He brings, is everything I would have desperately wanted if I ever knew the end from the beginning.  There is no risk of unhappiness, in the full surrender to Christ.  There is only joy.  The only risk in this equation, is that I will attempt to hold on to control, and overrule what Christ wants, and thereby chain myself to the pain of my own stubborn stupidity.  John said it right.  He MUST increase. And I MUST decrease.  I must decrease to the point where “I” am gone altogether, and all you can see left in me is Christ.  This was a summary of the gospel of salvation, even if all his hearers understood, was that John recognized his own fame must yield to that of the true Messiah.  But his words meant so much more, and they still do.

In verse 32 and 33 John goes a step further, he offers that the testimony the Christ brings is one of first-person experience with what happens in heaven.  But many are reluctant to accept it.  For those who are willing to accept it, they embark on the journey of salvation, the gift that comes from outside of ourselves.  John’s exact words in verse 33 are … “He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.”  Those who believe the testimony of Christ, are accepting the idea that God will keep His promise to save us from the world of sin we have embraced within ourselves.  God, through the person of Jesus Christ, is truth.  His promise to save is true.  His promise to do for us, what we cannot do for ourselves, is true.  He can redeem us from our past, but more than that, He can change our present, and free us from the bondage to sin we cannot break.

John likely truly disappoints his listeners now as he offers these words … “[verse 34] For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. [verse 35] The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.”  John makes a distinction to how the role of Holy Spirit works with us, and with Christ.  We are given a measure of the Holy Spirit.  We could not probably take, a full outpouring, as we are just too fragile a creature.  But we are given what we need, and what we allow.  Christ on the other hand, is not a contemporary of ours, He is a contemporary of God’s; God’s son to be precise.  In this Christ is given ALL things.  Christ embodies the entire Spirit of God, not just a portion of it.  You might as well try to defy gravity, as to defy the idea that Christ is the Messiah and the literal Son of God.  John is publicly stating again, that Christ is no mere mortal, no mere Rabbi, no mere contemporary of his – instead He is God on earth, in human form.

In verse 36 John the Baptist echoes the words of Christ to Nicodemus, and the theme of the entire New Testament … “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”  A belief that Christ will fulfill His promise to save you; a belief that translates to a request; to a submission; and to a rebirth.  In this is everlasting life found.  We are powerless to save ourselves from ourselves, but Christ can.  To believe that God can do, what you cannot do, is the belief that will transform your life.  It is not a mere recognition that God exists, the devil will tell you that.  It is a belief that salvation can come from God as a gift.  It is a belief that you will not save you, but that Christ will as you allow Him to.  When you lack this belief, or when you trust yourself, and your own wisdom and will power to save you; it is then that you find yourself unable to “see life”.  Self is the enemy of God.  It is the service of self that brings with it the “wrath” of God.  There is no alternative.  There is no alternate method of salvation, or escape from the pain of service to self.  Christ alone is the way.  Christ alone is the truth.  Christ alone can save you from you.

The beginning of chapter four of John, records an epilogue to this sermon.  When the Pharisees caught wind of how many Christ (or rather His disciples) had baptized in Judea, Jesus thought it a good idea to travel away to a well of Jacob, in a place the Pharisees would likely never find themselves, in a region known as Samaria …