Third testimony borne by the Baptist to Jesus.
This incident, which occurred on the following day, must have been immediately after the temptation. The Baptist identifies Christ by implication, not by name.
I. THE REDEEMER IS IDENTIFIED BY HIS WORK. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" This title is taken from Isaiah 53:1-12, which the Jewish commentators themselves originally applied to the Messiah. The passage sets forth:
1. The Object offered in sacrifice. "The Lamb of God."
(a) the innocence and holiness of his life;
(b) his meekness and lowliness;
(c) his patience in suffering.
(a) He is God's Lamb;
( α) because God claims him as his own;
( β) because God provides him.
(b) He is "the Lamb"—the only one, not one out of many. Many Iambs were sacrificed in Old Testament times. All the shadows disappeared, when Christ, as the Substance, came. It is an advantage to have the whole attention concentrated upon one glorious spectacle—the Lamb of God!
2. The object or effect of the sacrifice. "Which taketh away the sin of the world." The word signifies bearing as well as taking away. Christ takes away sin by bearing it.
(a) The word "beareth sin," in the present tense, is not a mere prophecy as to what would occur at Calvary;
(b) nor does it imply merely the constant efficacy of the sacrifice;
(c) but the fact that he was even then the actual Bearer of the world's sin. Thus there is no foundation for the notion that he was not a Sin-bearer except on the cross. He bore sin all through his life.
(a) a Saviour, not a mere Prophet;
(b) a perfect Saviour (Hebrews 7:25);
(c) an unwearying Saviour.
3. The burden removed by the sacrifice. "The sin of the world."
(a) This does not signify original sin as the root-sin of the world; but sin in the mass, regarded in its unity as the common guilt and corruption of the world.
(b) It does not refer merely to the punishment of sin, for the Lamb of God secures by his sacrifice the complete extirpation of sin.
(a) Not the sin of the Jews, but of the Gentiles also; for it had been said long before to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:3).
(b) The Baptist, in using the singular number, thought, not so much of the extent, as of the nature of sin. The sin of the world is the sin that belongs to the world as such—which is of the world, from the world. On the world's side there is nothing but sin; on God's side nothing but the Lamb of God. See how God overcomes with good the evil of the world.
II. THE REDEEMER IS CLEARLY IDENTIFIED IN HIS PERSON. "This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is become before me: for he was before me." These words now meet us for the third time. The human and Divine natures are exhibited in one sentence. The Baptist believed in the pre-existence of the Messiah.
III. THE EXTRAORDINARY MODE IN WHICH THE REDEEMER WAS IDENTIFIED BY JOHN HIMSELF.
1. "I knew him not." Yet John must have known him, for else he could not have hesitated as he did about baptizing our Lord. "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" (Matthew 3:14). The son of Elisabeth must have personally known the Son of Mary. The Baptist means that he did not know him as Messiah, and the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus, which he immediately records, points to the method and circumstances of the revelation.
2. Jesus was revealed to the Baptist by the descent of the Spirit upon him as a dove.
(a) John's baptism was
( α) "that he might be made manifest in Israel;"
( β) it was "unto repentance for remission of sins"—not that it effected such a remission, for John had no such power, and never claimed it—but it pointed to that which could alone take away sin.
(b) Christ's baptism was not
( α) the baptism which he was to institute for the Christian Church,—it was not a baptism of water;
( β) nor was it a baptism which any man can give, whether priest or minister;
( γ) nor was it a baptism for miraculous gifts at Pentecost;
( δ) but it was a baptism of regenerating grace—such a baptism as the dying thief received, though not baptized with water, such a baptism as Simon Magus never received, though he was admitted into the communion of the Church by the ministers of Christ.
IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RECORD JUST MADE BY THE BAPTIST. "And I have seen, and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God." The vision is regarded as still present and remaining in its blessed results. He sets forth the abiding record that Jesus is the Son of God as welt as the Son of man, therefore a Divine Being.