The Baptist's confirmation of his statement respecting the superiority of Christ.
He gives several reasons why Jesus must increase, and he himself must decrease.
I. THE ORIGIN OF JESUS. "He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth."
1. Jesus belongs to heaven; the Baptist to the earth.
2. Jesus is above all servants of God; the Baptist is one of his servants.
3. Jesus must ever eclipse all his servants, causing them to fade away like the morning star before the sun; they find their true enjoyment in the resplendent glory of Christ.
4. John is hemmed in by the peculiar limitations of an earthly existence; his ideas are derived and. dependent; he sees heavenly realities from the imperfect standpoint of faith. He can summon the world to repentance, but he cannot give repentance.
II. THE PERFECTION OF CHRIST'S TEACHING. "And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth."
1. His Divine origin secures the unique glory of his teaching; for, being in the bosom of the Father, he is acquainted with all his counsels. He is a witness who has both seen and heard what he declares to man.
2. Consider the perverse unbelief that rejects the teaching. "And no man receiveth his testimony." Jerusalem, as the religious centre of Judaism, gives it no welcome.
3. The believer's witness to the truth of God. "He that receiveth his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true."
4. Christ's filial dignity and sovereignty. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand."
5. The practical consequence of the Son's sumpremacy in the twofold issue of life.
(a) The nature of faith.
( α) It is not a mere brief in the Son's Godhead, or Mediatorship, or ability to give life; it is not a mere assent to Divine testimony concerning the Son.
( β) It is an actual trusting in the Son, and therefore an act of the will and the heart as welt as of the understanding.
(b) The object of faith. "The Son," who is able to save,
( α) because he is the Son of God, and therefore Divine;
( β) because he is the Son of man, and therefore human. Faith derives all its importance from its object.
(c) The connection between faith and life. Faith brings the sinner into possession of everlasting life, because it unites him to Christ as his life. "Because I live, ye shall live also." "The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God" (Galatians 2:20).
(a) Unbelief is disobedience, as faith is obedience, to the Son of God. Thus it is essentially a practical principle controlling conduct.
(b) The guilt of disobedience is enhanced by the supreme dignity of him to whom it is due.
(c) Disobedience is incapacity to see life. The sinner has
( α) no conception of its nature,
( β) and no enjoyment of its blessings.
(d) The retribution of disobedience is permanent.
( α) So long as a sinner obstinately refuses to receive the Son of God, there is nothing to break the connection established by Divine law between disobedience and wrath. "The wrath of God abideth on him."
( β) There is wrath as well as love in God.
( γ) The last words of this discourse represent the last words of the Old Testament—for the warning voice of the Baptist is no more heard; and they recall the closing sentence of that Testament, "Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON