THE FINAL TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST ABOUT JESUS.
John 3:22-36.
JOHN 3:22. “After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judaea; and there He tarried with them, and baptised.”
In other words, Jesus left the city and ministered in the country round about. Jesus did not Himself baptise, as we are told in John 4:2, but His disciples. It was enough that Jesus was there, and that He sanctioned the baptisms. To say that He “tarried” there probably suggests a stay of some (unknown) duration.
JOHN 3:23. “And John also was baptising in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came and were baptised.” “They” is an indefinite number, whoever “they” may be. Obsession with numbers has caused many a dispute, as it does also in this passage.
JOHN 3:24. “For John was not yet cast into prison.” John the Baptist, for his part, was content to keep on working right to the end of his ministry. ‘Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing’ (cf. Matthew 24:46).
JOHN 3:25-26. “Then there arose a question between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, ‘Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptiseth, and all men come to Him.’”
It seems that John’s disciples, egged on by these “Jews,” became jealous of Jesus’ success when they compared it with the apparent waning of John’s own success. “All men” is, of course, an exaggeration.
JOHN 3:27-30. John the Baptist’s answer was fourfold.
1. “A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven” (John 3:27). This was a rebuke to John’s disciples for elevating him in their minds above Jesus. John the Baptist was not at all troubled that Jesus’ ministry should show greater results than his: after all, it was to Jesus that John had been pointing all along.
2. “Ye yourselves bare me witness that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him’” (John 3:28). Here John’s disciples were reminded of what they had conveniently forgotten. John the Baptist was not the Christ, but the forerunner to the Christ. John’s ministry was not about John, it was about Jesus.
3. “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 3:29). The friend of the bridegroom at a wedding does not (or certainly should not) take the spotlight to himself; he stands by, hearing, and rejoicing on the couple’s behalf. In this parable the bridegroom is Jesus, and the bride is the church. John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament style prophets, pointing to Jesus, rejoicing that believers were at last hearing the voice of Jesus.
4. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). This should be the motto of every true minister of our Lord Jesus Christ.
JOHN 3:31. “He that cometh from above is above all: He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all.”
This draws the contrast between Jesus and John the Baptist (or any other minister).
Jesus comes from above. The whole doctrine of the incarnation is wrapped up in this phrase, “cometh from above.”
Mere man is “of the earth, earthly, and speaks of the earth.” This is comparative: compared to other men, John’s speech was heavenly, but compared to Jesus’ speech, John’s was only that of a mere man.
Jesus is “from heaven" and is “above all.”
JOHN 3:32. “And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony.”
Jesus testifies of “what He has seen and heard.” As God, He testifies of things that He has known from all eternity.
“No man receives His testimony” seems to rebuke John’s disciples’ earlier exaggeration, “all men come to Him” (cf. John 3:26). Both, perhaps, can be viewed as hyperbole. This need not be taken too literally, as the next verse shows.
JOHN 3:33. “He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.”
“He that receives His testimony” metaphorically “seals” the fact that “God is true” (cf. Romans 3:4). God is true to His word. God is true to His promise. Thus do I believe ‘the record that God gave of His Son,’ and would happily confirm it with my signature (cf. 1 John 5:10).
JOHN 3:34. “For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.”
“For He whom God has sent” - i.e. ‘the Son’ (cf. John 3:17).
“Speaks the words of God.” So rather than a second-hand ‘Thus says the LORD,’ Jesus speaks on His own authority: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you.’
“For God gives not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” Earlier prophets only had ‘a measure’ of the Spirit, and that only for a limited time or function; whereas Jesus, being the One ‘in whom dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily’ (cf. Colossians 2:9) already has the fulness of the Spirit (cf. Isaiah 11:2).
JOHN 3:35. “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.”
“The Father loves the Son.” That the Father has loved the Son from all eternity is echoed by Jesus Himself in His great high priestly prayer: ‘thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world’ (cf. John 17:24).
“And has given all things into His hand.” He has all things pertaining to our salvation. He has the keys of death and hell. He has all authority, and commissions us to go out into all the world (cf. Matthew 28:18-20).
JOHN 3:36. “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.”
“He who believes on the Son has everlasting life.” Not ‘pie in the sky when I die,’ but a fulness of life for all eternity already begun - for the believer, at the point of believing - in this realm of time (cf. John 3:16). To believe is to ‘pass from death to life’ (cf. John 5:24).
“And he who believes not the Son shall not see life.” The Greek word usually translated “believes not” here in John 3:36 is not simply a negation of ‘believe’ (as in John 3:18). It is a stronger word, implying an unbending refusal to believe. The same word is translated elsewhere as ‘disobeying’ (cf. Romans 10:21).
“But the wrath of God abides on him.” This takes us right back to the beginning of the chapter: ‘Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God’ (cf. John 3:3). There is no other way.
