This is He.
The Redeemer’s identification
I. IN HIS WORK as the Lamb of God.
1. ‘The object offered in sacrifice. The Lamb of God applies to Christ
(1) in His personal character.
(2) In His sacrificial character.
2. The object or effect of the sacrifice “taketh away,” etc.!
3. The burden removed by the sacrifice: the world’s sin.
II. IN HIS PERSON (John 1:30). These words meet us for the third time. The human and Divine natures are exhibited in one sentence. How profoundly the Baptist believed in the pre-existence of Christ.
III. THE MODE OF IDENTIFICATION.
1. I knew Him not. He did indeed know Him, and hence hesitated about baptizing Him (Matthew 3:14). The son of Elizabeth must have known the Son of Mary. The Baptist means that he did not know Him as Messiah.
2. Jesus was revealed to John by the descent of the Holy Ghost.
(1) The sign. The Dove emblematized the consecration of the Redeemer to His Divine work.
(2) The two baptisms--the one in water, the other in the Holy Ghost--the one that Christ might be made manifest unto Israel, and unto repentance for the remission of sins; the other not a sacrament that Christ was to institute for the Church, nor which any priest or minister could give; it was a baptism of regenerating grace--such a baptism as Simon Magus never had although baptized with water; such a baptism as the dying thief enjoyed although not baptized with water. (Prof. Croskery.)
Notice
1. The evidences of Christ’s excellency and Godhead when He came into the world are not cunningly devised fables, but most certain and infallible truths, for John bare record, saying, “I saw,” etc.
2. Christ in His solemn entry to His offices was sealed from heaven, that so the Church may learn to embrace Him with all respect. Therefore doth the Spirit descend upon Him in this visible way, and the Father bear witness to Him (Matthew 3:1-17), all the persons of the Trinity manifesting themselves on Jordan’s bank.
3. Christ is endowed with the Spirit from on high for executing of His offices, and it is made manifest that the Spirit is to be found on Him and sought from Him; for “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven upon Him,” where the Spirit, who filleth heaven and earth, is said to descend in respect of that visible manifestation and sign of His presence.
4. The Spirit’s descending like a dove, a meek, harmless and affectionate creature, pointed out what Christ is in His own nature to them that come to Him, even meek, harmless, loving, and not dreadful; what He is in the execution of His office, even He in whom the Father is well pleased and pacified, and He who bringeth the good news of assuaging the deluge of wrath, as Noah’s dove of the drying up of the flood; and what He is in the operations of His Spirit upon His people, that they are made meek, harmless, and lowly as doves, not like birds of prey.
5. Albeit all Christ’s members do receive of the Spirit in their measure, yet it is Christ’s prerogative to have the Spirit resting on Him; not only as God is the Spirit of one essence with Him, proceeding from the Father and Him, and so is ever present with Him. But even as man by virtue of the personal union, the Spirit floweth and resteth on Christ, and efficaciously worketh in Him all Divine graces and virtues without measure, and immutably, so that none can come wrong to Him at any time for receiving of His Spirit: Therefore, it is said, “it abode upon Him” (Isaiah 11:2-3).
6. Christ, in taking on our nature, did so cover His glory with the veil of our flesh and common infirmities that He could not be known by bodily sight from another man without Divine revelation and evidences from God; for, without this, John saith, I knew Him not (Matthew 16:17).
7. The Lord is very tender and careful of His servants, to encourage and confirm them in their calling and message; and will not fail to perform what He hath promised for that effect when He sendeth them out; for, John saith, he saw this sign in a peculiar way, as being to him an accomplishment of that promise given to him; for God had said to him, “upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending,” etc., and now it was accomplished.
8. The Spirit resteth upon Christ, and was manifested to be on Him by a visible sign, not only for Himself and to point out His excellency, but for the Church’s good, and to certify them that He received the Spirit to communicate unto His people. (G. Hutcheson.)
The Dove of God
We have here
I. THE CORONATION OF THE KING.
1. The actual descent of the Spirit. It is unnecessary to ask what was the objective material reality here. It is enough that this was no fancy, born in a man’s brain, but an actual manifestation, whether through sense or apart from sense, to consciousness of a Divine outpouring and communication.
2. The purpose of this descent. The anointing of the Monarch. But a man is king before he is crowned. Coronation is the consequence and not the cause of royalty. And so the first purpose of this great fact is distinctly stated as having been the solemn pointing out of Messiah for the Baptist first, but in order that he might bear witness of Him to others. But this was not the beginning of His Messianic consciousness, nor of His Sonship. Before His baptism, and ere the heavens opened, or the dove fluttered down, He from everlasting was Son in the bosom of the Father. Christ’s baptism was an epoch in His human development inasmuch as it was His first public assumption of His Messianic office, and inasmuch as an advance was made in the communication to his manhood of the sustaining Spirit as fully equipped Him for new calls. His manhood needed the continual communication of the Spirit, and because it was sinless it was capable of a complete reception of that Spirit. So we see in Christ the realized ideal of manhood.
3. The meaning of this symbol. To John the coming of the King was first and chiefly a coming to judgment. John sees two wonders: the Messiah in his Carpenter Cousin and the Spirit, which he thought of as searching and consuming, like a dove. The same as in Genesis 1:2, where the word employed describes accurately the action of the mother bird with her soft breast and outstretched wings quickening the life that lies beneath. What then does it proclaim as to the character of the King.
(1) Purity, as the very foundation of His royalty.
(2) Meekness and gentleness, as the weapons of His conquest and the sceptre of His rule. The dove will outfly all Rome’s eagles, and all rapacious unclean feeders with their strong wings, talons and beaks.
II. THE GIFTS OF THE KING TO HIS SUBJECTS.
1. Christ has nothing that He keeps to Himself. He received the Spirit that He might diffuse Him through the whole world. Salvation is more than escape from wrath, more than pardon. We must rise higher and feel if we would understand the “unspeakable gift” which is the totality of the gifts of His indwelling Spirit.
2. Therefore Christian met, are spoken of in the same language which is used in reference to their Master. “Sons of God,” “Priests,” “Lights of the World,” “Anointed.”
3. How full of rebuke and instruction is the symbol in reference to ourselves. The dove-like Spirit is offered to us.
(1) Our hearts are like the wild chaos; but He will come, if we will let Him, and brood over our nature and recreate the whole.
(2) The dove again was pure and fit for sacrifice: the heavenly dove comes as the Spirit of holiness, and then there is purity in the receiver and self-sacrifice.
(3) The Dove that crowned the King dwells in the subjects and makes them, too, meek and gentle, and imparts the true force of Christian character.
(4) Noah’s dove came back with one leaf in his beak--the prophecy of a whole world of beauty and verdure. The Dove that comes to us, bearing some leaf plucked from the tree of life, is the earnest of our inheritance until the day of redemption. All the gifts of that Divine Spirit--gifts of holiness, gentleness, wisdom, truth--are forecasts of heavenly perfectness. To us sailing over a dismal sea, He comes bearing with Him a message that tells of the far-off land and the fair garden of God in which the blessed shall walk. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
As a dove did at that time bring tidings of the abating of the water, so doth it now of the abating of the wrath of God upon the preaching of the gospel. (Augustine.)
The Holy Spirit manifested Himself here as a Dove; and at the day of Pentecost in tongues of fire; in order that we may learn to unite fervour with simplicity, and to seek for them both from Him. (Augustine.)
The dove, the symbol of innocence and purity (Matthew 10:16), the abiding and the tranquil hovering over Christ, expressed the tranquil and equable movement of the power of the Spirit in Him, in contrast with the detached impulses given to the prophets (Isaiah 11:2). (Tholuck.)
The Great A toner the Great Baptizer
The work of Christ, according to the Baptist,was to take away the sin of the world and to baptize with the Holy Ghost. It is not possible for believers to think too much of the first part; but it is quite possible for them to think too little of the second. These are the two pillars of our faith. The atoning sacrifice was offered and completed on Calvary once for all; but the baptism of the Holy Ghost is ever going on. Our Saviour died to be the Atoner; He lives to be the Baptizer. And our Saviour lives and reigns to baptize us not occasionally, but permanently; not fitfully and uncertainly, but surely. Were this baptism fully realized, there would be a vast increase of holiness, power, and success in ministers and churches: of Christian unity and charity. What encouragement have we for expecting this baptism? The announcement that Christ is as much Baptizer as Atoner, not the one without the other, or He would have laid the foundation and built nothing upon it. The atonement is the rock: the baptism builds the Church. So the gospels run up to the atonement, but the Acts start from the baptism. And so as the sinner seeks the one for salvation, so should the saint seek the other for service and testimony. (C. Clemance, D. D.)
The four baptisms
There are four baptisms mentioned in the Bible. The baptism of water, of repentance, of the Holy Ghost, and of fire. The baptism of water is the emblem of all, but that would be nothing without the baptism of repentance which it was intended to express; and the baptism of repentance will be unavailing for peace, holiness, heaven, unless it is accompanied by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and that is never far separated from the baptism of fire. The four make one complete whole, and are the basis of the Christian life. (J. Vaughan.)