A Study of John's Gospel

John 3:25-30: He Must Increase, but I Must Decrease

Implication (what does this mean to us):

This passage opens by telling us a dispute had arisen between JB's disciples and a certain Jewish person over "purification." We do not know any more details about the dispute, but because JB was baptizing it is likely the Jewish leaders took issue with some aspect of this baptism. Whatever the details of this dispute were, it seems JB's disciples learned that Jesus and His disciples were also teaching, baptizing and gaining a larger following than JB. They were seemingly distressed by this fact and told JB, with no small exaggeration, "...look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." Of course "all" or "everyone" were not going to Jesus, but many people were. They were concerned about the decreasing attention shown to their teacher, but JB was not concerned at all. JB knew he had been sent by God to declare the coming of the Messiah, and the approval of God is what he was worried about, not the approval and praise of people. His decreasing following did not bother him one bit. Rather, he rejoiced to see the following of the One he came to proclaim increasing, and in the following verses he will explain this to his disciples.

He begins to explain and calm the worries of his followers in verse 27 by saying, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven." This is similar to James 1:17 which says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." Everything about JB, including his ministry, following and message to deliver, had been given to him by God in heaven. If these things had been given by God then they are to be received gratefully, used wisely, and released graciously. Whatever God puts into our hands is to be used for His glory, and must be let go of when the Lord decides to take them away. Whether we are talking about a following like JB's, a ministry assignment, health, position, authority, wealth, or anything else under the sun, everything we have comes from God and we have no right to hold onto it and respond with jealousy or discontent when He takes it away. As we read in Job 1:21, "And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."" We come into this world with nothing, and we leave with nothing. Everything we have, even the breath in our lungs is a gift from God. We must remember we are not the King, we are merely stewards of the King's goods, sent to proclaim His manifold excellencies to a world in rebellion.

Continuing his explanation JB reminds his followers they heard him say, "I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him." In verse 26 they demonstrated their recollection that Jesus is the One who JB "bore witness" about. Now, in verse 28 JB is essentially saying, "Remember what else I said about Him?" JB came to declare Jesus to be the Christ. JB specifically said he himself was not the Christ, and John, the writer of this gospel account, spent much of the 1st chapter explaining that JB was not the Christ, never said he was the Christ, and that he specifically came to declare the coming of the Christ. (Christ is not a name, it is a title given to the Messiah). We can see from this confusion amongst even JB's own disciples why John the gospel writer felt the need to make it abundantly clear that JB was not the Christ in chapter 1. Even the disciples of JB who had spent so much time listening to his teaching needed to be reminded of this. What they were seeing in the rise of Jesus's following was the confirmation of the truth of the message JB was sent to proclaim.

To help them understand what his role was, JB uses the analogy of a Bridegroom's best friend at a wedding. Understanding this analogy will also help us understand our role in following Jesus. The bridegroom's best friend at a wedding is not there to shine the spotlight on himself. The role of the best friend is to help facilitate the joining of the bridegroom to the bride. In this analogy Jesus is the bridegroom and all who follow Him are the bride. The concept of God as a husband and His people as a bride was not a new one to the Jews. In the Old Testament Yahweh is described as the husband of Israel, and Israel is in turn described as the bride of Yahweh (Is. 54:5, 62:5; Jer. 2:2; Ez. 16:8; Hos. 2:19, etc). This theme is carried through in the New Testament to describe Jesus and the church as well (2 Cor. 11:2, Eph. 5:25-27). And the final triumphant unification of Jesus and His beloved church in heaven one day is described in this way: