John 3:28Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And what did I testify? For this I call you as witnesses. Therefore he adds, "You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him."

If, then, you hold to my testimony, set it before me, and say, "to whom you have borne witness," then know this. He is not humbled by receiving testimony from me, but is thereby exalted still more.

In other words, that testimony was not mine, but God's. Therefore, if you consider me a man worthy of trust, I also said, among other things, "I have been sent before Him."

Do you see how little by little he shows them that this testimony is divine? The meaning of his words is this: I am a servant and speak the words of Him who sent me.

I do not flatter Him out of human partiality, but serve His Father, who sent me. I did not please Him by my testimony, but spoke what I was sent to say.

You yourselves know, he says, that I bore witness concerning Him, that He is greater than I. Therefore, if you fully accept my testimony, know that He is more honorable than I, and that my joy consists in all coming to Him.

He recalls to his disciples words they had already often heard. At the same time, he nobly reproves them for yielding to forgetfulness of matters so necessary, and for proving careless toward so important a teaching.

He also persuades them, as men trained in the study of Holy Scripture, to remember how it proclaims Christ and how it proclaims the Forerunner and Baptist.

Having thus received the proper knowledge concerning each, they should by no means grieve when they see in each what belongs to him.

Therefore, he says, I have no need of other witnesses for this. I have my own disciples, who heard it in person. I confessed my servitude: "I have been sent" to proclaim beforehand. "I am not the Christ."

Let Him, then, triumph, increase, and be glorified as Master and God.

It is as though he says: "Why do you deceive yourselves? What question do you put before me? What did you say to me?

Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness. Therefore you know what testimony I gave concerning Him.

Am I now to say that He is not the One of whom I spoke? Since I received something from heaven in order to be something, do you want me to become nothing by speaking against the truth?

A man can receive nothing for himself unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ," Jn 3:27.

"You are not the Christ. But who are you, then, if you are more important than He, since you baptized Him?" "I was sent. I am the herald, and He is the Judge."

I was sent before Him, as a servant and subordinate. If you cite my testimony, it testified that He is greater than I.

On one occasion John's disciples were engaged in some dispute with the Jews concerning the importance of their baptism. The latter probably refuted it by saying that the baptism of Jesus gained Him incomparably more disciples than their baptism gained for John.

For John's disciples, who showed great respect for their teacher, this report was exceedingly painful. They considered Jesus Himself indebted for His glory to John's testimony.

Having nothing to answer against the Jews' reproach, they resolved to appeal to their teacher. They wished to show him how his honor might suffer from Jesus, and to urge him to take some measures against this.

In answer to this vain jealousy of his disciples for the glory of their teacher, the Baptist first expresses the general thought that in the Kingdom of God everything is accomplished by the will and ordering from above.

Applied to the occasion on which these words were spoken, they mean this. John would have had no success in his work if, not being the prophet and Forerunner of the Messiah, he had arbitrarily taken this high title upon himself.

So too Jesus would have had no success in His work if He had arbitrarily declared Himself the God-sent Messiah without being such in reality.

But if, on the contrary, as John's disciples said, all are going to Him, then His superiority over John is the work of God.

If you, the Forerunner says as it were, appeal to my testimonies, Jn 3:26, then you remember them. Of course, you also remember the testimony in which I said, "I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him."

According to this and other testimonies, cf. Jn 1:15, 20, 27, 30, it is not I who should be preferred to Christ, but He to me.

If, despite my testimonies concerning Christ, you think that I am higher than He, then know this. He is not only not humbled by receiving testimony from me, but is thereby exalted still more.

These testimonies were not my testimonies, but God's. For the clarification of this thought, John the Forerunner then compares his relation to Jesus Christ with the relation of a friend to the bridegroom after the betrothal with the bride.

When Jesus entered upon His public ministry, many went directly to Him and no longer found it necessary first to go to His Forerunner.

John himself, of course, noticed this, yet he continued preaching in Aenon near Salim. This place is now difficult to identify.

But it may be supposed with certainty that John went to baptize where he had not yet preached, and where Christ had not yet come.

Having received from God the command to baptize, John could not consider this commission completed without a special command from God concerning it. Therefore he continued to baptize.

The disciples' complaint called forth from John a new testimony concerning Jesus. He impressed on them that everything on earth is accomplished by the will of God.

John used this occasion to pronounce his final testimony concerning Christ. It is remarkable both for the clarity with which it sets forth the Gospel truth and for the depth of humility and self-denial.

Having reminded them that he had always set forth Christ's superiority over himself, he explained that this is precisely the law of the divine economy: "He must increase, but I must decrease."

John submits to this law with full awareness of his sacred duty. He not only finds no source of sorrow and despondency for himself in this position.

On the contrary, just as "the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice," so the Forerunner now rejoices when he hears the voice of Christ the Messiah.

"This joy of mine is now fulfilled," he concluded.

“You yourselves,” and so forth: the Baptist had clearly said before that he was not the Messiah, but His Forerunner (Jn 1:20, 23ff. and parallels). Now he repeats the same thing, appealing to the testimony of his own disciples.

If I am only the Forerunner of the Messiah, then it follows that I am lower than He. You should not exalt me above Him or envy His success.

John does not name Jesus here as the Messiah. Yet from the whole course of his speech it is beyond doubt that he is speaking precisely of Him, Jesus, as Messiah, and of himself only as His Forerunner.

John the Baptist again and decisively confessed Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God, sent into the world for the salvation of men.

Comparing Jesus Christ to a bridegroom and himself to the bridegroom's friend, who serves the bridegroom's interests and rejoices in his joys, John said, "He must increase, but I must decrease," v. 30.

The Old Testament prophets often depicted God's love for men under the image of the relations of bridegroom and bride. In Solomon's Song of Songs, with special poetry and prophetic inspiration, the future Messiah Christ, the Son of God, is depicted as the Bridegroom.

The Forerunner confirms his general thought about himself by his former testimony, known to his disciples. “You yourselves bear me witness that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.’”

For John’s disciples this testimony should have had still greater force. On the one hand, since they respected their Teacher, they should believe his sincerity and not expect him to deny his own words.

On the other hand, they would demean themselves if they wished to be disciples of one who says one thing at one time, and at another preaches and acts otherwise.

John answers the question and the treacherous hints of the Pharisees with God-inspired words. First, in verse 27, he establishes in the minds of his hearers the eternal law.

Where grace is manifested, there the power is not human, but the Lord's power, the creative power.

After this, the treacherously posed question calls forth a new testimony from John concerning the Lord Jesus. This also becomes a new testimony against the Jews, who rejected the Lord and handed Him over to crucifixion.

In verse 28 John openly acknowledges before all the people that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, and he calls himself the one sent before Him, cf. Jn 1:23 and Is 40:3.