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THE KING’S BUSINESS
“above all” here) and Ephesians 1: 20-22 and'Philippians 2:9-11. The latter two passages, however, have to do with the exaltation of the Lord Je$,us after His death and resurrec tion; the passage before Us sets forth the eternal sovereignty that He had even when John spoke. It is a won derful view of our Lord and His heavenly origin and absolute sover eignty that is given here and we should stop at this point to mèditate upon it. "While Jesus came from above and therefore was above all, John the Baptizer’s origin was of the earth, or out of the earth. He was a man “sent from God” (ch. 1:6) but none the less he drew his origin from the earth. He was a child of the earth and therefore subject to limitations to which the Lord Jesus was not sub ject. It is to be noticed that he says “of the earth” and not “of the world.” It sets forts his earthly origin, that he was a man of men, but if he had said “of the world” or “out of the world” it would have represented John as being in an tagonism to God (see ch. 15:19; 1 John 4:5) and this John was not, but he was “out of the earth.” Here we see, as in countless other places, the exactness with which inspired men used words. The Greek word translated “of” means exactly “from out of,” “out from,” and sets forth the idea of origin or source. It is used here to set forth the contrast between the origin of Jesus Christ and the^origin of John the Baptizer. Because- he was of earthly ori gin, he was of earthly character and his teaching was of earthly char acter; “he that is of the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he speak- eth.” There was a correspondence between his origin and his character, and teaching ; though he was divine ly inspired he was limited. There
aiiy case, it is the truth of God spok en through one of these two definitely inspired teachers. In either case also, the reason is given why the Lord Jesus, the Bridegroom, must increase, while John the Baptizer, the friend of the Bridegroom, must decrease. The reason given in verses 31-35 is, because the Lord Jesus is superior to the friend of the Bridegroom in three points, first, because of His origin ( v. 31) ; second, because of the t fection of His teaching (vs. 32-34) ; third, because of His exalted position as the Son and the absolute sover eignty which belongs to Him as the Son (v. 35). Then John’s testimony closes with a practical conclusion of tremendous significance in verse 36. John speaks of our Lord as “He that cometh from above.” The “from above” does not refer to the heaven ly character of His mission; for John’s own mission had a heavenly origin. He was a “man sent from God” (ch. 1:6). It refers to the ori gin of the person of Jesus. It is a very distinct hint as to His pre-ex istence in heiven. The Greek word here translated “from above” is the same word that is translated “again” or “anew” in verse 3. Because of His heavenly origin, He is “above all.” The thought here is very close ly akin to that which John the Bap tizer had given utterance to in chap ter 1:15 and in chapter 1:27, and this is an additional indication that the words here recorded were spoken by Tohn the Baptizer. The “above all” is very significant; John sets forth the thought that the Lord Jesus was not only above him, but above everybody and everything that He was sovereign over all per sons and all things. The full signifi cance of these words is set forth by Paul in Romans 9:5 (where the words translated “over all” are al most identical with those translated
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