John 1:34

“And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

What he has seen now enables him to bear witness that ‘this is the Son of God'. It is possible that the Baptiser did not realise the full significance of his own words. It may be that he was thinking more of Jesus as the coming Messiah, the great future king (as would Nathaniel later in the chapter), for the kings of Israel were looked on as ‘sons of God' by adoption (Psalms 2:7; 2 Samuel 7:14). But that his thoughts went deeper than that is suggested by his earlier statement ‘Who was before me'. (It was not a recognised Messianic title). He may thus rather have had in mind Isaiah 9:6 where the Messiah is seen to be ‘the Mighty God'. There is no doubt, however, that the writer intends the term to be taken in its full significance by his readers and hearers.

So John the Baptiser sees Jesus as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 (the Lamb of God) and the coming Spirit filled king of Isaiah 11:1. This ties in with the voice at Jesus' baptism, ‘this is my son (Psalms 2:7), the beloved in whom I am well pleased (Isaiah 42:1)' It may well have been there that John the Baptiser realised the full significance of Jesus.

In Matthew's Gospel we learn that John had not wanted to baptise Jesus because he felt he (John) was unworthy (Matthew 3:14). He felt rather that it was Jesus Who should baptise him. But Jesus there replied that it was becoming for Him to ‘fulfil all righteousness', that is, ‘do all that is fully right'. He wished to identify Himself with the people of God and do all that was right for them, even though He had no need to repent. This further stresses that that baptism was not one of ‘cleansing' but rather indicating response to the times of the Holy Spirit.