John 3:30

John 3:30. He must increase, but I must decrease. What the disciples now see is but the beginning of a process that must continue. The necessity spoken of here is another statement of the heavenly gift of John 3:27. John must become less and less, whilst the glory of his Lord will increase without limit or end; and thus his ‘decreasing' is not the failure but the accomplishment of his work.

It is quite impossible to read carefully the following verses without perceiving that they bear a remarkable resemblance to the early part of the chapter, and that the general style and language are those of the Evangelist himself. In John 3:31 we read of Him ‘that cometh out of heaven;' in John 3:13 of Him ‘that came down out of heaven.' That He who is from heaven beareth witness of what He hath seen, and that His witness is not received, we read both in John 3:32 and in 1 Thessalonians 3 5 th verse might perhaps seem to contain Christ's own words, but not such as the Baptist would be likely to employ. So also in John 3:36 all the terms used, ‘he that believeth in,' ‘the Son' (standing absolutely), ‘eternal life,' ‘hath eternal life,' remind us of the language of the Evangelist himself and of Christ's discourses as related in this Gospel, especially in this chapter (John 3:15-17), but it is hardly possible to suppose them used by John the Baptist. Those writers who cannot admit that there is a break after John 3:30 are constrained to confess that the Baptist's subsequent words are expressed in the Evangelist's own language and style. It is a far simpler and more probable theory that the Evangelist (as in John 1:16 and John 3:16 see notes there) passes from his narrative into a meditation which it suggests, gathering together the main thoughts of the two sections which precede.