LECT. bare his testimony, and one of the Fathers gives III. us a reason: it was, he says, "to shew the boldness of the loud-voiced herald. For it was not in a house, neither in a corner, nor in the wilderness, but in the midst of the multitude, after that he had occupied Jordan, in the presence of all that were being baptized by him, (for the Jews came upon him as he was baptizing,) there it was that he proclaimed that wonderful confession concerning Christ, full of those sublime and great and mysterious doctrines, and that he was not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe. . . . And he notes the places also for another reason. For since he was about to relate not matters of old date, but those which had come to pass but a little while before, he makes those who were present, and had seen, witnesses of his words, and supplies proof from the places themselves."

One would have hoped that these Pharisees, on hearing that such an one as the Baptist proclaimed was standing in their midst, would have enquired further about Him, that they might follow Him also. But they came, it is evident, not to learn about Christ, but to molest John. May we be humble as he, and not harden our hearts as they!

a Chrysos. in Jo. Hom. xvii. The general reasoning holds good, though it be applied to another place than to that particular one which he had in mind.

LECTURE IV.

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD!

JOHN i. 29-34.

IV.

THE day after the Baptist had borne testimony LECT. to Christ before the Pharisees, he bears another public testimony to Him. Jesus, returning probably from the temptation in the wilderness, comes to visit John; and John, seeing Him in the distance, utters the memorable words, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!"

Herein the Baptist bare testimony to Christ as the Saviour. For the Passover-that yearly festival among the Jews, in which a lamb was slain in commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt, and in type of Him who should in the ages after effect a still greater deliverance-that sacred festival was nigh at hand", and the Baptist, by using this expression, directed his hearers to Him whom that festival foreshadowed; directed them to the Lamb, the Lamb of God; the Lamb whom God, as Abraham had said, would provide Him for a sacrifice, even His own dear and onlybegotten Son. Among the Jews too, daily, both morning and evening, a lamb was slain and offered upon the altar of God. So that the idea of a

ach. ii. 13.

b Gen. xxii. 8.

LECT. sacrificial lamb was familiar enough to his hearers; IV. and the Baptist, by divine inspiration, applied the figure to Him who was to fulfil it shortly. He called Christ the "Lamb," for His precious blood was to be shed, as the blood of a lamb without blemish and without spot in the sacrifices was shed, that the sins of those who believe in Him might be pardoned and put away. And so it came to pass for "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God." The sins which we have committed shall not be laid to our charge, but God will consider them as expiated in Christ, if we believe in Him. He is the Lamb whom God provided, according to that unconscious prophecy of Abraham, "My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb." This is that "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world"."

d

These words "which taketh away the sin of the world," the Baptist also added, because this Lamb of God should take away not the sins of one nation only, not the sins of the Jews alone, by whom alone those sacrifices of the Law were offered, but the sins of the whole world, of all who in all the world believe in Him. And so our

c Rev. xiii. 8.

Annotavit et temporis rationem Chrysostomus. Non esse dictum tulit aut tollet, sed tollit verbo præsentis temporis, quod ab illo semper proficiscatur omnis purgatio criminum; veluti dicas, Elleborum purgat cerebrum, significans illi perpetuam et nativam inesse vim purgandi capitis." Eras.

Chrysostom's words are, (Hom. xviii.) Kal oùr elñev d Anyóuevos d ἄρας· ἀλλ ̓ ὁ αἴρων τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ κόσμου· ὡς ἀεὶ τοῦ τὸ ποίουντος αὐτοῦ. Οὐ γὰρ τότε μόνον ἔλαβεν ὅτε ἔπαθεν, ἀλλ ̓ ἐξ ἐκείνου μέχρι τοῦ παρόντος αἴρει τὰς ἁμαρτίας· οὐκ ἀεὶ σταυρούμενος μίαν γὰρ ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτιῶν προσήνεγκε θυσίαν· ἀλλ ̓ ἀεὶ καθαίρων διὰ τῆς μιᾶς ἐκείνης.

IV.

Evangelist, himself a Jew, says elsewhere of LECT. Christ," He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." And this, it has been well observed, encourages our faith; "if Christ takes away the sin of the world, then why not my sin?"

So then this Lamb of God taketh away our sins; they shall not be found; they shall not rise up in judgment against us: He takes them on Himself.

But the Baptist not only bears this testimony to Christ; he declares also how he had obtained this knowledge, even by revelation from heaven. He adds, “And I knew Him not." John knew Jesus, but the Baptist knew not yet the Messiah. He indeed was aware of His miraculous birth, he must have known His remarkable character", he may even have suspected Him to be the Messiah: but as God, who sent him on his work as Baptist, had promised him a sign whereby he might discover the Messiah, and as that sign had not yet been given, he did not yet recognise Jesus as such, whatever might have been his own thoughts and suspicions. But when after His baptism, (recorded by the other Evangelists,) John saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and remaining upon Jesus, (as was the promised sign,) he at once recognised Him as the Messiah, the Christ, the Lamb of God. And now that his expectations were realized, now that the sign had been given, now that he was able to recognise officially Him in

* 1 John ii. 2.

f Henry.

8 Matt. iii. 14.

LECT. whom before, it may be, he had believed privately, IV. he at once bare record that this is the Son of God.

And his testimony was of the most satisfactory kind, the testimony of an eye-witness: he says, "I saw, and bare record." The Baptist received a sign whereby he might recognise the Messiah: it was said to him from God, "Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." The words," and remaining on Him," are added emphatically, in order, it would seem, to illustrate what is said of the difference between the baptism of Christ and the baptism of John. We must connect the expression with what immediately follows: it seems to have reference to this. The Spirit not only descended upon Christ, but remained upon Him; for He was to baptize with the Holy Ghost, a baptism of everlasting efficacy, and not as John's, which, as he himself professed, was only temporary; baptism not merely of the body, but of the soul also a baptism of water and of the Spirit".

a

In the express mention of the Baptist's testimony, we have another instance of our Evangelist's design in this Gospel, namely, to set before us the Divinity of Christ; to shew that He is God as well as Man. Hence he introduces amongst other this testimony of John the Baptist, "this is the Son of God."

The Baptist had previously spoken of Christ as man: above we hear him saying, "After me cometh a man which is preferred before me :" but

h With vv. 31, 33. compare ch. iii. 5.

i ver. 30.