This next section in John 1 contains the testimony of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the one voice calling out to make straight the way of the Lord. He was also baptizing those for repentance in anticipation of the coming Messiah. Who (except John the Baptist, having been provided the sign to authenticate the Messiah from God) could have known that the Messiah of which he testified would be standing in their midst that very next day?

John 1:19–28:

19This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

20And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

21They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

22Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

23He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”

24Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.

25They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.

27“It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

28These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Let’s set the stage for these verses. What was John the Baptist doing and who was he doing it to and why? He is testifying that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This constitutes the main idea of the gospel of John and why it was written (John 20:31). But the other thing he is doing is baptizing and I want to focus on that for just a minute.

This is not the typical baptism that you and I do as an outward expression of our inward identity to Christ. When you and I were baptized we were buried with Christ (as we are lowered into the water) and then raised with Him in newness of life (as we are raised out of the water). But Christ had not yet gone to the cross, died for the sins of the world, and been raised to life on the third day. So this baptism wasn’t exactly the same baptism that we go through. It was something a bit different and very meaningful and indeed provocative for these Jews that were being baptized by John.

To begin to understand this baptism we first need to remember that the Jews hated the Gentiles. In fact, they called the Gentiles dogs, which was the worst form of identification for a person. Jew’s thought very lowly of the Gentiles in that they were unclean and undeserving of any recognition or respect. They really did not like the Gentiles at all.

Now, in Matthew 3:11 John the Baptist says:

11“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

John’s baptism was specifically with water (a physical substance) for repentance, which was a preparative mindset that would prepare people to follow and obey the Messiah. In contrast, he says that Jesus’ baptism will be far greater as He will baptize with the Spirit and fire. So we know from John that his baptism is different than Jesus’ baptism. Of course, then our baptism is an outward expression of Jesus’ inward baptism of us with the Spirit.

So the question remains, “What does John’s baptizing mean to the Jews at that time?” This is where it gets mind blowing. This baptism that John was performing had its roots in OT purification rites. Now this form of baptism was also being performed on the Gentiles that were converting to Judaism. Yes, that’s right, this is the same baptism that would be performed as a purification act not only on the Jewish people, but also on those hated Gentiles!

Think about this. These Jewish people were humbling themselves greatly. In a sense, they were saying that they were no different from the Gentile dogs. This was an extreme demonstration of their humility and repentance.

Why was there such an extreme demonstration at this time? Well, Jesus was about to start His ministry. When Jesus is present mountains are moved. And in this case, the Gentile hating Jews were stating that they were no better than those that they hated and were in desperate need of repentance. But more importantly, this was a genuine demonstration of their repentance. After all, at that time, who among the Jews would even think of identifying in any way with a Gentile?

Now you can see why the Pharisees sent the priests and Levites to question John the Baptist. This was an earth shaking event for the religious leaders. If John was a false prophet (which I imagine was foremost in their minds), then he had to be silenced so that the Jews could be kept untarnished by the Gentiles. So the Pharisees sent a delegation to question him.

The delegation first asked John if he was the Christ. This was an important question since if he answered “No” then he might be at risk of retribution from the Pharisees. I would imagine that John knew this, but yet his answer remained truthful and humble in John 1:20:

20And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

This answer was not a simple “No”; rather, this was more akin to “I AM ABSOLUTELY NOT THE CHRIST!!!” The way this was phrased in the Greek and mostly in the English is that of absolute exclamation, not leaving anything in question. The phrase repeats: he confessed, he did not deny, and again he confessed. This redundancy or restatement implies that what he said was both surprising and of importance.

The “I am” in “I am not the Christ.” is placed in the emphatic in the Greek due to word order (something that is not easily translated to the English). You could think of the “I am” as in bold. John is emphatically saying, “In no way am I the Christ!”

Finally after questioning John, the delegation asks who he is that he is baptizing for purification? In essence, John replies that he is preparing the way for the true Messiah, the true Saviour of the world. Remember, John said that he was just a voice that was preparing the way for the Lord or making straight the path for the Lord. This verse comes from the OT in Isaiah 40:3:

3A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

John the Baptist was preparing the hearts and minds of the people to humble themselves and repent of their sins in view of Jesus’ coming ministry.

John 1:29-34:

29The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

30“This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’

31“I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.”

32John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.

33“I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’

34“I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

John the Apostle now brings us into the second day’s events following the events of verses 19-28 that we just read. John the Baptist begins by introducing Jesus as the Lamb of God. In John 1:1-18 we learned of several names or descriptions of Jesus: the Word, the Creator, the Light of men, and God. Here we learn of a new name, the Lamb of God. This certainly had specific meaning to the Jewish people as lambs were an imperfect sacrifice for people’s sin. John was saying, here is the sacrificial Lamb…the one and only perfect Lamb that will be sacrificed. It is almost as if John the Baptist is answering the question from long ago in Genesis 22:7:

7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

John’s answer is (to paraphrase), “Behold! He is right here in your midst.”

This perfect Lamb of God was the finality of all sacrifices. There could not be a continued sacrifice for sin as Jesus took the entire burden of sin from the world, carried it, became sin, and died. What more effect could a continuation of the imperfect Jewish sacrificial system have? None!

Notice, though, the rest of verse 29. The Lamb of God takes away the sin (singular) of the world. The verb “takes away” gives us the sense that Jesus is taking a burden (sin) from our shoulders and placing it on His; therefore, removing this burden from us. Now, you could ask the question (as I did), “Why do we have to be saved now that Jesus has removed sin from the world?” The rest of this verse (29) explains why. The word “sin” is singular not plural. And the word “world” covers all humanity in a general sense. So John the Baptist is not saying that Jesus is taking away all sins from each and every one of us specifically so that we have no need for repentance and salvation but that Jesus is bearing the penalty for the entirety of the world’s sin. Remember back in John 1:12:

12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

There needs to be a reception of Jesus on our part. We need to repent and believe in Him and place our faith and trust in Him. The people that John was baptizing were preparing themselves for the arrival of the sacrificial Lamb of God. Their belief was in the right place…in Jesus. Their repentance made straight the way of the Lord.

The other important point that John the Baptist brings up is that he did not know or recognize who this Lamb of God would be. In what must have been a completely stunning turn of events, John found out that his very own cousin Jesus of Nazareth was He. This may seem odd, but God had a reason in keeping the true nature of Jesus a secret up until that point. Not only that, but God sovereignly kept John and Jesus apart physically (Jesus in Nazareth and John in the Judean desert). If John and Jesus knew one another and had been close to one another then there could be charges of collusion brought against both of them. In keeping Jesus’ identity secret and both men physically separated, proving collusion between them would be difficult to impossible. But the final proof that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the very Son of God, was in John’s vision of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus…not only descending, but remaining on Jesus.

This is John the Baptist’s testimony, that Jesus is the Son of God. In John 1:19-28 he gives a testimony of who he is, showing that he is not the Christ. In verses 29-34 he then gives testimony of who Jesus is, introducing Him to the world in which He came to save.