In John 3:30 John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The increase and the decrease depend on who has the following. For Christ to increase and for John the Baptist to decrease means that John had to withdraw from the scene and from having a following; he had to allow Christ to be the only figure on the scene and to have all the following. All the following should go to Christ; none of it should go to John the Baptist or to anyone else. We all must decrease and let Christ increase. The entire following must go to Him.
We should all desire to see Christ increasing and ourselves decreasing. For this we need to speak the Lord’s word. The real significance of speaking the word of God is to spread God. When we speak the holy Word, the truth, the divine revelation, we spread God. Christ speaks God through us, His members, by defining God, explaining God, and eventually expressing God. To express God is to spread God. Christ is One who speaks the words of God and who gives the Spirit not by measure (v. 34). When someone receives His words, the Spirit follows to be the reality of what is spoken. Christ increases Himself by speaking God’s word to spread God and by giving the Spirit of God to be the reality of what He has spoken in order to dispense the eternal life into people, making them Godkind, the children of God, the species of God, the family of God, to be Christ’s increase. This is how Christ becomes the increasing Christ.
Verses 31 through 36 present Christ as the immeasurable Son of God. These verses reveal an unlimited Christ. He is all-inclusive and immeasurable; He is higher than the heavens and broader than the universe. The Christ whom we may experience and enjoy is unlimited and immeasurable.
“He who comes from above is above all; he who is from the earth is of the earth and speaks out of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all” (v. 31). Christ is from above, from heaven; His source is heaven. Because His source is from above, He is above all things, all matters, and especially all people.
“The Father loves the Son and has given all into His hand” (v. 35). The Son is the object of the Father’s love. In love, the Father has made the Son to be above all and to be all in all. The Son’s all-inclusiveness is a matter of the Father’s love.
The clause the Father loves the Son implies that apart from Christ, or besides Christ, nothing is pleasing to God. The Father loves only one person, and that person is Christ. God’s love for the world (v. 16) is related to Christ. Apart from Christ, God does not love anyone or anything. Although God loves the world, if we did not have Christ, we would miss God’s love. Only in Christ can we enjoy the love of God the Father. If we are outside of Christ, we have nothing to do with the Father’s love. We can meet the love of the Father only in Christ.
Verse 35 says not only that the Father loves the Son but also that the Father has given all things into the Son’s hand. The Father has given all things, including us, to Christ. The entire universe has been given to Christ, whom God the Father loves. He is the unique recipient of the Father’s love and gifts. This implies that if we are not in Christ, we cannot receive any gifts from the Father. If we would enjoy God’s love, we need to be in Christ. Likewise, if we would participate in what God gives, we also need to be in Christ, the unique object of the Father’s love and the unique recipient of the Father’s gifts.
“He whom God has sent speaks the words of God” (v. 34a). The One who is from above, who is above all, who is loved by the Father, and to whom all things have been given by the Father has also been sent by God. Christ is God’s Ambassador, God’s Apostle; He was sent by God and from God.
As the One sent by God, Christ speaks the words of God to impart the riches of God into His believers. In verse 34 the Greek word translated words is rhema, which means the instant and present spoken word. Christ ministers the living word to nourish all His believers. Christ does not speak His own words or someone else’s words—He speaks only the words of God. These words are spirit and life (6:63) as the essence of God Himself.
John 3:34b says, “He gives the Spirit not by measure.” Christ the Son gives the Spirit without measure to God’s people. The unique way for us to become the increase of the unlimited Christ is to receive the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit. The more we have of the Spirit, the more we will be Christ’s increase. This increase begins with our regeneration, and it consummates with our being filled with the immeasurable Spirit.
“He who believes into the Son has eternal life” (v. 36a). Everyone who believes in Christ the Son and is regenerated receives and enjoys Him as the eternal life (v. 15; 1 John 5:11-12).