receive the benefit of Christ's passion, because all do not believ<! on Christ, yet that benefit is so offered to the whole woild, that whosoever, whether circumcised or uncircumcised, king or peas- ant, high or low, rich or poor, sick or well, old or youn^-, receive- Christ by faith, is justified before God, and saved with an eternal salvation."
Muscnlus says, " John places before us no one particular person whose sins the Lamb has come to take away; but under the expression ' the world,' he comprehends the whole race of mortals from the very beginning of the world to the end of it."
Melancthon says, " lie taketh away the sin, that is the univer- sal condemnation, of the human race."
Chemnitius says, "John affirms that the benefits of Christ belong not to the Jews only, but to the whole world, and that no one who is in the world is excluded from them, if he is only wilhng to receive them by faith."
The deep spiritual knowledge exhibited by John the Baptist in this verse, ought not to be overlooked. Such a sentence as the one before us never fell from the lips of any other disciple of Christ before the day of Pentecost. Others could say that our Lord was the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Son of David, the King of Israel, the Son of the Blessed, who was to come into the world. But none seem to have seen so clearly as John that Christ was the sacrifice for sin, the Lamb that was to be slain. Weh would it be for the Church of Christ in the nineteenth century, if all its ministers possessed as much know- ledge of Christ's atonement as is here shown by John the Baptist 1 John saw the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, before He died on the cross. Many so-called Christians cannot see Christ's vicarious sacrifice even at this day !
30. — [This is he of whom I said.] These words appear to have been spoken in our Lord's presence, and to have been specially intended to point the multitude to Him. "This person before you is He of whom I have repeatedly spoken in my ministry, as the coming One who is far greater than myself. You see Him now before you."
[A man.Jie was before me.] ' The human and divine natures of our Lord are here brought together by John in one sentence, "He of whom I spake to you is a man, and yet at the same time He is One who was before rae, because He has existed from all eternity."
31. — [/ knew him not] This means "I was not acquainted with Him in time past. There has been no private collusion or arrangement between Him and me. I did not even know Him