given all things into His hand.” This latter phrase, into His hand, signifies not only possession, but the power of disposal. See Mark ix. 31; xiv. 41; Luke xxiii. 46; Heb. x. 31. God has given the Son all things to administer according to His own pleasure and rule. These two ideas of Christ’s reception and bestowment of divine gifts are combined in Matt. xi. 27. “Ad things are delivered unto me of my Father ; and no man know- eth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son may de- termine (BovAnTat) to reveal Him.”
Therefore John the Baptist must decrease, and Jesus must increase. A measure of the Spirit was given to the Baptist, sufficient for his preparatory work, but the Baptist himself saw the Spirit descending in a bodily form upon the Son of God, and heard the voice from heaven, “ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Spirit is thus Christ’s own. He dispenses, gives it (Siswov), in its fulness. Hence Jesus said, later, of the Spirit of truth, “He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I that He shall take of mine and shall show it unto you” (John xvi. 14, 15).
36. He that believeth not (6 a7re3av). More correctly, as Rev., obeyeth not. Disbelief is regarded in its active manifes- tation, disobedience. The verb 7e/JIw means to persuade, to cause belief, to induce one to do something by persuading, and so runs into the meaning of to obey, properly as the result of persuasion. See on Acts v. 29. Compare 1 Pet. iv. 17; Rom. ii. 8; xi. 30, 31. Obedience, however, includes faith. Com- pare Rom. i. 5, the obedience of faith.
Shall not see (ov« dera). Compare the future tense with the present “hath eternal life,” and the simple fe with the fully developed idea eternal life. He who believes is within the circle of the life of God, which is essentially eternal. His life “is hid with Christ in God.” Life eternal is to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. Hence, to such an one, eternal life is not merely something future. It