He Must Increase

“You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:28-30

John the Baptist knew that the Messiah would eventually overshadow his own ministry. He tells his disciples that his replacement had come and that they should embrace the change because the Savior was now among them.

What might this mean for us? Jesus by nature is God (John 1:1-3). He cannot increase; He is equal to the Father (John 10:28), holds everything together (Col. 1:17), and is able to forgive sin (Mat. 9:1). By the same token, by nature we are already fallen, so we cannot decrease (practically speaking.) We are born sinners, and therefore are apart from grace and our works are futile. Alone, we are at the bottom of a pit whether we see it or not, and cannot by ourselves improve spiritually in any meaningful way. (Thankfully the grace of God handles that!)

But John is referring to influence, not nature as to what must change. (Rom. 3:23, 5:12.) He is declaring that now that the Messiah is on the scene, his disciples need to pursue more influence from Jesus and less from him. For us, this is a reminder that as Christians, we must develop more sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, increase focus on Jesus and gain knowledge of the Father. Conversely, we need to be de-sensitized to the World, the Flesh and the Devil, thus Jesus increases and we decrease.

Perhaps this visualization will help. You take a pot of soil and place a seed in it. Over time, the seed sprouts and roots permeate the soil until, if left long enough, there will be virtually all roots and no soil. We see the increase of influence of the plant and a decrease in the influence of the soil. (Of course this is a bummer for the plant!) We are the soil in which God has planted His Spirit. We want to allow the Spirit to grow in us until we are consumed by Him.

As we decrease, we will see less of the influence of pride (spiritual and personal), self-will, rebellion and disobedience. In other words, less of the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21.) In addition, if Christ is increasing, we will exhibit the fruit of the Spirit in greater measure: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Gal. 5:22-23. There is a double benefit of improving personally as the influence of Jesus increases in our lives, but Jesus can also use us for greater influence in the life of others.

Here are some thoughts that may help in our quest to let Jesus increase in our lives.

Choose carefully what we let into our mind and heart. Everything we expose ourselves to marks our thinking. There are things which we cannot practically avoid, such as billboards, advertisements or co-workers, for example. But there are many choices we can probably improve related to where we go, what we do with our time, what we watch, listen to and read.

There is no neutral in life. We are either going forward, or we are going backward. Like going upstream in a canoe, it takes work to keep from being swept downstream. Let’s put in the effort to improve our choices, better use our time and work to put God first in our activities. This means more than staying away from ‘negative’ things. We must choose to look for ‘positive’ things, including in people. Look for the best in others, encourage them and intercede for them in prayer.

Exercise your faith. Read and study the Word, discover and share your testimony, know and trust the promises of God. Confess your faith and gratitude toward God to others. It’s good to remember to build ourselves and others up by sharing our faith and thanksgiving.

Can you thinks of other ways we can decrease while allowing Jesus to increase in our lives? Let me know what you think!

If you’d like to know when I post these random bits, put your e-mail address in the box and touch ‘Subscribe’. It’s free, and I won’t divulge your information.