GEJ 1.24

But John collects himself and says to his pupils, ‘Listen, this is how it seems to me: a human being can take nothing, especially in matters of the spirit, unless it is first given to him from the heavens! The extraordinary man who had Himself baptized by me beyond the Jordan, upon whom I saw the Spirit of God descend from the heavens in the form of a little cloud of light, as gently as a dove settling on its nest, and to whom I bore testimony, could not as a mere human being have taken for Himself what He has. But He is more than a mere human being and seems indeed to have the power to take for Himself from the heavens, and to keep what He has taken or give it to whomever He wishes. And I believe that we have received everything we have from His grace, so it is surely impossible for us to prescribe what He should do and how! He gives, while we are those who receive from Him. He has His winnowing shovel in His hand; He will sweep His threshing floor as He wishes, gather the wheat into His barn, burn the chaff with eternal fire and make of the ashes whatever He wishes!’

‘You yourselves are my witnesses that before the priests and Levites who came to me from Jerusalem I said, “I am not Christ, but sent ahead of Him.” How, then, could I object to what He does who has His own winnowing shovel in His hand? Let Him sweep His threshing floor as He wishes; we may lay down no law for Him! For the field (the world) is His, as are the wheat (the children of God) and the chaff (the children of the world or of the devil); and His are the barn (heaven) and the fire (hell), which never goes out!’

‘He who has the bride (the wisdom of the heavens) is a true bridegroom; but the bridegroom’s friend stands and listens to Him and greatly rejoices at the bridegroom’s voice! And look, this joy is now fulfilled in me! But when the Lord Himself comes, the messenger’s office is at an end. For the messenger has nothing to do but announce the Lord’s arrival; once the Lord is here, the messenger is of no further use!’

‘That is why I must now decrease, but He as the Lord must increase among the people of this earth. You have always been my disciples since I came to you as a messenger sent; which of you has ever heard me boast of it? I always reserved the rightful glory for Him to whom it belongs. When I testified that I was not worthy to untie His sandal straps, I certainly did not exalt myself, but gave Him alone all the honor that human blindness wished to pay me. Therefore I say again: my office is now at an end. When the Lord Himself comes, the forerunner is of no further use. So the messenger (the flesh) must now decrease, and He as the Lord (the Spirit) must increase beyond all flesh! There is a great difference between the messenger and Him who sends the messenger wherever He wishes by His very own power.’

‘He who has the power to give laws is above, and he who must obey is below. But accordingly no one can rightfully be above unless he has come from above. Whoever truly comes from above is above all. Whoever is of the earth can never be from above, but always only of the earth. But He who comes from heaven is above all, for He is the Lord! He can therefore do what He wishes and can baptize with water, fire and Spirit, for everything is His!

Yet I believe that He Himself does not baptize much with water, but only with the fire of the Spirit. His disciples, however, will first baptize people in my manner, that is, all those who have not accepted baptism with water from me? But baptism with water is of no use to a person unless he is afterward baptized with the Spirit of God.’

‘Water testifies to nothing but water and cleanses the skin of the dirt of the earth. But the Spirit of God, with which only the Lord alone can baptize, since the Spirit of God is His Spirit, testifies to God and to what He alone always beholds and hears in God!

But unfortunately scarcely anyone yet accepts this holy testimony! For what is dung is dung and cannot receive the spirit, unless the dung first passes through fire and there itself becomes spirit; for a true fire consumes everything except the spirit, which is itself a mighty fire. That is why the Lord’s baptism of the spirit will also destroy many, and many will shrink from accepting it.’

‘But whoever accepts this baptism, and in it the holy testimony, will seal within himself before the world that He who baptized him with the spirit is Himself most truly God and alone can give eternal life. Yet you now ask within yourselves: why seal within oneself the testimony of the heavens about God through God? I have told you: dung is and remains dung, and spirit remains spirit. But if the earthly human being, who is dung at bottom, receives the spirit into his dung, will the spirit remain with him unless he keeps it safe within himself, that is, in his heart?

Or is there some fixed measure by which the spirit is distributed, so that everyone might know how much spirit he has received? But if no such measure is fixed, the earthly human being of dung must open a measure in his heart for the spirit he has received. Only when the spirit has entered into lasting rest in this measure and in that rest has filled the new measure will the human being of dung become aware within himself of how much spirit he has received!

But what use would it be to you if, at the sea, you scooped water into a barrel full of holes? Could you ever say and know that you had scooped such and such an amount of water from the sea, which is measureless to you? But if the barrel is well bound, you will also be able to measure how much seawater you have in it! Yet the water of the sea is the same throughout; much or little makes no difference. Thus the sea itself is sea throughout, and whoever scoops from the sea anywhere, much or little, scoops entirely true seawater and only afterward becomes aware of the measure.’

‘It is just the same with Him who has come from God to testify to God and speak the pure word of God. He Himself is the measureless sea (the Spirit of God). So if He gives someone His Spirit, He gives it not according to the infinite measure that can exist in all its infinite fullness in God alone, but according to the measure within the human being. But if the human being wishes to retain the spirit, his own measure must not be damaged and left open; rather, this measure must be well bound and securely sealed.

But He whom you visited and asked whether He was Christ, though outwardly also a Son of Man, has received the Spirit of God not according to the measure of a human being, but according to the infinite measure of God Himself, already from eternity. For He Himself is the measureless sea of the Spirit of God within Himself! His love is His Father from eternity, and this love is not outside the visible Son of Man, but within Him Himself, who is the fire, the flame and the light from eternity in and from the Father.’

‘But this dear Father loves His own Son exceedingly, and all power and might lie in the Son’s hands. Everything we have according to the proper measure we have drawn from His measureless fullness. He Himself, out of His own word, is now a human being of flesh among us, and His word is God, Spirit and flesh, which we call the Son. The Son is therefore also in Himself eternally the life of all life.

‘Whoever therefore accepts the Son and believes in Him already has eternal life within himself. For just as God Himself is His own most perfect eternal life in every word, so He is also in every human being who receives His word, most full of life, within himself and keeps it. But whoever, on the contrary, does not accept God’s word from the mouth of the Son, and thus does not believe the Son, will not and cannot receive life, nor see and feel it within himself. And the wrath of God, which is the judgment of things that have no life except that of the eternally unchanging law of must, will remain over him as long as he does not believe in the Son.

I, John, have now spoken these things to you and given you all a fully valid testimony. With my own hands I have cleansed you of the dirt of the earth! Go now and accept His word, so that you may receive the baptism of His Spirit; for without it all my efforts with you are without use or value! I too would gladly go to Him myself, but He does not wish it and reveals to me through my spirit that I am to remain, since I have already received in the spirit what you still lack!’

This is John’s last and greatest testimony about Me, and needs no further explanation, since it explains itself in and of itself.

But the reason why it is not given so fully in the Gospel remains the same. First, the necessary manner of writing at that time was to record only the main points and leave out everything else that an awakened spirit can in any case easily find for itself. Second, the living holy element in the word was not to be defiled and desecrated. Thus every such verse is a seed with a very firm shell, within which the germ of an endless life and its never-measurable fullness of wisdom rests concealed.