Mistaken Identity (John 3-4)

“He must increase, but I must decrease” – John 3:30

I often hear this quoted, but I never actually connected it was something that John the Baptist said.

Jesus tells Nicodemus about how we must be born again. We give everything that we have because the son of God has come into the world to save it. The beautiful gospel message comes with a price – the cost of discipleship. Being born of the spirit changes our identity to one found in Christ, thus decreasing us and increasing him.

The Samaritan woman found a similar truth in that her past sins decrease in the love of Christ. Those things which had increased to become her identity were decreased when Jesus looked on her and still accepted her.

As our identities become more wrapped up in Christ, we are less akin to the people we were before. However, if we do not decrease ourselves, Christ cannot increase. We must give him room to come in and take our lives and mould us. He needs to increase, we need to decreases as well.