John 1:31-33

John had not known that Jesus was the Messiah before God revealed that to him, even though they were relatives (cf. Luke 1:36). John learned who Jesus really was when he baptized Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22). The Apostle John did not record Jesus’ baptism, which happened before the events he recorded here. John the Baptist further explained that he carried on his baptizing ministry with Messiah’s public identification as a goal (cf. Mark 1:4). The symbolic descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove that remained on Jesus identified Jesus to John the Baptist as Messiah who was to baptize with the Holy Spirit (cf. Isaiah 11:2; Ezekiel 36:25-26; Mark 1:10).

"Two times in John the Baptist’s account he made mention of the Spirit ’remaining’ on Jesus (John 1:32-33). This is extremely important as a description of the Spirit’s relationship to Jesus because permanence is implied." [Note: Harris, p. 197.]

In the Synoptics the writers mentioned only Jesus seeing the descent of the Spirit as a dove. John is the only evangelist who recorded that John the Baptist also saw it. The purpose of the baptism of Jesus in this Gospel then is to identify Jesus as Messiah to John the Baptist so he could bear witness to Jesus’ identity. Every other disciple was dependent on a human witness for divine illumination about Jesus’ true identity in John’s Gospel. Baptism with water was essentially negative symbolizing cleansing from something, but baptism with the Spirit was positive indicating the imparting of new life from God.