1:7
John the Baptist is at pains to stress that he is not the main man. In the gospel of John a key feature of the early chapter or two is its emphasis on the fact that John the Baptist came to point people towards Jesus. Here John first stresses his own inferiority compared to Jesus. Jesus is more powerful than John the Baptist, and John is the most lowly of servants in comparison to Jesus. Tying or untying the straps of someone’s sandals was the most menial of tasks.
1:8
John then emphasises the greatness of Jesus. John baptised with water, it was a baptism of repentance (Acts 19:4), in a sense it was what we could do (I know God is instrumental in leading us to repentance). Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit. God Himself would come to live within us, we would be born again, a wok of inner transformation would begin. John could not do this, nor was he meant to. The Old Testament made clear the need for us to be born again. It catalogues the repeated failure of even the “good men”, men such as Moses, David etc. It spoke of a day coming when God would pour out His Spirit on mankind (e.g. Is 32:15; 44:3; Ezek 39:29; Jer 31:31-34; Joel 2:28,29).
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