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We have here —

I. THE CORONATION OF THE KING.

1. The actual descent of the Spirit. It is unnecessary to ask what was the objective material reality here. It is enough that this was no fancy, born in a man's brain, but an actual manifestation, whether through sense or apart from sense, to consciousness of a Divine outpouring and communication.

2. The purpose of this descent. The anointing of the Monarch. But a man is king before he is crowned. Coronation is the consequence and not the cause of royalty. And so the first purpose of this great fact is distinctly stated as having been the solemn pointing out of Messiah for the Baptist first, but in order that he might bear witness of Him to others. But this was not the beginning of His Messianic consciousness, nor of His Sonship. Before His baptism, and ere the heavens opened, or the dove fluttered down, He from everlasting was Son in the bosom of the Father. Christ's baptism was an epoch in His human development inasmuch as it was His first public assumption of His Messianic office, and inasmuch as an advance was made in the communication to his manhood of the sustaining Spirit as fully equipped Him for new calls. His manhood needed the continual communication of the Spirit, and because it was sinless it was capable of a complete reception of that Spirit. So we see in Christ the realized ideal of manhood.

3. The meaning of this symbol. To John the coming of the King was first and chiefly a coming to judgment. John sees two wonders: the Messiah in his Carpenter Cousin and the Spirit, which he thought of as searching and consuming, like a dove. The same as in Genesis 1:2, where the word employed describes accurately the action of the mother bird with her soft breast and outstretched wings quickening the life that lies beneath. What then does it proclaim as to the character of the King.

(1) Purity, as the very foundation of His royalty.

(2) Meekness and gentleness, as the weapons of His conquest and the sceptre of His rule. The dove will outfly all Rome's eagles, and all rapacious unclean feeders with their strong wings, talons and beaks.

II. THE GIFTS OF THE KING TO HIS SUBJECTS.

1. Christ has nothing that He keeps to Himself. He received the Spirit that He might diffuse Him through the whole world. Salvation is more than escape from wrath, more than pardon. We must rise higher and feel if we would understand the "unspeakable gift" which is the totality of the gifts of His indwelling Spirit.

2. Therefore Christian met, are spoken of in the same language which is used in reference to their Master. "Sons of God," "Priests," "Lights of the World," "Anointed."

3. How full of rebuke and instruction is the symbol in reference to ourselves. The dove-like Spirit is offered to us.

(1) Our hearts are like the wild chaos; but He will come, if we will let Him, and brood over our nature and recreate the whole.

(2) The dove again was pure and fit for sacrifice: the heavenly dove comes as the Spirit of holiness, and then there is purity in the receiver and .self-sacrifice.

(3) The Dove that crowned the King dwells in the subjects and makes them, too, meek and gentle, and imparts the true force of Christian character.

(4) Noah's dove came back with one leaf in his beak — the prophecy of a whole world of beauty and verdure. The Dove that comes to us, bearing some leaf plucked from the tree of life, is the earnest of our inheritance until the day of redemption. All the gifts of that Divine Spirit — gifts of holiness, gentleness, wisdom, truth — are forecasts of heavenly perfectness. To us sailing over a dismal sea, He comes bearing with Him a message that tells of the far-off land and the fair garden of God in which the blessed shall walk.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)As a dove did at that time bring tidings of the abating of the water, so doth it now of the abating of the wrath of God upon the preaching of the gospel.

( Augustine.)The Holy Spirit manifested Himself here as a Dove; and at the day of Pentecost in tongues of fire; in order that we may learn to unite fervour with simplicity, and to seek for them both from Him.

( Augustine.)The dove, the symbol of innocence and purity (Matthew 10:16), the abiding and the tranquil hovering over Christ, expressed the tranquil and equable movement of the power of the Spirit in Him, in contrast with the detached impulses given to the prophets (Isaiah 11:2).

(Tholuck.)

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KJV: This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.

WEB: This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.'