John answered them, "I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don't know.

 (ii) But John is quite sure that, although Jesus is the bringer of this life, the giver of life is God. Again and again John uses the phrase the living God, as indeed the whole Bible does. It is the will of the Father who sent Jesus that everyone who sees him and believes on him should have life ( John 6:40). Jesus is the giver of life because the Father has set his own seal of approval upon him ( John 6:27). He gives life to as many as God has given him ( John 17:2). At the back of it all there is God. It is as if God was saying: "I created men that they should have real life; through their sin they have ceased to live and only exist; I have sent them my Son to enable them to know what real life is." 