John the Baptist who became Jesus the Christ

For two thousand years John the Baptist has been seen as the one who first predicted the coming of the Messiah and then recognized Jesus as “the Lamb of God” at his baptism in the Jordan River.

John the Baptist, however, was not merely the herald of Jesus. He was Jesus. He became a Christos, an anointed one, after his process of God-realization, symbolized by his baptism in the Jordan.

He became the...