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Luke 7:28
“I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Do we appreciate our place in the history of God’s plan of salvation? Do we understand that we live in a much better era of redemption than the faithful men and women who lived before the coming of Christ? Reading the Scriptures, we could easily think, “I wish I had lived at the time of the exodus so that I could see great miracles such as the crossing of the Red Sea.” Or we might think, “It would have been so much better to live in ancient Israel when I could have seen David fell Goliath with one smooth stone or Elijah call down fire from heaven.”
Certainly, being a contemporary witness to any of these events and many others would be remarkable. Yet Scripture tells us that it is far better to live after the ministry of Christ than to live before His coming. Jesus Himself makes this claim in today’s passage.
Our Lord continues His praise of John the Baptist that He began in Luke 7:24–27. Jesus says that John was the greatest person born of women—the greatest person in human history up to that point (Luke 7:28). Our Savior does not mean that John was greater than He but is making a contrast between the historical era of salvation before Jesus came and after His coming. That much is clear from Jesus’ statement that the “least in the kingdom of God” is John (v. 28). Our Lord came to bring the kingdom of God, doing the work necessary to restore the world to a state of the Lord’s blessing (see Mark 1:15). As the incarnate Mediator, Jesus belongs to the history of salvation inaugurated by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. In other words, John is the greatest figure of the old covenant era, not the absolute greatest man who ever lived. That honor belongs only to Christ.
The least individual of the new covenant era is greater than John the Baptist, the greatest of the old covenant period, because of what new covenant believers get to experience in history. We get to see how the promises of God were fulfilled in Jesus (Heb. 11:39–40). We experience a greater measure of the Holy Spirit, with every new covenant believer’s possessing at least one gift for ministry (1 Cor. 12). We enjoy a much clearer understanding of God as Father than any old covenant believer had (Matt. 6:9). We could go on, but the point is that as privileged a position as John the Baptist enjoys, our historical position is far greater. Thus, we should be grateful to live in the new covenant era and not think we are missing out for not living in the days of the old covenant prophets.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul comments that “anyone who is born after the cross, after the resurrection, and particularly after the ascension of Christ, is living in a better situation in terms of redemptive-historical salvation than all the saints in the Old Testament.” Let us thank God for granting us the privilege of living after the coming of Christ even as we are grateful for all who served Him before Jesus rose from the dead and sat down at God’s right hand.
for further study
- Matthew 11:11
- Hebrews 1:1–4
the bible in a year
- Judges 20–21
- Luke 11:1–28
- Ruth 1–1 Samuel 2
- Luke 11:29–12:34