20/02/2025
to us plain as noonday. Our very familiarity with the gospel makes us blind to the extent of our privileges.
Which raises a question: what privileges?
Why Is the Humblest Christian Greater Than John?
Outranking John the Baptist should not be a matter of prideful boasting, but of humble rejoicing. Many prophets and kings longed to see the things we see and didn’t see them; to receive what we’ve received and didn’t receive it (Matt. 13:16; Heb. 12:39). If we have received a greater blessing than John, it’s only by sheer grace. After all, did we somehow choose to be born in the age of fulfillment, when Christ has brought life and immortality to light (2 Tim. 1:10)?
John prophesied of the One who would baptize God’s people with the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11). And while John was certainly filled with the Spirit in a real way (Luke 1:15), he didn’t live to experience the Pentecost outpouring he had predicted (Acts 2). But even the least new-covenant member is indwelt with the promised Holy Spirit, and lives under the inaugurated kingship of the ascended Christ (Joel 2:28–29; Rom. 8:9; Acts 2:33).
Even the least of us has learned to confess with our mouths basic and beloved realities that, for John, were still future and fuzzy.
Finally, even the least in the kingdom doesn’t have to wonder whether Jesus is the one God’s people were waiting for, or whether we should look for another. Even the least of us has learned to confess with our mouths basic and beloved realities which, for John, were still future and fuzzy: that Jesus became obedient to death, that God has now highly exalted him, and that there will be a period of delay before he returns to gather the wheat and burn up the chaff (Phil. 2:8–9; Luke 19:11–12).
Ryle was right: “The child who knows the story of the cross possesses a key to religious knowledge which patriarchs and prophets never enjoyed.” Not even John the Baptist.