The turning point

In the last article, we looked at the tribute that Jesus gave to John in Matthew 11. In verse 11 of this chapter Jesus made the incredible statement that among those born of women, no one was greater than John the Baptist. And yet, in the very next breath Jesus made an even more amazing statement, saying, “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he!” This statement was not made to bring disrespect to John, whom Jesus was clearly honoring in this passage, but rather to shine the light on the glory of the new birth.

John the Baptist in a sense represented a turning point in history. He was the final prophet Old Covenant, which soon be made obsolete with the death and resurrection of Jesus and the introduction of the New Covenant made in his blood. (Luke 22:20) Jesus was making the point that the best any man could achieve under the old Covenant of law and works was nothing compared to that which God would, through his grace, give freely to all through the New Covenant.

Paul would later make this same point in 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, where he stated that the New Covenant – which ultimately centers around “the ministry of the Spirit” is even “more glorious” than the Old – so much so that the Old Covenant could even be said to have “no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory” of the New. As good as the old Covenant was, the simple fact is that no one could be born again under it. Only with the advent of the New Covenant, made in the blood of Jesus, could mankind be regenerated – born of the Spirit of God.

In Matthew 11:13 Jesus said, “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” John the Baptist and all the prophets who had come before spoke prophetically of the good things that would come with the advent of God’s kingdom being established on earth. But from Jesus onward, the New Testament authors speak of the good things that have come! Jesus made this distinction very clear in Luke 16:16, when he said, “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”

This clear distinction between the promise and the fulfillment of the promise is also seen clearly at the onset of Jesus’ ministry. Mark 1:14 tells us that Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom is at hand.” And in Luke 4:21 after standing up in the synagogue in Nazareth and reading a prophecy of Isaiah foretelling the good things that would someday come in “The favorable year of the Lord” he declared, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Every time I read this passage it makes me realize how fortunate we are to be living in these days! Even though we had nothing to do with it, God chose us to live out our days on this earth under the blessings of the New Covenant and the grace of God. Peter makes it clear in 1^st Peter 1:12 that the Old Testament prophets had it “revealed to them that they were not serving themselves” in the prophecies they made, but rather they were serving us “in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven -- things into which angels long to look.”

Aren’t you glad that not only was there was a turning point in history when the Old Covenant was replaced by the New Covenant and the New Birth, but we are living on the New side of that turning point!