I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. (Luke 7:28)
There is so very much we admire about John. His courage in calling people to repentance; his resolute witness to the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God; his determination to recede into the background, becoming less as his Saviour grew more. We aren't on the same page, at all. He is a genuine hero. And yet Jesus' words stand true and they stand over our lives as his people.
The comparison, of course, is not upon our exploits or our characters in relation to John. It's about where we are situated in history, in particular in the history of salvation and the blessings that attend it. John was the last of the prophets who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, the last in a long line who spoke of the coming glories. John spoke in the final minutes before the sun would rise on a wholly new day. The privilege of even the least in the kingdom of God - our privilege - is to live in the blazing light of that day.
To live with redemption accomplished and applied to us in the power of God's saving grace. To live in the reality of an adoption witnessed to by the Spirit who causes us to cry Abba, Father. To live within the freedom of a conscience cleansed from acts that lead to death, of an access into God's presence by a new and living way opened for us through the flesh of Jesus. To live as those who are rooted and established in love - the realised love of God in the death of his Son - and privileged to ask that we might be given power to know that love in all its dimensions. To live within a hope that is living through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.
And that's just scratching the surface.
Is your status within the family of God an issue to you? Do you feel you're passed by, unnoticed? Or do you deliberately seek a back row seat because you feel that, actually, you shouldn't really be there at all? We need to do what we can to put all such thoughts aside. Here is the truth, the reality that grounds our every day: living under the saving reign of God, we are blessed immeasurably. The sun has risen, we are in its healing rays. And it will rise higher and further; all our days, here and hereafter, will be bathed in its beauty.
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O what matchless condescension
The eternal God displays,
Claiming our supreme attention
To His boundless works and ways;
His own glory
He reveals in gospel days.
In the Person of the Saviour
All His majesty is seen;
Love and justice shine for ever;
And without a veil between,
We approach Him,
And rejoice in His dear name.
Would we view His highest glory,
Here it shines in Jesus’ face;
Sing and tell the pleasing story,
O ye sinners saved by grace;
And with pleasure,
Bid the guilty Him embrace.
In His highest work, redemption,
See His glory in a blaze;
Nor can angels ever mention
Aught that more of God displays.
Grace and justice
Here unite to endless days.
True, 'tis sweet and solemn pleasure,
God to view in Christ the Lord;
Here He smiles, and smiles for ever;
May my soul His Name record,
Praise and bless Him,
And His wonders spread abroad.
(William Gadsby, 1773-1844)
