“This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ “
John tells us that Jesus is a man who comes after John the Baptist but was also before John the Baptist. In fact, John reports John the Baptist as pointing out Jesus surpasses him because he was before him.
Q: What aspect of Jesus surpasses John the Baptist and how does that relate to Jesus coming before John the Baptist?
Jesus being God in the flesh is our creator and John is a created being.
Jesus has is an eternal being while John began life only when it was given to him by God.
Jesus came to earth to teach truth and give eternal life to all who would receive. John’s ministry was of repentance, but could not give eternal life.
Jess id greater than John and existed before John.
I love reading the comments here. Very nicely said!!
Well said … Whoever you are
John 1: 1 – 5, 14 tells us that Jesus was the creator of everything. Everything that has been made has been created by Him – “without Him was not anything made that was made.” This means that not only was Jesus before John – Jesus was His Creator. Thus Jesus is first and surpasses all of us. See also Hebrews 1: 1 – 3; Colossians 1: 15 – 17.
This question perplexed me a bit, and I did a lot of reading and research on it. The more I dig into John the Baptist and his relationship with Jesus the more I can see the complexity of what was unfolding at the time.
John the Baptist preached baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. When he performed a baptism, the intension was that the one baptized submitted their will to God. For men, it meant turning from sin and changing their life. John’s message also spoke of the coming Messiah, and repentance from the coming judgement. His message was one of promise.
Christ was baptized, and although He had no sin to repent from, it signified the beginning of His ministry. He too submitted His will to God, and His (earthly) life changed. Jesus surpassed John because Jesus’s message was one of fulfillment of the promise.
John was a human, and even though he knew he had be sent on a mission by God, he expressed doubts later on. Jesus was human and God simultaneously. He felt many emotions that humans feel: sadness, joy, anger, but no doubt. He had no doubt because it was as if it had all already been done. This speaks to Jesus coming before John. The One who made (makes) the promise is the One who fulfilled (fulfills) it.
Chris,
I really appreciate the thought you are putting into your comments on the blog. I love the fact that you do the extra reading and research to base your answers on.
The point you make about Jesus being both God and man is the key issue here. As John continues to reveal his Gospel account, his story makes clear that even the disciples (or especially the disciples) could not wrap their heads around the fact of Jesus being God. They had their moments of insight, of course, but they really struggled with this aspect of Jesus.
Of course, the Pharisees struggled even more! Imagine the mental gymnastics they had to go through every day to reconcile the miracles they kept hearing about with their belief that God would not send them a Messiah that they did not recognize and approve of!