(And all the people who heard [it], and the tax-gatherers, justified God, having been baptised with the baptism of John;
John's preaching had already divided Israel before Jesus spoke these words. This verse names the side that got it right: ordinary people and tax collectors who had gone down into the Jordan for John's baptism. The strange part is the verdict itself. They "declared God just" — people passing sentence in favour of their Maker.
To justify God is to agree with His assessment of us, and the agreement is not vague — it is a specific admission of what we deserve.
The strange thing is that we who try in vain to justify ourselves are called instead to justify God. For ourselves, "it is God who justifies," and God alone. But we justify Him when we take our place according to His estimate of what we are. He has spoken about us with a plainness we cannot mistake unless we choose to, and with a finality that leaves no room for argument. The tax collectors "declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John." They were all baptized in the Jordan, the river of death, "confessing their sins" — the sins for which death was the just due. So they proclaimed God's righteousness against themselves. That was repentance. And there God could proclaim the righteousness of people whose own testimony was that they had none.
One act cannot praise both God and self. So the verse puts a question to every reader.
Have we taken the place of self-condemnation? Have we bowed in true repentance before God? This is to justify God. The two things go together — yes, they are one and the same. The man who condemns himself justifies God; and the man who justifies God condemns himself. On the other hand, the man who justifies himself judges God; and the man who judges God justifies himself.
The verse names tax collectors. The crowd at the river was not a respectable one.
And what kind of people are seen coming to the prophet's baptism? Tax collectors, men whose character was openly despicable; soldiers, used to oppressing the people. Corruption and violence, but now owned and judged, meet at the baptism of repentance. "John," said the Lord, "came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him." (Matt. 21:32.) Such people have nothing to fall back on, and God can only recognize in them the fruit of His own work.
John's ministry was preparation, not the main event. Yet accepting it decided whether a person could receive what came next.
They were right so far. It was a witness of what was coming: it was a confession of their own sin. So far they justified God. But the prudent and wise — the religious, the learned, the great, "the Pharisees and the lawyers" — "rejected the purpose of God for themselves," because they refused even the preparatory work of John the Baptist. Because they refused the lesser testimony, they never went on to the greater things — the reality from God… It is in the conscience that a person receives Christ for salvation. Feeling and understanding alone will never do. There must be conscience. Those whose sleeping consciences had been stirred toward God about their sins were only too glad to receive Christ.
The heart that says "God is right to condemn me" is the same heart that says "God is right to save me."
When we know what we are as sinners, we justify God, never ourselves. Then in His ways with us He justifies us… John the Baptist came requiring fruit, calling to repentance. The tax collectors and sinners justified God in this… they justified God. The first good fruit we ever bear is always the admission that we bear bad fruit. Then came the blessed Lord, telling of sovereign grace that rose above all their sins; they justified God in this too. The man who justifies God for condemning him most thankfully justifies God for sending His Son to save him.
Commentators differ over whether this sentence is still the Lord's speech or Luke's own aside.
Luke 7:29–30 — Some take these verses as a parenthesis, that is, as Luke's own comment… while others, such as Meyer, Weiss, and Plummer, regard the words as spoken by the Lord. But, as Norris says, the tenses used show that it is the Evangelist who speaks.
Others read it as unbroken speech from Jesus:
Verses 29 and 30 are still the words of the Lord Jesus. The people in general, and the tax collectors in particular, recognized that God was right to send John to call Israel to repentance. So they submitted to John's baptism of repentance, and in public they justified God instead of themselves.
- Justify — to justify God is to accept His estimate of us and take His side against ourselves.
- Confess — they made that agreement public in the Jordan, confessing their sins and owning death as their due.
- Reach — tax collectors and soldiers came, and at that baptism they owned and judged their own corruption and violence.
- Test — the man who condemns himself justifies God; the man who justifies himself judges God.
- Result — the man who justifies God for condemning him is glad to justify God for sending His Son to save him.
but the Pharisees and the lawyers rendered null as to themselves the counsel of God, not having been baptised by him.)
Luke records two answers to John the Baptist's preaching: ordinary people and tax collectors took his baptism, but the religious leaders refused it. This verse is the darker half of that contrast, and it asks how men can push away God's own plan for their good.
The verse names two groups. A "lawyer" here was not a court lawyer but a teacher of the law of Moses.
A teacher of the law, one who explained the law. The Lord said of the lawyers that they put heavy burdens on others, but did not carry those burdens themselves. In their explanations they took away the key of knowledge. They did not go in themselves, and they held back those who were going in. It is a solemn description, and it may sadly fit some people today.
God's "counsel" here was no hidden plan. John preached it openly, and it carried blessing in it.
When John the Baptist preached to Israel, God's counsel through him was "repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins." But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected that counsel and would not let him baptise them (Luke 7:30). Had they accepted the counsel of God, it would have meant blessing for them, as it did for those John baptised. Repentance and confession of sin is the way into God's blessing. How sad it is to see men, in Judaism or in the Christian world, reject the counsel of God that would bring them blessing.
Older translations read "against themselves." That can sound as if God's counsel was aimed at their harm. One writer corrects the sense: the counsel was for them, and in throwing it out they hurt only themselves.
The common people and the tax collectors justified God when John baptised them. Scripture says they justified God because, by accepting John's baptism, they admitted that God's way of dealing in their day was right. The Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God — which was for them, not against them — since John did not baptise them.
Their problem was pride, not understanding. John's baptism put everyone on one level.
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, and that brings all men down to one common level of lowliness and self-judgment. The Pharisees saw this well enough. That is why, puffed up with pride, they rejected the counsel of God and refused his baptism.
The same test still stands, and the gospel presses it harder than John ever did:
They thought it beneath them to enter the kingdom by the same narrow gate and hard road that was open to the tax collector and the prostitute. But there can be no other way to God for the sinner. The grace of the gospel condemns sins and calls for repentance even more than John did, who came in the way of righteousness. The gospel says that nothing but the blood of Jesus, God's Son, could cleanse from sins... It was repulsive for a moral man and a zealous Jew to confess his sins, like a tax collector or a prostitute. How intolerable to stand with such people on the same common level of guilt and ruin!
John's ministry was preparation, not the main event. Refusing the preparation shut them out of what followed.
But the careful and the wise — the religious, the learned, the great, "the Pharisees and lawyers" — rejected the counsel of God and made it void for themselves. They refused even the preparatory work of John the Baptist. They refused the lesser testimony, so they never passed on into the greater things — the reality from God. They refused what their own consciences should have proved true, so they were not ready to receive the gift of His grace. The conscience is where a person receives Christ for salvation.
Turning down the messenger settled what they would do with the One he announced.
The leaders of the people rejected the prophet of righteousness. They would not admit that his baptism was "from heaven" (Matt. 21:25). So they also rejected a greater one than he — Him through whom grace and truth had come (John 1:17).
- Counsel offered. God's counsel through John was repentance and baptism for forgiveness. It was a plain call, not a hidden plan, and taking it brought blessing.
- Counsel for them. The counsel was for them, not against them. What they threw away was their own good.
- Pride refused it. John's baptism brought everyone down to one level. Their pride would not stand beside tax collectors and prostitutes.
- Conscience is the gate. They refused John's lesser testimony, so they never reached the greater. A person receives Christ for salvation only when the conscience is reached.
- Refusal compounds. They turned down the messenger of righteousness, and then they turned down the One who brought grace and truth.