For all the prophets and the law have prophesied unto John.
Neither the law nor the prophets were an end in themselves. Both pointed forward to something still to come. John was the man who could say it had arrived.
"All the prophets and the law prophesied until John": they all pointed onward to the time of which John was able to say, "It is just at hand." It was for him to change the whole character of the testimony given until then. It was for him to sound the note of Jubilee. That note announced a Kingdom not of earth but of heaven, with the King Himself already at the door.
Jesus says the law prophesied too, not only the prophets. Its rules and rituals were a form of prediction. In picture form they showed what man needed and who would meet that need.
The law prescribed commandments, and Israel fatally pledged themselves to obey them. At the same time it contained many ritual observances. These testified to man's inability and need. They prophesied of One who, while they were still without strength, should in due time die for the ungodly. As a covenant of works, it was a ministry of death. But to anyone who was truly a child of Abraham, it must have shone out with a prophetic glory, like the face of Moses. It pointed onwards to the Lamb of God. In Him all the shadows of good things to come passed into substance.
The verse names the law and the prophets together, but they did not do the same work. One set the standard. The other kept people looking to it and kept hope alive in those who believed.
The law was the rule; the prophets, maintaining the rule, strengthened the hopes and the faith of the remnant.
The prophets saw the Messiah far off. John preached the kingdom as arriving.
After the law, the rule of God's government on earth, the prophets showed the coming Messiah, His sufferings and glories. But they saw it far off, and called people back to the law. They did not announce the kingdom as coming then. The law and the prophets were until John. By him the kingdom is preached.
Everything ran up to John, and nothing ran past him. He stands at the close of one order and the announcement of another.
Prophecy had foretold that he would fill the nearest place, as Forerunner. He was also a pivot man, for "All the prophets and the law prophesied until John." He came in at the end of one order of things but spoke of another.
John also closes the Old Testament line of prophets.
It is very transitional. It shows clearly you are on the verge of something new. John was the last of the prophets... So John the Baptist finishes the list as far as the Old Testament prophets are concerned.
Prophecy has reached the One it spoke about. So the system that carried it has finished its work. Commentators draw a practical conclusion: to go back under the law is to go back to a stage God has closed.
My answer is the Scripture which says, "All the prophets and the law prophesied until John." (At the very least, some change was coming when Christ came.) And, "The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." But after faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
The words about the schoolmaster come from an older translation; the ESV reads "guardian" there.
When these earlier ministries close, what is left is not an empty space but a Person.
John the Baptist has vanished. The One whose herald he had been remains alone. He alone can meet in grace the failure of His servant... He alone is the Centre of attraction for every poor sinner who thirsts for grace. He alone is the perfect Model for any who seek to be like Him. The law and the prophets come to an end. In Christ grace abides, set up for eternity, established forever.
- Pointed — the law and the prophets were a direction, not a destination. They pointed on to a time John could call "just at hand."
- Prophesied — even the law prophesied. Its rituals showed man's need and foretold One who would die for the ungodly.
- Paired — the law gave the rule. The prophets upheld it and strengthened the hope of the faithful, who still saw the Messiah far off.
- Pivot — John came in at the end of one order and spoke of another. He finished the list of prophets and stood at the edge of something new.
- Person — when the preparation ends, the One prepared for remains. The law and the prophets come to an end. In Christ grace is established forever.
And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, who is to come.
John the Baptist is in prison, his confidence is shaken, and Jesus defends him before the crowd. He ends with a claim wrapped in a condition: the Elijah that Malachi promised has already come — though John himself had denied being Elijah.
The last page of the Old Testament promised that God would send Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord. Commentators explain that Jesus points to a likeness of ministry, not the return of the same man.
John was not the same person as Elijah. But his service before the Lord was "in the spirit and power of Elijah." His ministry had the same character as Elijah's, sternly pressing on Israel the guilt of their disobedience to the law... John was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus, so he had to stress the guilt of Israel and prepare their hearts to receive the grace of the Lord Jesus.
The clause "if you are willing to accept it" is not decoration. It hands the matter to faith. That is why John could deny being Elijah, and Jesus could still call him Elijah.
So John was Elijah to all who received him. To those who refused him he was not. The people who asked him if he was Elijah were the very people who refused his testimony and later crucified the One to Whom John bore witness. To them he certainly was not Elijah. But to simple souls like the disciples he just as surely was.
The puzzle clears once you see that the Messiah comes twice: once in shame, once in glory. A forerunner who suffers, with little to show for it, fits the first coming, not the second.
Like the Lord (Son of Man as well as Messiah), his testimony and his lot had to match a coming in shame and sorrow as well as in power and glory. The Jews cared only for the power and glory... So, for faith, Elijah did come ("if you are willing to accept it") in John the Baptist. John testified in humiliation, and his results looked small and short-lived in men's eyes. But Elijah will come in a way that matches the return of the Lord to deliver Israel and bless the world under His reign.
A real offer stood open. If the nation had accepted John, and the King he announced, the promise about Elijah would have been fulfilled in him.
If they received the Lord Jesus, the kingdom might be established. The curse still hanging over the people might be set aside, and relationships in Israel restored according to God. In that case the future mission of Elijah would not be needed. John the Baptist had come in the spirit and power of Elijah, and he would fill the place, so to speak, of the future prophet.
The words also shut a door.
John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and it laid the responsibility upon them. They could not say, this cannot be Messiah, because Elijah must come first. They were left without excuse.
The nation refused John. So, commentators say, Malachi's promise still waits for a later fulfilment.
John the Baptist came in the character of Elijah. He was the prophet who was to come before "the great and awesome day of the Lord," to reach the hearts of the people, if they had received him. But only a few received him, and so John told the Jews that he was not Elijah. Elijah's ministry, then, still waits to be fulfilled before Christ appears in glory.
Commentators differ on who that future messenger will be. Some expect the prophet Elijah in person. Others doubt it, because of what Jesus says here.
That he was not literally Elijah only shows, or seems to show, this: someone who was not Elijah could have fulfilled the prediction, given the right conditions. Other words of the Lord show even more strongly that for that day and generation he was Elijah. He said, "I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased." Why, then, could not another, coming in his spirit and power, fulfil the prophecy in the future day?
- Character, not identity. John was not Elijah come back. He served "in the spirit and power of Elijah," pressing Israel's guilt home to prepare hearts for grace.
- Faith decides. The "if" hands the claim to faith. John was Elijah to those who received him, and not to those who refused him.
- Two comings. A humbled forerunner matched a humbled Messiah. A forerunner in power belongs to the coming in glory.
- A real offer. If the nation had received John and his King, the kingdom could have come. No future Elijah would have been needed.
- No excuse. By naming John as Elijah, Jesus removed the last objection and left the responsibility on each hearer.