And he answering said to them, Elias indeed comes first and will restore all things.
The disciples had just seen Elijah appear in glory on the mountain. Coming down, they ask why the scribes insist Elijah must arrive before the Messiah. Jesus does not correct them. He agrees — and then adds something that changes the whole timetable.
The Lord's first move is agreement, not correction.
First of all, when the Lord says, "Elijah does come, and he will restore all things," He only confirms what the scribes had said, according to Malachi's prophecy. It is as though He had said, "They are right." He then declares the effect of Elijah's coming: "he will restore all things."
The Messiah was standing in front of them, yet the promised forerunner had not appeared.
The difficulty had to do with the truth of the two comings. The disciples did not yet understand it. The Lord came in humiliation. He will come again in power and glory. A forerunner came before the first coming. A forerunner will appear before the second... The scribes were right about the coming of Elijah. He will come, and restore all things. Nothing like that, however, has yet been seen down here. John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah, could not be said to have done that... Still, before the coming in power Elijah will reappear. How this will be brought about is not for us to guess. God will fulfil His word, and it will then be made plain.
Some stretch the phrase to mean that every person will finally be saved.
The restoration Scripture speaks of is of all things "about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago." So the thought is limited to what the prophets had stated. In Matthew 17:11 Christ speaks of Elijah coming and "restoring" all things. All such expressions clearly refer to God's dealings on earth. That is what "all things" means. They do not touch the idea of universal salvation one way or the other.
The restoring is a calling back, and it reaches down to one root — repentance.
The work of Elijah is to call back... The restoring of all things here was entirely Jewish. But in principle, as repentance, it belonged to all. It went to the root of any share, or possible share, in God's blessing — repentance. This itself really was grace, a new principle. The law said, "Do this and live." Here it is "repent," because they had failed.
Then the Lord turns the answer around. Someone had already filled the role, and the nation had missed him.
He shows that, to faith, Elijah had come. If the nation had received the word preached by John, Elijah's mission would have been fulfilled, according to the prophecy in Malachi. But the nation refused Jesus as well as His forerunner. So faith alone could recognise the testimony of John the Baptist as being virtually that of Elijah. This agrees with the statement in Matthew 11: "if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come." It shows that it was not Elijah himself, in person, but the spirit and power of Elijah in John the Baptist.
Unbelief stopped the work short. The commentators do not treat that as the end of the story.
Even in our Lord's own case, the unbelief of the people stopped all the bright and clear blessing meant for Israel... So for the time the moral restoration of the Jews was only partial. The mass of the people were unrepentant, and family bonds were completely loosened and broken. The land has lain under a curse from that day to this. But it will not always be so. Grace will work in a remnant once more in the last days. Then Elijah's mission will be fully accomplished (Matt. 17:11).
The timing matters for the believer now.
When will Elijah appear? He will come on the scene at the time of the end... Any believer who holds the scriptural teaching that the Lord comes for His saints before the great tribulation is in no danger of following deceivers who claim to be something. He knows that he will see neither Elijah nor the Antichrist.
- Confirmed. Jesus does not overturn the scribes' teaching; He endorses it — Elijah comes, and he restores.
- Come. To faith, that coming had already happened in John the Baptist, who came in Elijah's spirit and power. The nation did not know him.
- Conditional. If Israel had received John, his mission would have counted as Elijah's. Their refusal left the restoring undone.
- Contained. "All things" means what the prophets said about God's dealings on earth. Its root is repentance, not the saving of everyone.
- Coming. The full mission is still ahead. That is Israel's hope, and it guards believers against anyone claiming the title today.
But I say unto you that Elias has already come, and they have not known him, but have done unto him whatever they would. Thus also the Son of man is about to suffer from them.
On the way down the mountain, the disciples ask why the scribes say Elijah must come first. The Lord replies that Elijah has already come unrecognised — so what does his treatment mean for the Son of Man?
The scribes' teaching rested on a real promise in Malachi.
The Jews looked for his coming in line with the prediction of Malachi 4:5. And clearly this teaching of the scribes was used to nullify the Lord's claim to be the Christ. For plainly the prophet Elijah had not reappeared before the Lord began His ministry. Now this matter created a difficulty for the Lord's disciples which they could not solve. The Lord, the Messiah, was here; but Elijah, the prophet, had not come. Were the scribes wrong in their teaching?... Their difficulty had to do with the truth of the two comings, which the disciples did not yet understand. The Lord came in humiliation. He will come again in power and glory. A forerunner came before the first coming. A forerunner will appear before the second.
The Lord's words point back to a man who had already lived and died.
He shows that, to faith, Elijah had come. If the nation had received the word John preached, Elijah's mission would have been fulfilled, just as Malachi's prophecy said. But the nation refused Jesus as well as His forerunner. So only faith could recognise John the Baptist's testimony as being, in effect, the testimony of Elijah... This shows that it was not Elijah in person and in fact, but the spirit and power of Elijah in the person of John the Baptist. The Messiah is coming in glory later, and Elijah is coming too. But the Messiah had come now in weakness and humiliation, and His forerunner had been put to death.
There is a puzzle here. John the Baptist himself denied being Elijah. One writer answers it from a condition the Lord attached.
It is striking, in view of all these testimonies, that when the Pharisees asked John if he was Elijah he said, "I am not." Why? Our Lord gave the answer: "If you will receive it." 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. Later they crucified the One John bore witness to. To them he most certainly was not Elijah. But to simple souls like the disciples he was just as surely Elijah.
The phrase describes men acting without restraint.
They turn to Him with this question. He answers with the assurance that Elijah was indeed to come and to restore. But he had already come unrecognised, and men had treated him according to what was in their hearts. In the same way the Son of Man was soon to suffer from them.
Later, when men questioned Him, the Lord pointed them back to John.
In effect He said, "I will let God answer you. In John you have God's answer to your question." It was God's way to reach the Messiah through John. As John was rejected, so Christ Himself would be.
Both comings, and both messengers, divide people the same way.
For faith, the forerunner has already come, and so has the Lord Himself. Unbelief will feel both later on.
So was Malachi's promise finished with John? One writer says only in part.
John was certainly not Elijah in person. But he was the same type of prophet as Elijah — a man who stood apart from the people and pressed on them the claims of God's righteousness. Luke 1:17 says of him, "He will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah." No doubt, though, this is only a partial fulfilment of Malachi's prophecy. Another prophet of the same character will arise when Israel is about to face the horror of the great tribulation.
Another writer notices which prophecy of Malachi the Lord applied to John — and which He never did.
The Lord applies one prophecy of Malachi (3:1) to John the Baptist, but He never quotes Malachi 4:5 as referring to him. The inference is clear: John was the messenger sent before the face of Christ, as Malachi 3:1 had foretold, but he was not the Elijah of Malachi 4:5.
- Two comings. The Lord comes twice — once in humiliation, once in power and glory — and each coming has its own forerunner.
- Two Elijahs. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah before the first coming. A restoring Elijah is still to come before the second.
- Two responses. John was Elijah to everyone who received him; to those who refused him he was not — and so "they did not recognize him."
- Two verdicts. Faith already owns both the forerunner and the Lord; unbelief will meet both later on its own terms.
- One pattern. What men did to the messenger measured their hearts — and settled beforehand what they would do to the Son of Man.