This is part 11 of a series exploring how the Bible teaches that Jesus was greater than all who came before him.  This series is not intended to be exhaustive.  The topic of Jesus as “greater than” or “better” than those who came before him is inexhaustible.

 Libraries could and should be written on this subject.  But we have attempted in these pages to explore what such a rich subject would look like. (Each entry is excerpted from There Is No Greater Love)

Christ Greater than Lamech

Now Lamech said to his wives Adah and Zillah, “Hear my voice you wives of Lamech.  Give ear to what I say. For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young boy for striking me!  If Cain is avenged seven fold, Lamech will be avenged seventy-seven fold!” (Gen 4:23-24).

What a monstrous man was this Lamech of the line of Cain!  He was a man of unbridled excess.  Adam was given one wife.  Lamech took two.  God protected Cain with the promise of a sevenfold judgment.  But Lamech threatened revenge seventy-seven fold.

How different is the spirit of Jesus!  When Peter asked the Lord how often he should forgive a man for an offense, Peter suggested that seven times would be a generous limit to his forgiveness.  “Then Peter came up and said to him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’” (Matt 18:21).  But what an answer Jesus gave him!  “I do not say unto you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matt 18:22).

Lamech’s boast of vengeance became the measure of the Lord’s example of forgiveness!  How so very much greater is the grace of the Lord Jesus to those of us who understand how deep our sin truly is and how needy we are of an even deeper grace of forgiveness.