Understanding God

Jesus the Nazarene is the one who unveils the mysteries of God. Only he is qualified to reveal the essence of the “unseen God.” All the promises of God find their fulfillment in Jesus, their “yea and Amen.” He is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew scriptures and provides the correct understanding of prophecy.

The Nazarene who was crucified on Golgotha is the center of the Apostolic Traditions preserved in the New Testament, and the proclamation of “Christ Crucified” is the true “power and wisdom of God,” and the key to understanding and receiving the promises of God. There is no true knowledge of the Father apart from Jesus.

[Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash]

The Prologue of John’s Gospel presents him as the logos, the one who embodies the full revelation of God. In him, the Word “became flesh” and the glory of God “tabernacled.” Moreover, John contrasts this same Jesus with the earlier revelation given by Moses - (John 1:14-18).

Moses “gave the Law,” but “grace and truth came to be through Jesus.” He alone has seen God, and therefore, he is well-qualified to “interpret” anything and everything about his Father - For of his fullness we all received, even grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time; the only born Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he interprets” - (John 1:16-18).

In the Greek clause, the verb translated as “interprets” in English has no direct or indirect object - the statement is open-ended. Quite simply, Jesus interprets. Yahweh has declared His final “word” in him, not on Mount Sinai or anywhere or through anyone else - (Hebrews 1:1).

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is the sacrificed “Lamb” who alone is “worthy” to open the “Sealed Scroll.” In doing so, he unveils and executes its contents, a process that will consummate in nothing less than the New Creation.

For this reason, all creation declared him “worthy” to receive all power, glory, and authority, for “by his death, he redeemed men and women from every nation to become a kingdom of priests for God.” He achieved victory for humanity through his death. It is the “slain Lamb” who now reigns over all things - (Revelation 5:6-12).

The vision received by John on the Isle of Patmos is the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” He is the one to whom it belongs, and he gives it to his servants so they may understand events that “must soon come to pass.”

The “Lamb” possesses all authority, including the “Keys to Death and Hades,” and all this is because of his Death and Resurrection. The glorious “Son of Man” who was slain is the one who “opens and no man shuts.”

He is the “Faithful Witness and Firstborn of the Dead,” and therefore, Jesus is the key that unlocks the Book. Upon his arrival at the Throne, he took possession of the “Sealed Scroll” and immediately began to unseal it. Unlike the Book of Daniel, Revelation was and is an unsealed book because of the “Lamb” - (Daniel 12:1, Revelation 22:10).

Jesus of Nazareth is the indispensable key for the correct understanding of prophecy, Scripture, the Book of Revelation, and all the nature and the “Mysteries of God.” The Christ revealed in the New Testament interprets the Hebrew scriptures, NOT vice versa.

Only in Jesus can we hope to understand the Scriptures and Bible prophecy, and if we wish to comprehend and embrace the true nature of God, we need only look to Jesus.

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RELATED POSTS:

• God has Spoken! - (God has spoken His definitive word in His Son. All previous words given by the prophets were preparatory, promissory, and partial)

• Mysteries Revealed - (The previously hidden mysteries of God are revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, and especially in his Death and Resurrection)

• The Word Made Flesh - (The fullness, grace, and truth of God are found only in the Word made Flesh, Jesus, who alone has seen the unseen God – John 1:14-18)