Jesus Alone
The Crucified One is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew scriptures and prophecy. Jesus the Nazarene is the one who unveils the plans and mysteries of God, only he is qualified to reveal the nature of the “unseen God.” In him, all the promises of God find their fulfillment, their “yea and Amen.” He is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew scriptures and provides the correct understanding of prophecy, and this becomes especially so in the Book of Revelation.
This
one who was crucified on Golgotha is the center of apostolic traditions
preserved in the New Testament. 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 him.
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| [Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash] |
The prologue of John’s gospel presents him as the logos, the one who embodies the full revelation of God, the one in whom the Word “became flesh” and in whom the glory of God now “tabernacles.” And John contrasts this same Jesus with the earlier revelation given by Moses - (John 1:14-18).
JESUS EXPLAINS THE FATHER
The grace
and truth of God are found in His “only-born Son.” 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 rendered as “interprets” in English has no direct or indirect object - the
statement is open-ended. Quite
simply, Jesus interprets. Yahweh has declared His full and final “word”
in him, not on Mount Sinai or anywhere or through anyone else.
Likewise, in the letter to the Hebrews, the “word” of God spoken in His Son is His complete word. In contrast, the “word” spoken previously “in the prophets” is partial and incomplete.
Unlike
all the prophets before him, the Son “achieved the purification of sins,”
sat down to reign from God’s “right hand,” and inherited the “name”
that is vastly superior to that of angels, Moses, Aaron, or any other
predecessor - (Hebrews 1:1-4).
THE SLAIN LAMB REVEALS
In the
Book of Revelation, Jesus is portrayed as the slain “Lamb” who
alone is found and declared “worthy” to open the “Sealed Scroll.”
And in doing so, he unveils and executes its contents, a process that concludes
in nothing less than the New Creation.
For
this reason, all creation pronounces 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 has achieved victory for humanity and the Cosmos
through his sacrificial death - (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 to grant them the understanding of
events that “must soon come to pass.” And he interprets and applies the
contents of this revelation through the several visions received by John.
The “slain Lamb” possesses all authority, including the “keys to Death and Hades,” and all this is because of his past death and resurrection. The glorious “Son of Man” is the one who “opens and no man shuts.”
The
events portrayed in John’s visions do not occur without his knowledge and
authorization. Even the “Beast from the Sea” cannot launch its war
against the “saints” until the time determined by Jesus - (Revelation
1:1, 1:17-20, 13:7-10 – “it was given to him…”).
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 takes possession
of the “Sealed Scroll” and immediately unseals it. Unlike the Book
of Daniel, Revelation is an unsealed book - (Daniel 12:1,
Revelation 22:10).
The “word become flesh” is the indispensable
key to the correct understanding of prophecy, Scripture, and all the “mysteries
of God.” The Christ revealed in the New Testament interprets the Hebrew
scriptures, not vice versa.
Jesus of Nazareth is the true and greater Sanctuary,
the inaugurator of the promised New Covenant, the once-for-all sacrifice for
sin, the one who overcame sin and death, the “ruler of the kings of the
Earth,” and the king and overlord of the Cosmos.
The substance foreshadowed under the old
system is found in the “Crucified Messiah,” and in him, all the promises
of God find their “yea” and “amen.” Therefore, “Christ
crucified” is God’s “wisdom, and God’s power,” and he alone is the “light
of the world.”
