The Manifestation of God

Jesus, the crucified Messiah, unveils the Scriptures and the future, and he manifests the true nature of the Living God.

Jesus unveils the Divine mysteries, and only he is qualified to manifest the nature of the unseen God. Every promise of God's finds its fulfillment in him. Christ unlocks the scriptures, and there is no true knowledge of God without him. The Creator of All Things is found in Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus is the center of Apostolic Tradition preserved in the Greek New Testament, and the proclamation of Christ Crucified is the power and wisdom of God that brings salvation to humanity and transforms the lives of men, women, and children– (1 Corinthians 1:18-24).

There is no genuine understanding of the Father without Jesus of Nazareth, the same Jesus who gave his life on the Cross to redeem men, women, nations, and the Creation itself from bondage to sin and the sentence of death. If we are seeking God, we will find Him in His Son and nowhere else.

[Starry Sky - Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash]

In his teachings and personal example, Jesus demonstrated how we are to become like God. For example:

• “You have heard that it was said, YOU WILL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may become sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do so? Therefore, you will be complete, as your heavenly Father is complete” – (Matthew 5:43-48. Compare Leviticus 19:18).

• “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us” – (Ephesians 5:1-2).

The New Testament presents this same Jesus as the full expression of God, the embodiment of the creative word that made all things, and the manifestation of God’s plan of redemption and purpose for humanity:

• “In many parts and many ways of old, God spoke to the fathers in the prophets. At the end of these days, he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages, who being the radiance of his glory, and the precise impress of his essence, and sustaining all things by the utterance of his power, HAVING ACHIEVED THE PURIFICATION OF SINS, HE SAT AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE MAJESTY ON HIGH, having become by so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they” - (Hebrews 1:1-4. Note the verbal allusions to Leviticus 16:16 and Psalm 110:1).

• “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” - (John 1:14).

Moreover, God continues to speak the same word through His Son. His voice is heard through the Christ of Scripture whenever the Gospel is preached. We neglect this word at our peril:

• “And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than Abel. See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they who refused him who spoke on earth did not escape, much more us if we recoil from him who is speaking from heaven” - (Hebrews 12:24-25. Compare Hebrews 2:1-4).

The Prologue of the Gospel of John identifies Jesus as the man in whom the word of God became flesh and blood, the ‘Logos’ (λογος), the unfiltered expression of God. Jesus Christ is the ‘tabernacle’ in whom the glory of God is manifested upon the Earth, and we cannot hope to know God apart from the Nazarene.

• “Jesus says to him, Have I been with you such a long time, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father! How is it that you say, Show us the Father?” – (John 14:9).

Truth and light are unveiled in the “only born son” of God. Moses gave the Law, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He alone has seen God; therefore, he alone is qualified to represent and explain his Father.

• “For of his fullness, we all received, even grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came to be 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 text of John 1:18, the verb translated as “interpret” has no direct or indirect object. The statement is open-ended. Jesus interprets and explains everything about God, life, and the future.

Likewise, the word of God spoken in His Son is His complete word. In contrast, the words spoken previously in the prophets were partial – “In many parts and many ways of old…” – (Hebrews 1:1-4).

Unlike the Levitical priests with their repeated animal sacrifices, Christ “achieved the purification of sins,” and he did so “once and for all time.” His sacrificial death will never be repeated, and any attempt to return to the animal sacrifices of the ancient system will fail to purify men of the stain of their sins. There is no atonement apart from Jesus Christ – (Hebrews 1:1-4, 7:27, 9:14, 10:10).

Having overcome sin, death and Satan through his sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead, Jesus sat down at God’s right hand and inherited the name that is superior to anything possessed by the angels, Moses, Aaron, or any other predecessor. Christ now reigns over all things in God’s presence, and he is our merciful and faithful High Priest who intercedes for us - (Hebrews 1:2-4, 2:17, 8:1-3):

• “Let us therefore run with patience the race that is set before us, looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” - (Hebrews 12:1-2).

THE SLAIN LAMB

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is the slain Lamb who alone is worthy to open the scroll sealed shut with seven seals. The Lamb unveils and implements the scroll’s contents, a process that will conclude with the New Creation and the fully populated city of New Jerusalem.

The Lamb is worthy to receive all power because “by his death, he purchased men and women from every nation to become a kingdom, priests for God.” He achieved victory over sin and death through his sacrificial death - (Revelation 5:6-12).

The Book is identified as the “Revelation of Jesus Christ.” It is an unveiling of Jesus and “what things must soon come to pass.” The Book of Revelation presents us with the sacrificial Lamb who now reigns over the kings of the Earth and shepherds the nations. The Son of God interprets and applies the visions and symbols of the Book of Revelation to his churches – (Revelation 1:4-6, 1:20, 12:5).

Jesus is the Faithful Witness, and the Firstborn of the Dead, that is, his death and resurrection. He achieved victory over death when God resurrected and enthroned him; therefore, even the realm of Death is within his authority:

• “Fear not! I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and of Hades” – (Revelation 1:17-18).

• “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things declares he who is holy, he who is true, HE WHO HAS THE KEY OF DAVID, HE WHO OPENS AND NO MAN CLOSES, AND WHO CLOSES AND NO MAN OPENS”– (Revelation 3:7. Note the reference to Isaiah 22:22).

Only the sacrificial Lamb holds the key that opens the sealed scroll, unveils the hearts of men, and reveals the “things that must soon come to pass.”

None of the events portrayed in the visions of Revelation can occur without the knowledge or consent of the Lamb of God. Even the Beast from the Sea cannot launch his war against the churches of Christ until the time determined by the Lamb - (Revelation 1:1, 1:17-20, 13:7-10 – “It was given to him…”).

Jesus is the master key that unlocks everything, whether prophecies, visions, or the mysteries of God. He is the true tabernacle where the glory of God dwells, the author of the New Covenant, the once and final sacrifice for sin, and the ruler of kings and nations.

The substance foreshadowed in the structures and rituals of ancient Israel is found in the Crucified Messiah. In him alone, all the promises of God find their fulfillment:

• “For however many the promises of God are, in him is the Yea! Wherefore also through him is the Amen!” - (2 Corinthians 1:20).

• “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. Seeing it is God who said, LET LIGHT SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS, who illuminated our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” - (2 Corinthians 4:5-6. The allusion is to Genesis 1:3).

The God who created all things is only known through His Son, Jesus of Nazareth. There is no true understanding of Him apart from Christ, and especially the Christ who was crucified for our sake.

Therefore, everyone who has seen Jesus has “seen his Father.” The Nazarene is the “way, the truth, and the life.” No man or woman comes to God without him, and salvation is found in “no other name under heaven” than Jesus – (John 1:18, 14:6-7, Acts 4:12).

• “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things were created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things cohere. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he himself might become preeminent. For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell” – (Colossians 1:15-19).

-----

[Citations of Old Testament passages in this article are based on the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (see the links here and here). Text printed in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS represents quotations and verbal allusions from the Old Testament. The Septuagint is represented by the Roman numeral for ‘seventy’ or LXX based on the Latin name of the translation, ‘Interpretatio septuaginta virorum’]

[PDF Copy]

SEE ALSO:

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

• Grace and Truth - (The fullness, grace, and truth of God are found only in the Word made Flesh, namely, Jesus of Nazareth – John 1:14-18)

• The True Tabernacle - (Jesus is the Greater Tabernacle in which the presence and glory of God dwell and manifest for all men to behold – John 1:14)

• La Manifestación de Dios - (Jesús, el Mesías crucificado, revela las Escrituras y el futuro, y manifiesta la verdadera naturaleza del Dios Viviente)