Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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Christ Is God
Chapter 6 – Christ at the Right Hand of God
Psalm 110:1 could serve as a headline for the New Testament. No other Old Testament verse is referred to in the New Testament as frequently as this one. More than 20 times! It encapsulated so much truth that was critically important to the New Testament church, the New Testament age, and the New Testament itself. Let’s look at it again – especially the first line.
Psalm 110:1 The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
The first line identifies two heavenly beings – both obviously more important than anyone else in heaven or on earth. And one of them was the messiah that Israel had long been expecting. But Israel had not expected 1) messiah to be crucified, or 2) his throne to be in heaven instead of on earth.
1st-century Jews were expecting their messiah to lead a revolt – a successful one – against the Roman Empire. Jesus’ twelve disciples were preparing to fight for and with Jesus in actual battles in the same way that David’s “mighty men” in the Old Testament had supported him.
Now – before Jesus had even been installed as king of Israel on earth – He is seated in heaven! It must’ve seemed like everything about messiah was happening differently than the apostles were expecting. He dies before ever becoming king, and then, once He is made king, He’s sitting in heaven and not leading battles on earth!
The case is similar with resurrection of the dead in general. Pious Jews – especially the Pharisees – were expecting a resurrection from the dead. But they were expecting it to be back to earth – not all the way to heaven! And…they were expecting it to happen all at once for everyone – not to messiah first, and everyone else later.
So, in one sense, Jews believing in Jesus were thrilled to see God keeping promises He made long, long ago. But He was doing so in ways that caused Jews to have to reorient themselves in major ways. One of the biggest reorientations for them was going from being led by a king on earth (as it had been with Saul, David, Solomon, and all the others) to being led by a king in heaven – who was sitting right next to God!
| Old Testament View | New Testament View After Resurrection | |
| In Heaven | God | God and King |
| On Earth | King and People | People |
Take a minute and think through how different these two scenarios are for the people involved! This indeed was a major reorientation.
People who could not deny the resurrection of Jesus from the dead were being confronted with a new reality they had never contemplated! Yet, at the same time, they had to admit to themselves that this new unexpected scenario made far more sense of the Old Testament messianic prophecies than what they had previously imagined.
Practically every one of the 22 epistles in the New Testament begins with a reference to two beings in heaven: God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This signals to us that there is more for us to know about the relationship of these two figures than just what we can read in Psalm 110:1.
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