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 12 – Taking Stock of What We’ve Learned So Far
Let’s pause to spend a few chapters reflecting on what we’ve learned so far in this book. After all, our goal is ambitious: to know and understand that Christ is God.
The things we’ve learned in the most recent chapters are major additions to the Old Testament revelation of God. Altogether, it’s a lot to chew on. And there’s more to come. So let’s make sure we fully digest what we’ve heard so far before we move on to new material.
In the Old Testament, God was presented in the very beginning…and on practically every page that followed. As for Christ, he was mentioned occasionally, but always as a hope for the distant future. He would be a man. Even a king. But since he wasn’t going to arrive until the distant future, Jews could do little more than put their long-term hope in him. In the short term, they’d just have to keep trying to obey the law of Moses.
Old Testament Jews certainly didn’t think thoughts like “Christ is God.” That would not have made sense to them. God did not expect it to make sense to them. It would only make sense in the Second Coming. And the Second Coming would only make sense after Christ’s first coming.
Throughout Old Testament times, God was God…in the present. Christ was a man…in the future. The present-tense word “is” did not belong in a sentence where the only two other words were “Christ” and “God.”
Even the coming of John the Baptist and Jesus himself at the beginning of New Testament times did not change this. Even Jesus performing more miracles than any previous man of God did not change this. Jesus certainly didn’t sell himself as the Messiah during His earthly life, even though many thought He was. So the perception of the Messiah as a man didn’t change for this reason either.
But Jesus’ resurrection of the dead according to the prophecy of Psalm 110:1 did alter – in fact, radically alter – the perception of Christ. Forevermore.
Psalm 110:1 The LORD says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
Sitting at the right hand of God was the greatest possible honor God could bestow. And Christ was the first person ever announced to have received that honor. This put Christ in a category way beyond being a great human hope. His resurrection to the right hand of God according to Scripture put the whole world in new territory. It was – and will always be – the single most important dividing line of all human history.
In the wake of that honor, Christ spent 40 days appearing to His closest disciples, teaching them more about Himself than they had the capacity to understand before His resurrection. One of the most amazing things He taught them was that…
Before the creation of the heavens, the earth, and all that was in them,
- God created Christ.
- And then Christ created everyone and everything else.
- And then Christ kept sustaining and maintaining that creation on behalf of God.
In other words, God was the principal and Christ was His agent. God was the sole stockholder and Christ was the CEO. God was the master and Christ was the servant.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead according to Psalm 110:1 opened the door to understanding that Messiah was more than a man. And that God and Christ had been a lot closer than anyone had imagined.
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