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 23 – The Angel of the Lord
Just as the Old Testament has no verse that literally says “The Messiah will be Jesus of Nazareth,” it has no verse that literally says “Jesus was the angel of the Lord.” The way to learn that Jesus filled these two roles is to study what they required and then notice that Jesus is the only person who ever lived who could have filled them. In other words, as we determined that Jesus was the Messiah, so we determined how Jesus was the angel of the Lord.
For the angel of the Lord, this begins with understanding how God could have ever become an angel.
One of the most familiar themes of Christianity is that God became a man. It is no small thing that God became a man…and lived to tell about it. Even so, most of us are used to the idea of God becoming a man and then God again – perhaps because it has been believed by so many people and for so long.
God —> Man —> God
Given this familiarity, it should therefore not be difficult for us to accept the idea that God became an angel before He became a man. Is it that much harder to believe God became an angel than that He became a man? Both concepts are mind-blowing. If we can accept one, there’s no good reason we can’t accept the other.
God —> Angel —> Man…
Here’s another way to think about it that will make the idea easier to accept. Back in “Chapter 13 – Revelation Comes in Stages,” I showed you the following verse in which Jesus teaches that resurrection from the dead leads to life in heaven like the angels.
Matthew 22:30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”
Therefore, Jesus Himself declared that resurrected men are like angels in heaven. And He was the first one to achieve that status. All the rest of us human beings follow Him…each in our own due time. But for Jesus Himself:
God —> Angel —> Man —> Angel —> God
Therefore, the path from God to angel to man to angel to God has already been mapped out for Jesus – except for the piece supplied in the previous chapter. That missing piece was that Jesus was the chief angel during Old Testament times. This chief angel role was called “the angel of the Lord.”
| Old Testament | Gospels | Acts-Epistles |
| Jesus was the angel of the Lord (the highest angel) | Jesus was Jesus of Nazareth (a man) | Jesus was the Lord (higher than before) |
The idea that Jesus was viewed as the angel of the Lord during Old Testament times was much more commonly held in ancient times than it is today. We have documentation from the first three centuries of Christianity to this effect. (The development of Trinitarian doctrine in the 4th and 5th centuries tended to obscure Jesus’ role as the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. We’ll cover that when we get to the chapter on Trinitarianism.)
In this book, we are, of course, using the New Testament to form this view. So much for the 1st century documentation. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, standard Christian doctrine still widely recognized Jesus as having been the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. We know this because of the many respected Christian leaders from that time, whose writings we still have, who make this clear. These include Justin Martyr (c. 100-165), Irenaeus (c. 120-200), Tertullian (c. 155-220), Origen (c. 185-253), Athanasius (c. 296-373), and more. In our day, maybe as many as a quarter to a third of Christian denominations hold this view. The point is that there’s nothing really new about the idea that Jesus was the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. It just needs more attention – because it explains a lot.
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