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 24 – The Seen and the Unseen God
Early Christian sources – including Justin Martyr (c. 100-165), Irenaeus (c. 120-200), Tertullian (c. 155-220), Origen (c. 185-253), and Athanasius (c. 296-373) – believed the Son to have been the angel of the Lord in designated Old Testament appearances. But know also that these writers operated according to an even broader conclusion. That broader view was that all appearances of God in the Old Testament were appearances of the Son and not the Father. Why did they believe this? Because of things Jesus and His apostles said.
Remember this verse that I showed you earlier in this book?
John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Consider also that John repeated word for word the first point in his first letter:
1 John 4:12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
It seems obvious that John learned this from Jesus, who said:
John 5:37 “And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”
John 6:46 “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.”
All this is consistent with the New Testament revelations we have been studying. Consider, for example, the second half of John 1:18 above and consider how it fits with the following verses we’ve seen from Paul:
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
Hebrews 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature…
Consider also that John himself reinforced the point in this verse:
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
In other words, it is from the Son that we get our understanding of the Father.
What all the verses quoted in this chapter speak to is the fact that the New Testament revelations that came in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection point to an invisible Father who is revealed and explained by a visible Son. One of the things this means is that Jesus – as the angel of the Lord – was active in a lot more of the Old Testament than just the passages that explicitly identify that figure. He was representing the Father at every turn! What else would “the exact representation” of God be doing?
If the visible God in the Old Testament was always the Son, then consider the many Old Testament events that should be reconsidered in this light. This would include the “man” with whom Jacob wrestled in Genesis 32, the “captain of the Lord’s host” who spoke with Joshua in Joshua 5, the “fourth man” in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in Daniel 3, and many other instances. And whenever the Father spoke, it was through the Son.
Every representation of the Father in the Old Testament – whether in sight or sound – was coming through the Son.
It seems to always be the case that there is more to Jesus than what we thought.
We thought the Old Testament was about the Father and the New Testament was about the Son. Turns out Jesus was the central character in both testaments! In both cases, He was representing the Father.
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