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 50 – The Meaning of God’s Journey Through Christ
Enough of the manner and means of God’s journey. What can we say about its meaning? We’ll be digging deeper and deeper into that meaning throughout eternity, but we have already begun to appreciate the wisdom of God’s plan and the courage of His convictions.
God’s round trip produced, as a by-product, a historical record of His words and deeds. This is what we call the Bible – Old and New Testaments. Every one of the recorded words and deeds have their own context…which help explain those words and deeds. That context includes the role in which God was fulfilling at the time: Lord of heaven and earth (a heavenly role) or humble man living in service to God (an earthly role). He has let us “see” Him from both angles.
The 4,000 years God invested in execution of His plan showcases His patience – even His patient endurance. This was the biblical period. We have a full collection of writings that the ancients did not have. Given all that they accomplished with incomplete revelation, how much more we are capable of accomplishing with the full Bible! We have an eternity to see just how much. Let us be faithful to pass on this record and teach what we’ve learned to succeeding generations.
That teaching begins with appreciating all that God endured as a servant of God in heaven (angel) and then a servant of God on earth (a man). It wasn’t just on earth that He suffered; in heaven, he had to endure near-constant disappointment with humanity in general and with Israel in particular. He had to come to earth to do what no Jew or Gentile had been willing or able to do: live a fully righteous life that could be an example for the whole world.
Remember when Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 15). He concluded it with a question:
Luke 10:36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”
Likewise, let us ask: “Which of all the gods who have ever been presented to the world has proved to be a father?”
The answer is, of course: The God of the Bible. The God who personally undertook the odyssey of all odysseys.
A godly father does not cast his seed to the wind. He watches out for all his offspring and never abandons a single one of them.
The Father was in YHWH (the LORD).
The Father was in Jesus.
The Father was in Christ.
The invisible God was the Father in eternity past. And He proved Himself the Father of all creation by the journey He took and the way He conducted Himself during it. Having completed it, He became the invisible God of eternity future. The name “Christ” captures the accumulation of God’s revelation of Himself. It captures all the history He made. As we once said, “Jesus is the Christ!” we can now say, “The Christ is God!”
Recall that Christ means “anointed one.” He Himself is the anointing oil, the ointment, the healing balm to pour on a world in need of healing. May Christ be poured out on our world for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,
Revelation 22:2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
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