Jesus - The Only Source

Jesus is the One through whom God unlocks scripture, reveals His nature, and provides everlasting life to men and women.

Jesus reveals the nature of God. The man from Nazareth embodies the heart and goal of his Father’s creative and redemptive efforts. He is the only One in whom the glory of the Creator is unveiled, and he alone is qualified to interpret His Father. In Christ, all the promises of God for His children find their significance and fulfillment. The Crucified Messiah is the only source of life and eternal truth.

The Scriptures declare in multiple ways that Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah and Son of God, is the only source of everlasting life, truth and the knowledge of God. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father – except through me!” – (John 114:6).

[Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash]

The Gospel of John presents Jesus as the ‘Logos’ (λογος), the revelation of God that “became flesh” in the Nazarene. God made all things according to the ‘Logos’, and it has become the Living Word of God in Jesus Christ, the One in whom the glory of God resides forevermore, the True and Greater Tabernacle – (John 1:14, 14:7).

The “Law” was given through Moses, but “Grace and Truth” came to be through the “only born son” who dwells in the “bosom” of the Father. He alone has seen the God that “no man has seen.” Therefore, only Jesus is qualified to “interpret” all that God is, which is why anyone who sees the Son “sees the Father”:

• “For of his fullness we all received, and grace instead of grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came to be through Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him” – (John 1:16-18).

• “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him. <…> He who has seen me has seen the Father” - (John 14:7-9, 2 Corinthians 4:6).

Jesus is the “Ladder,” the gateway between Heaven and Earth. The angels of heaven are now “ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” He is the only means by which men and women can “come to the Father,” the true and final “Sanctuary” prefigured in the Tabernacle carried by Israel. Wherever he is, men and women worship the Father “in spirit and truth.” No longer is God’s presence confined to holy space or limited to the nation of Israel - (John 1:51, 2:17-22, 4:21-24, 14:1-7, Ephesians 2:13-18).

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus declared that he is the One who came to “fulfill the Law and the Prophets,” and so he authoritatively declared the true intent and meaning of the Law - “You have heard it said to them of old <…> but I declare to you!” His word settles all disputes and answers all questions, and obedience to it determines whether we are accepted or rejected by him on the Last Day - (Matthew 5:17-20, 7:21-23).

In the Gospel of Mark, Christ is the “Beginning of the Good News,” the promised Messiah who “baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire.” At his baptism in the Jordan River, the heavenly voice declared that Christ is the “Beloved Son.” He is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the World, the only source of the Words of Life - (Mark 1:1-11).

• “Jesus said to the Twelve, Will you also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of everlasting life. And we have believed and know that you are the Holy One of God” - (John 6:67-69).

• “Truly, I say to you, He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life and comes not into judgment, but he has passed out of death into life” - (John 5:24).

THE CRUCIFIED MESSIAH

In Paul’s epistles, Jesus is the “Son” who came from the Seed of David, the one “who was distinguished as the Son of God by power, according to a spirit of holiness, through a resurrection of the dead.” It is “through the faith of Jesus Christ,” the One whom God raised from the dead, that men and women might be reconciled with their Creator – (Romans 1:1-4, 3:21-22).

• “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross” - (Philippians 2:8).

• “Looking away to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” - (Hebrews 12:2).

Indeed, Christ is “the mystery of God” that was “hidden for ages and generations but now has been manifested to his saints.” The preaching of “Christ crucified” is the very “power and wisdom of God,” and the One in whom “all His promises find their yea and amen.”

Jesus can only be understood through his sacrificial death, and we behold his glorious Father only in the crucified and resurrected Messiah - (Romans 1:3-4, 16:25, 1 Corinthians 1:24, Colossians 1:26, 2:2, Ephesians 3:8-11).

The man from Nazareth is the very “image of the unseen God.” It is from the “face” of this Crucified One that men acquire the “knowledge of the glory of God.” The rituals and regulations of the Torah were but types and “shadows of the coming things,” but Jesus is the “body,” the substance of what they foreshadowed, especially in his Death and Resurrection - (2 Corinthians 1:20, 4:4-6, Colossians 1:15, 2:16).

Thus, Jesus “shows us the Father,” fulfills all the promises of God, and executes the redemptive plans of Heaven for humanity. The Nazarene was, is, and remains the indispensable heart and center of God’s creative and redemptive plans, and the only One through whom we may behold the glory of the Living God. He alone is the source of everlasting life and truth.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Salvation of Yahweh - (Jesus means ‘Yahweh saves.’ In this Man of Nazareth, the Salvation promised by the God of Abraham and Israel has arrived for all men)

• Knowing God - (Jesus is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew Scriptures, Bible prophecy, and the nature of God for his disciples)

• Logos - The Living Word - (Jesus is the Word become flesh through whom the glory of God is revealed, the same Word by which God created all things)

• Grace and Truth - (The fullness, grace, and truth of God are found only in the Word made Flesh, namely, Jesus of Nazareth – John 1:14-18)