Jesus Interprets

Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the interpretive key that opens the Hebrew Scriptures and reveals the Father. 

Jesus of Nazareth is the one who reveals the purposes and fulfills the mysteries of God. Only he is qualified to “interpret” the “unseen God.” In him alone, all the promises of God find their “Yea” and “Amen.” He is the key that unlocks the Hebrew Scriptures and fulfills the words of the prophets. This principle is presented in the opening paragraph of Letter to the Hebrews and pictorially in the Book of Revelation.

The Prologue of John’s Gospel presents Jesus as the ‘Logos’ (λογος), the expression of God. He is the man in whom the Word of God “became flesh” and His Presence and Glory now “tabernacles” - (John 1:14-18).

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The grace and truth of God are found in His “Son.” Moses “gave the Law,” but “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” He alone has seen the unseen God, therefore, only he is qualified to “interpret” anything and everything about his Father:

“No man has seen God at any time; the only born Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he interprets” - (John 1:16-18).

The verb translated as “interprets” has no direct or indirect object in the Greek sentence. The statement is open-ended. Quite simply, Jesus interprets.

Likewise, in the Letter to the Hebrews, the “Word” of God spoken in His Son is His complete word. In contrast, the various “words” spoken previously “in the prophets” were partial, incomplete, and promissory – “In many parts and many ways.”

Unlike the ancient prophets, the Son “achieved the purification of sins,” and he then sat down at God’s “right hand” where he remains as the High Priest of his People. Therefore, he inherited the more “excellent name” vastly superior to that of ‘angel,’ Moses, Aaron, or any of his other predecessors - (Hebrews 1:1-4).

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is the slain “Lamb” who alone is “worthy” to open the “Sealed Scroll” due to his sacrificial death and resurrection. By opening the Scroll, he unveils and executes its contents. For this reason, all creation pronounced him “worthy” to receive all power, honor, and authority, “Because by your death, you redeemed men from every nation to become a kingdom of priests for God” - (Revelation 5:6-12).

The reality portrayed so graphically in Revelation is conceptually parallel to the “word spoken in a son” in Hebrews. Like the “Lamb,” the “Son” overcame sin and its consequences through his sacrificial death, and he now reigns over all things on the Throne as the High Priest of his Church.

The Book of Revelation is the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” It belongs to him, and he gives it to his “servants” so they will understand events that “must soon come to pass.” He interprets and applies the contents of the Book. For example, he informed John that the “Seven Golden Lampstands” in the Vision of the Son of Man represent the “Seven Assemblies” of Asia – (Revelation 1:20).

Jesus as the “Lamb” possesses all authority because of his Death and Resurrection, including the “keys to Death and Hades.” He “opens and no man shuts,” including insight into the future and the cosmic war raging between him and the “Dragon.”

Jesus is the “Faithful Witness and Firstborn of the Dead,” as well as the key that unlocks the visions of Revelation. Unlike the Book of Daniel, Revelation is an unsealed book because the sacrificial “Lamb” has broken its “seven seals,” and therefore, unlike the Prophet Daniel, John was commanded not to seal the Book - (Daniel 12:1, Revelation 22:10).

The “Word that became flesh” is the irreplaceable key that unlocks prophecy, Scripture, and the nature and “mysteries of God.” The Jesus revealed on the pages of the New Testament interprets the Hebrew Scriptures, not vice versa.

He is the true and greater Tabernacle, the inaugurator of the promised New Covenant, the “once-for-all sacrifice” for sin, the one who overcame sin and death, and the ruler of the Cosmos who mediates before God on behalf of his People as their “High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

The substance foreshadowed under the old system is found in the “Crucified Messiah.” In him, and him alone, all the covenant promises of God find their “yea” and “amen.” Through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, God has spoken His full and definitive “Word.”

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SEE ALSO:

• Declaring the Unseen God - (The fullness, grace, and truth of God are found in the Word made Flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, who alone has seen the unseen God – John 1:14-18)

• Decoding Scripture - (Jesus, the Word become flesh, is THE only interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew Scriptures and Bible prophecy)

• The Word Made Flesh - (Jesus is the Logos made flesh, the true Tabernacle where the Glory of God is revealed and the One who reveals Grace and Truth – John 1:14)