Jesus only is how we understand God
Defending the character of God from the life and teachings of Jesus
When we say Jesus is God. We mean to say that whatever Jesus says, it is God that said it. It means Jesus cannot contradict God, and God cannot contradict Jesus.
Now, the Old Testament saints didn’t have Jesus manifested to them as we do today. Before God came as Jesus, he had to preinform the world of what he would do. To usher in Jesus and make their hearts ready to receive him, he gave them prophets, who spoke about God in various degrees of limitations.
They were limited because what they had was a shadow of the real thing.
They prophesied about Jesus and the salvation to come, and they did so through the lenses of their limited understanding at that time.
So, when you read “God said,” for instance in the Old Testament, you must know that that “God” was speaking through the veil to someone who did not know or understand his ways fully because Jesus, who came to show us who God really was, had not yet come.
So, how did the saints of the Old Testament interface with God?
Hebrews 1:1 (NLT):
“Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.”
KJV: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,”
So, all the speakings of God as we read them in the Torah were through the prophets.
Prophets were humans; don’t forget this. They didn’t even totally understand what they were speaking about themselves.
1 Peter 1:10-12 (NLT):
[10] This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you.
[11] They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.
[12] They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.
So, they themselves often wondered when this whole thing was going to happen. Meaning they themselves couldn’t have had a perfect understanding of what God was planning through Christ.
It is not just in the matters of the knowledge of the coming Christ that these prophets had limited understanding. Most of their instructions and dealings were classified as the shadow of the real thing.
Hebrews 10:1 (KJV):
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”
The law had a shadow of good things to come. This is the law that was handed over to these folks by the prophets, including Moses.
John 1:17 (KJV):
“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”
So Moses’ law was a shadow of the real thing to come.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ is the only one who can perfectly explain God to humanity.
Hebrews 1:3 (KJV):
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;.”
Jesus is the EXPRESS image of God’s person. So, in simple terms, if Moses said something about God, if Jesus says something else, abandon Moses and stick with Jesus.
In his ministry, Jesus would often say, “The law said this, but I say unto you...”
And about the law, Jesus would say, “I am the fulfilment of the law.”
How did he fulfil the law?
He came to show us a better way to the Father. He came to reveal to us who the Father truly is amidst all the things said about him in the law and prophets.
Hebrews 7:22 (KJV):
“By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.”
So, in this same light, Jesus’s testimony about God is greater than the testimony about God from the writers of the Torah.
On the mountain of transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus in the presence of Peter, James, and John, and while Peter (not having understood still the ministry of Jesus perfectly) wanted to venerate the law and the prophets, represented by Moses and Elijah, a voice said:
Matthew 17:3-5 (KJV):
3. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
4. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
5. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
“Hear ye him”
And what happened next?
Matthew 17:8 (KJV):
“And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.”
The law was taken away! The prophets were taken away!
Only Jesus was left because he’s the ONLY one we should hear.
So, when reading the Bible about God doing this and that, you must read it with Jesus’s explanation in mind, knowing that the writings of the scriptures are explained in Jesus, who is the perfect representation of God to man.
Read the full apologetics on the deity of Jesus as God in this publication,