Only in Jesus
The Crucified One is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew scriptures and especially prophecy. Jesus the Nazarene is the one who unveils the plans and mysteries of God, only he is qualified to reveal the nature of the “unseen God.” In him, all the promises of God find their fulfillment, their “yea and Amen.” He is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew scriptures and provides the correct understanding of prophecy, and this becomes especially so in the Book of Revelation.
This one who was crucified on Golgotha is the center of apostolic traditions preserved in the New Testament. The proclamation of “Christ Crucified” is the true “power and wisdom of God,” and the key to understanding and receiving the promises of God. There is no true knowledge of the Father apart from him.
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The prologue of John’s gospel presents him as the LOGOS, the one who embodies the full revelation of God, the one in whom the Word “became flesh” and in whom the glory of God now “tabernacles.” And John contrasts this same Jesus with the earlier revelation given by Moses - (John 1:14-18).
JESUS EXPLAINS THE FATHER
The grace and truth of God are found in His “only-born Son.” Moses “gave the law,” but “GRACE AND TRUTH came to be through Jesus.” He alone has seen God, and therefore, he is well-qualified to “INTERPRET” anything and everything about his Father.
- “For of his fullness, we all received, even grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 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).
In the Greek clause, the verb rendered as “interprets” in English has NO DIRECT OR INDIRECT OBJECT - the statement is OPEN-ENDED. Quite simply, Jesus interprets. Yahweh has declared His full and final “word” in him, not on Mount Sinai or anywhere or through anyone else.
Likewise, in the letter to the Hebrews, the “word” of God spoken in His Son is His complete word. In contrast, the “word” spoken previously “in the prophets” is partial and incomplete.
Unlike all the prophets before him, the Son “achieved the purification of sins,” sat down to reign from God’s “right hand,” and inherited the “name” that is vastly superior to that of angels, Moses, Aaron, or any other predecessor - (Hebrews 1:1-4).
SLAIN LAMB UNVEILS THE FUTURE
In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is portrayed as the slain “Lamb” who alone is found and declared “worthy” to open the “Sealed Scroll.” And in doing so, he unveils and executes its contents, a process that concludes in nothing less than the New Creation.
For this reason, all creation pronounces him “worthy” to receive ALL power, glory, and authority, for “by his death, he redeemed men and women from every nation to become a kingdom of priests for God.” He has achieved victory for humanity and the Cosmos through his sacrificial death - (Revelation 5:6-12).
The vision received by John on the Isle of Patmos is the “REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.” He is the one to whom it belongs, and he gives it to his servants to grant them the understanding of events that “must soon come to pass.” And he interprets and applies the contents of this revelation through the several visions received by John.
The “slain Lamb” possesses all authority, including the “keys to Death and Hades,” and all this is because of his past death and resurrection. The glorious “Son of Man” is the one who “opens and no man shuts.”
The events portrayed in John’s visions do not occur without his knowledge and authorization. Even the “Beast from the Sea” cannot launch its war against the “saints” until the time determined by Jesus - (Revelation 1:1, 1:17-20, 13:7-10 – “it was given to him…”).
He is the “faithful witness and firstborn of the dead,” and therefore, Jesus is the key that unlocks the book. Upon his arrival at the throne, he takes possession of the “Sealed Scroll” and immediately unseals it. Unlike the Book of Daniel, Revelation is an UNSEALED BOOK - (Daniel 12:1, Revelation 22:10).
The “word become flesh” is the indispensable key to the correct understanding of prophecy, Scripture, and all the “mysteries of God.” The Christ revealed in the New Testament interprets the Hebrew scriptures, not vice versa.
Jesus of Nazareth is the true and greater Sanctuary, the inaugurator of the promised New Covenant, the once-for-all sacrifice for sin, the one who overcame sin and death, the “ruler of the kings of the Earth,” and the king and overlord of the Cosmos.
The substance foreshadowed under the old system is found in the “Crucified Messiah,” and in him, all the promises of God find their “yea” and “amen.” Therefore, “Christ crucified” is God’s “wisdom, and God’s power,” and he alone is the “light of the world.” Only “in Jesus” can the Creator of all things be met and understood.
