God speaks to us and works in our lives in different ways and in the Old Testament times the way He worked in someone’s life, the same became a name and identity of God for him. Abraham received the ram caught in the bush, sacrificed it in place of his son, Isaac, and called Him Yehowah, the God who provides. To Hagar in her loneliness in the wilderness, with her son crying and dying from thirst, God became El-Roi, the God who sees. To others He became Jehovah Rapha and many more such names were attributed to God. But can God’s identity be reduced to a few names given by the people for He is definitely much more than what we get to know Him?
Role and identity of Lord Jesus in the Old Testament –The first line of the Holy Bible mentions God as the Creator of heaven and earth and the last line blesses the followers with the ‘grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Revelation 22:21). In the beginning God is Elohim and in the end our Lord Jesus Christ and between the pages He is the Angel of the LORD, Commander of the Lord’s Army and the Redeemer of all mankind. In the creation process Elohim, His Spirit and His Word are in action and everything comes into being. The Spirit is His very essence and cannot be separated from Him but reveals His presence. The Word is the authority and power which also comes from within Him, the Source of it all. They are three in their work but one in being.
Lord Jesus is referred to as ‘the carpenter’s Son’ and the Greek word used is ‘tecton’ which means ‘a builder, or the one who chisels, moulds or forms’ Matthew 13:55). From the beginning He is the Builder and Creator of everything. After creating Adam and Eve, He visited them daily to mould them into the fullness of the image that they were required to reflect. Prophet Jeremiah was sent by God to a potter’s house to see a vessel being reshaped, after it did not come out as was desired (Jeremiah 18:1-6). And then the message to Israel and to all mankind from God was and is, ‘as the clay is to the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand’. God does not change and ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever’ (Hebrew 13:8). Lord Jesus was, is and will always be the Master Builder, who mends broken relationships and lives and transforms darkness within people to fill them with His light to make them shine bright as light in others’ darkness.
The Gospel of Saint John, just like the first book of Scripture starts with the words, ‘In the beginning’ (John 1:1-14). And then he identifies the Son of God as the Word who ‘was with God, and the Word was God’. Thus His true identity is from God and as God and all things ‘were made through Him’ and Him alone for nothing got made without Him. He is the source of all life and this same ‘Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory’. Therefore, the Creator is the Living Word, Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
But why did Elohim, the LORD God, reveal His Son and His Spirit for all of creation? As per the Jewish mysticism Kabbalah, before anything could be created, God contracted His glory to create an empty space, for in His glory nothing that is created can exist. In that empty space, He put a beam of His glory and His Spirit worked with His commands to create everything in the heavens, on the earth and below the earth. Thus, He worked out the whole process of creation, without being Himself directly present. We believers refer to that part or beam of God’s glory as His Son, the Living Word.
Lord Jesus, being full of love, put everything in place for their needs, before creating anything. After the disobedience and sin of Adam and Eve, He did not abandon them but came seeking them in love, not to condemn but to show them the way of return and restoration. He then revealed this redemption of all mankind to be through His own sacrifice as ‘Seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). After the tower of Babel, Lord Jesus confused the language of all mankind and scattered them on the whole earth (Genesis 11:6-7). The reason was to break their oneness, for in that oneness, God declared that now ‘nothing that they propose will be withheld from them’.
When the population on the earth increased to large numbers, God decided to choose one man, Abraham, to separate him from his family traditions and faith and through his descendants the Messiah would come. The God who was the judge, then became benevolent to bind Himself with a covenant to bless him and that ‘in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ (Genesis 12:2-3). Thus, Lord Jesus became a partner of mankind to help them prevail against evil and be separated to maintain a separate identity in and for Him. The Lord chose and anointed Moses to not only lead His people to freedom from slavery of Egypt but through him, also showed them the way to freedom from sin. Moses received the first five Books of the Scripture directly from God on Mount Sinai. With that, the Ten Commandments were engraved in stone to be the guidelines for mankind to live in a manner acceptable to God.
It is the same LORD who commanded Moses to prepare the Tabernacle and then to David and his son Solomon to make the Temple, for Him to dwell among them. He blessed them through the sacrifice of animals for forgiveness of their sins and thus, pointing them towards the final redemption through His own sacrifice on the cross. The God who worked in the Spirit or in a visible form with His people became Man to finally restore their relationship to Him. The invisible God of the Old Testament became visible in the New Testament. But neither did His people fully turn to Him before nor later and the door was opened for all of mankind to receive Him and be blessed.
Has God changed from Old to New Testament? God in the Old Testament showed His wrath against sin but also His steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness. After the gap of four hundred years the ground realities were different as they are different today. The Roman Empire was ruling and a new set of religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes dominated the scene to be the religious guides and teachers of the people. The Ten Commandments revealed God’s will and way for mankind to follow and the Jewish leaders added to that to make it a total of 613 commands for Jews to follow. Our Lord taught us a simple relational way to pray to God the Father, ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as in heaven’.
Man had turned to the visible symbols to represent God and worship them, while God’s Son came to reveal the True God in and through Him. Moses wanted to see God but was denied the privilege for ‘No one has seen God at any time. The only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him’ (John 1:18). The Son of God came with two basic aims; first, restore the relationship of mankind with God through forgiveness of sins by His sacrifice on the cross. John the Baptist, while preparing the way for the Saviour Lord’s coming and revealed His twofold ministry. First, ‘He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire’, for the Holy Spirit builds up and the fire destroys and purifies. By taking away our sins on Himself on the cross, His purifying fire removed evil from within the believers. All believers were baptised in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and on the day of baptism. This is through faith for ‘as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name’ (John 1:12). That is the reason we can pray, ‘Our Father in heaven’, for we receive the same rights as Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden (Matthew 6:9).
Second, re-establish the kingdom of heaven on the earth by breaking the stranglehold of the devil on mankind through death, both physical and spiritual. One of the two criminals on the cross sought Lord Jesus and received the blessing (Luke 23:42-43). Lord Jesus promised to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise’.
But how was this fulfilled for He ascended to heaven on the third day? Since the door to heaven was not opened till His coming, death and resurrection, all those considered righteous by God were held captive by the devil. The story of the beggar and the rich man clarifies this, for the beggar died ‘and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom’ (Luke 16:19-26). The rich man, after death, suffered in Hades and the two could see each other but there was a great separation between the two and nobody could cross over. Lord Jesus, on the cross, bore our sins, which would have taken us to hell. He carried our sins into the fires but He being sinless could not be touched or restrained by the fire and crossed over to the other side, the only One who could. Apostle Paul quoting the prophecy of Psalm 68:18 has said about the Lord, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive’ (Ephesians 4:8). Lord Jesus, after His resurrection, in a great expression of love and compassion, appeared to Mary Magdalene, outside the tomb (Matthew 27:52-53). Those who were freed from the captivity, and these saints, ‘who had fallen asleep were raised’. They went into Jerusalem, ‘the holy city appeared to many’ and ascended into heaven with the Lord.
In answer to the Pharisees question and the coming of the kingdom of God, Lord Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation’ (Luke 17:20-21). He further told them, ‘For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you (in your midst)’. There are three interpretations of this; first, God’s kingdom is internal, not external. Second, it is in your reach; to submit and receive and finally, it is in your midst in the form of the King Himself. The kingdom of God is not in the physical realm, for when God breathed into the form of dust, with life, He also provided a connection to Himself through the spirit to the soul and the body. The kingdom of God touches us where our soul touches Him and, in a believer, this is through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
As life and with that eternal life flows in us, the kingdom also flows in like manner. Once we connect in this manner, the deep yearning continues and we submit to its control as citizens of that kingdom (Philippians 3:20). John the Baptist saw Lord Jesus and declared to others around him, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). In the Old Testament, He provided the way for forgiveness through animal sacrifice and in the New Testament, He became ‘the way’ of forgiveness to return to the holy presence of the Holy God.
Effect of Lord Jesus’ power and authority in heaven – After His resurrection from the dead, Lord Jesus is ’at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him’ (1 Peter 3:22). Prophet Daniel saw in a vision the throne of the ‘Ancient of Days’, the LORD God with ‘ten thousand times ten thousand’ standing before Him (Daniel 7:9-14). Then, he saw ‘One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven’ coming to the Ancient of Days. We see the great cloud of witnesses surrounding the chosen ones on earth, encouraging us, like the crowd in a stadium, cheering for the runners (Hebrews 12:1). This cloud is the saints, who after death ascend to heaven. Prophet Daniel saw that the Son of Man ‘was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed’.
The dominion that was given to Adam and through obedience to the voice of Satan, was passed on by them to Satan. This same dominion was taken back by our Lord and the authority is given by Him to the believers ‘to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you’ (Luke 10:19). He has given and He is in a position to enforce that authority by His army in heaven. He is the Builder, the Potter, who chooses people to pull them out of their darkness and shape them into a ‘new creation in Himself’. In this blessed state we are ‘made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:6). Not satisfied with this much only, He has further blessed us ‘with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:3). With the indwelling Holy Spirit in a believer, the Kingdom of heaven is established in him. But outside the god of this age, the devil blinds the people to keep them busy in following his lies. Therefore, we are perpetually involved in a spiritual battle with these forces who work eagerly to topple us off from our faith.
Our Lord revealed Himself in the fullness of His Divine glory to Apostle John on the Patmos Island (Revelation 1:13-18). He wears a garment down to His feet as a Royal High Priest with a golden band around His chest. He is our eternal High Priest, King and Lord ready to establish His rule over everything. Absolutely white hair shows His wisdom, for He is the source of it and His eyes like flame of fire are ready to judge and destroy. His feet like ‘brass, refined in a furnace’ for He has passed through the trial of suffering on the cross for us. His voice ‘as the sound of many waters’ carries authority and power. The seven stars in His right hand are all the churches, their leaders, pastors and teachers of Scripture, who are granted authority and guidance from above. The two-edged sword from His mouth carrying judicial authority to judge by dividing the truth from falsehood. His face shining like the fullness of the sun at its peak reveals His binding uncreated light that overcomes all darkness. He is seen in His post-resurrection Divine glory in heaven and this is His present status in heaven.
The first time He will come to remove the believers to join Him in the clouds before the tribulation (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The believers will be saved from the sufferings of the final stages of the evil rule of the devil and His forces.
The second time our Lord will come on a white horse like a great warrior to judge and make war (Revelation 19:11-16). His name on His robe and on His thigh is the ‘KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS’. He will then prevail over Satan and his forces of evil and establish His earthly kingdom. But He being God can never be fully known by us, the created beings, for as seen by Apostle John, ‘He had a name written that no one knows except Himself’. The name reveals His ministry and His work and He has some work which is beyond this creation also. We are humbled by knowing Him and now is the time to turn and receive Him as the Lord of Your life, to Him be the glory now and forevermore.
The coming of our Lord Jesus is definite, though the exact time is not known. We as believers must strengthen our relationship with Him through study, meditation of His Word and doing good works for the benefit of others. All those who are still undecided must decide today and now, for no one knows the time when the call of God will come to leave the earth. Listening to the Word of God is not enough, one must understand, submit and be transformed by walking in obedience!
