Unlocking Prophecy
Jesus is the one who unveils the plans and mysteries of God, and only he is qualified to reveal the nature of the “unseen God.” In him, all the promises of God find their fulfillment. He is the interpretive key that unlocks the Hebrew scriptures and provides the correct understanding of prophecy, and this is especially so in the book of Revelation.
The
prologue of John’s gospel presents him as the logos, the great and final revelation of God. He is the
one in whom the Word has “become flesh” and the glory of God now “tabernacles.”
And John
contrasts this same Jesus of Nazareth with the earlier revelation given by
Moses - (John 1:14-18).
JESUS INTERPRETS GOD
The grace
and truth of God are found in His “only-born Son.” Moses “gave the
law,” but “grace and truth
came through Jesus Christ.” 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 in 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) – “In many parts and in many ways of old, God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days, He has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages; who being an eradiated brightness of his glory, and an exact representation of his very being, also bearing up all things by the utterance of his power, purification of sins having achieved, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty in high places, by so much becoming superior to the angels, by as much as, going beyond them, he inherited a more distinguished name.”
THE LAMB REVEALS
In the
book of Revelation, Jesus is the slain “Lamb” who alone is declared
“worthy” to open the “sealed scroll.” In doing so, he unveils and
executes its contents, a process that ends 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
by his sacrificial death - (Revelation 5:6-12).
The vision received by John is the “revelation of Jesus Christ.” He is the one to whom it belongs, and he gives it to his servants to provide them with the understanding of events that “must soon come to pass.” And he interprets and applies the contents of this revelation.
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.” None of the events
portrayed in John’s visions occurs 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. He takes possession
of the “sealed scroll” and immediately unseals it for his servants. 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
Tabernacle and Temple, the inaugurator of the promised New Covenant, the once-for-all
sacrifice for sin, the one who overcame sin and death, and the present ruler 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.”
