The Mystery of Christ

The apostles listened intently. Thomas heard something that especially grabs his attention. "And you know the way where I am going," Thomas exclaims, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, how do we know the way?" Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

Another disciple sits up. Jesus continues, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." Philip can’t stand it any longer, so he blurts out, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus turns to Philip, and says, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’"

The disciple’s concept of the Messiah did not include Him actually being God. But that question was fully settled after the resurrection. When Thomas was told to reach forth and touch the nail prints in the hands of Jesus, it was at that point that that all doubt disappeared. Thomas says of Jesus, "My Lord, and my God."

A few years later we come to Paul. Here we find a man who had been knocked to the ground by a flash of blinding light. He heard a voice speaking in the Hebrew dialect, saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Saul is his Hebrew name.) Paul instinctively responds in Hebrew, "Who are you Lord [Yahweh or Adonai]?" He hears, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." Suddenly Paul realizes he had been fed a lie by the leaders in Israel. They said the disciples had stolen the body of Jesus. But the Christians said that Jesus had risen from the dead. Now there was no question!

Paul is the one that God uses to bring out some of the mystery of who Jesus really is. He uses a term that was used in the Greek language to express the essential nature of the gods. Paul says of Christ, "For in Him all the fullness of Deity [‘theios’; the godhead] dwells in bodily form." (Col. 2:9) The apostle was saying that Christ is the only Person anywhere, in whom all the fullness of Deity dwells permanently, and fully. Somehow Jesus is God. Yet He is also the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, and the Lord of glory. Such a mystery, this Jesus.

In this study we are going to look at the mystery of God’s Messiah, with a special view to how the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. There is an issue involved in studying who Jesus really is. Every believer will relate to the Lord on the level of who Jesus is to him or her.

1. When Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea and it became calm, the disciples were amazed. They said, "What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" (Matt 8:27)

Nearly everything that Jesus did was to fulfill something written in the Old Testament. With regard to calming the seas, it says in Psalm 107:28,29, "Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, so that the waves of the sea were hushed."

The Bible is a book of redemption. Its story is God’s Messiah, or Redeemer. Consider these Scriptures taken from the book of Matthew: Matt. 1:21-23; 2:14,15; 2:22,23; 4:13-16; 8:16,17; 13:34,35; 21:2-5; 26:53,54,56.

2. That the Messiah would also be God was written beforehand. For example, Isaiah 9:6, says, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, MIGHTY GOD, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace…"

How can the Messiah be the Almighty God in the earth, while the highest heavens cannot contain God? The issue is that God does not exist in time and space. God is one Being, yet He manifests Himself in more than one way. This has always been a mystery to be understood with the heart and not the head. Cf. Zech12:10; Hosea 5:15; 6:1-3.

In theology you will find the terms Theophany and Christophany. These terms speak of Divine manifestations of God or of Christ. They especially apply to manifestations in the Old Testaments. Was Christ pre-existent? Cf. Micah 5:2; Prov30:4; John 3:10-15; 17:1-5; Heb. 11:24-27.

3. Job said, "As for me, I know my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not another. My heart faints within me." (Job 19:25-27)

Notice who Job called his Redeemer. God! This is one of the clearest testimonies to the faith of God’s ancient people. Job must have had a revelation of who the Redeemer would really be. How did God redeem us? Paul said, "…God reconciled us to Himself through Christ…namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." (2 Co. 5:18,19)

Here is the mystery of the incarnation. While Jesus was fully a man, He was also God manifest. The blood that ran through His veins was God’s blood. (Cf. Acts 20:28.) Notice how the book of Revelation closes with a picture of the heavenly throne. It says, "Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb." (Notice there is only one throne.)

4. The ancient faith of God’s people rested on a promise made in the garden. One day a Son would be born to the human family. This Son would break Satan’s power. Did Eve understand that the Messiah would also be the Lord? Could be. When Cain was born, an alternation translation has Eve saying, "I have gotten man, the Lord."

Paul said that had the rulers understood God’s wisdom, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1Co2:7,8) John also said that Jesus was the Word of God manifest in human form. To the Hebrews the term ‘Word’ spoke of God’s activity in creation. Both the Greeks and the Hebrews had a concept of God working through the agency of what they called His Word. The Greeks used the term ‘Logos,’ while the Hebrews used ‘Memra.’

5. The Jewish sages saw the Messiah written in all the Scriptures. The ‘wind’ on the surface of the deep in creation to them was the Spirit of Messiah. Consider these Psalms: Psalm 2:10-12; 22:1; 23:1; 24:1; 45:6,7; 110:1-3.

They also said that the ‘Light’ that was manifest at creation was the Messiah. Because of sin this Light became hidden. The sages taught that the light would come with Messiah. Does the New Testament give any validity to this line of thinking? Jesus said, "I am the light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)

6. How does this light manifest for a believer? Paul has this to say, "For God who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels…" (2Co4:6,7)

When a person becomes a true believer, there is a work of the Spirit in opening that person’s spiritual eyes. Every true believer has the capacity to walk in the light of Jesus. The born-from-above believer is given ‘sight’ by which he or she sees beyond the boundaries of the natural. This is why Paul said, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2Co4:18)

7. When Jesus walked on the waters, we hear Him saying to the frightened disciples, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." (Matt14:25-26)