1. Jesus Christ is Perfect Theology

Bill Johnson has written a book called “Jesus Christ is Perfect Theology” in which talks about the importance of seeing the Old Testament, in fact the whole Bible, through the lens of Jesus. 

Here are a few quotes:

“Jesus Christ is perfect theology. Whatever you think you know about God that you can’t find in the person of Jesus, you have a reason to question. Jesus Christ is the precise revelation of the nature of the Father.”

“The new covenant reveals the Father clearly in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father” (see John 14:9). Hebrews declares, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2 NASB). Furthermore, He is “the exact representation of His nature.” God is now speaking primarily through the person and work of Jesus. The two are exactly alike. That is what is so new about the New Testament—God is seen clearly in Jesus.”

“There is a deep personal need in the Body of Christ to see Jesus for who He is. Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. That doesn’t change because not everyone I pray for gets healed. He stilled every life-threatening storm that He encountered. And deliverance came to all who asked. This is Jesus. And this is the Father, exactly. There is a vast difference between the goodness of God seen in the life of Jesus and the goodness of God revealed in the Church because of our present-day beliefs. It has become easier to believe either that the standard Jesus set for our lives is entirely unattainable or that it is theologically wrong to consider it a legitimate standard for today.”

“The Kingdom is about discovering presence, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He’s the message. He’s perfect theology. We can’t defile or distort the message of who He is so that we can accommodate something that took place in the days of an inferior covenant.”

2. God was born as a human being

Phil 2:5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, 8 he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We all know the Christmas story, but because it is the Christmas story we rarely stop and think about how amazing it is. We can’t explain it any more than we can explain the trinity, but it is no less true.

3. The Incarnation

So the time Jesus spent on earth is the pivotal point of human history and we will spend our time looking at the incredible nature of the incarnation. He is fully God, and fully man. His birth reveals His humility, He could have just appeared as an adult but He chose to be born, in a manger, to an unmarried teenager, and soon after that He became a refugee. The Bible says that He was tempted in every way as we are; His ability to relate to our experience is based on experience.

Below is my attempt at a harmonisation of the incarnation

The Incarnation and early life Matt 1:18 – 2:23, Luke 1:1 – 2:40, John 1:1-18

• Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
• When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
• They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.
• After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.
• All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished.
• Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
• The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.
• Eight days later he was circumcised and given the name Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.
• Then Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Jerusalem to make a purification offering.
• At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.
• The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
• That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there.
• He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”
• Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him.
• Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”
• Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer.
• She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.
• When Jesus’ parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favour was on him.

At this point there is a lot of discussion about where the wise men fit in the timeline; some place it at the same time as the Jerusalem visit, others up to two years later. At the moment I’m tending towards the Jerusalem trip time frame but the evidence is tricky either way.

• About the time of Jesus’ birth some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the new-born king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
• King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”
• Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too! After this interview the wise men went their way.
• And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!
• They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
• When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
• After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
• That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
• Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance.
• When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
• But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee.
• So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

4. Son of God/Son of Man

Mark 10: 24 The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. 26 But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”

31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?”

33 They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.”

34 Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’ 35 And you know that the Scriptures cannot be altered. So if those people who received God’s message were called ‘gods,’ 36 why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God’? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world. 37 Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. 38 But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” 

45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In the above passage He calls Himself, Son of God and Son of Man. I think we find it easier to think of Jesus as God rather than as man despite the large portion of the New Testament that is devoted to His life on earth. Jesus was a carpenter who took wood and made things, and yet as God He could have spoken to the tree and commanded it to turn into a table. As God He never sleeps or grows weary but as man He was hot, tired, thirsty and hungry. As God He cannot be tempted with evil, but as a man He was tempted in every way as we are. To think of Jesus as human seems to imply a weakness and vulnerability we don’t really want God to have. But as we look at His life on earth we see He never sinned, He was able to do everything the Father revealed to Him, and ultimately He achieved the greatest victory ever. The very fact He became a human being makes God accessible to us and that should be a continual source of wonder and praise.

5. We are to reflect His glory

2 Corinthians 3: 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

The more we look at Jesus, the more like Him we become. Heidi Baker says “love looks like something”, when we look at Jesus we don’t see concepts, we see a person who has those attributes – love looks like something, joy looks like something. When we look at people who know Jesus well we can see something of Jesus in them, it might be their faith, their peace, or their love. 

When we look at Him, it changes us and it changes our relationship with Him. The more we look, the more we know, and the better we know Him, inevitably the relationship changes and matures. The Bible also says that looking at Him changes us – we’re changed into His glorious image – what a promise.