Understanding the Whole Bible Pt. 5: Jesus' Life

This is Part 5 in our Understanding the Whole Bible series. (Formerly called Hope for Humanity.)

The Story so far...

Which brings us to the life of Jesus...

When Jesus says that the Old Testament "testifies" about him (John 5:39), what do you think he was talking about? Or when Jesus explained to the travelers on the road to Emmaus the many ways that the Old Testament spoke about him (Luke 24:27), what do you think he said to them?

I think most of us wouldn't know how to explain the way Jesus fulfills the Old Testament other than to point to the handful of prophecies about the Messiah (e.g. Isaiah 9:6 - "For to us a child is born..."). While Jesus did indeed fulfill some specific Old Testament prophecies, that's only a small piece of the puzzle.

Jesus didn't just fulfill a little passage here and a little verse there. He is the climax to the great story of humanity and Israel that was building through the Hebrew Scriptures. And one of the clearest ways of understanding that is through the theme of representation that we've been tracing in this blog series.

In Part 4 we saw how the heroes and leaders of Israel were often commendable-but-still-flawed representatives of God:

In men like Moses or David we get glimpses of what it might look like for a human to faithfully be the "image of God" as God hoped all humanity would be. Yet even these leaders - two of the greatest in the Old Testament - leave the reader wanting: these men still miss the mark.

If Israel's leaders leave us wanting, Jesus embodies everything we've been looking for:

Jesus is the perfect representative of God. Jesus succeeds at each of the three levels of representation in the previous graphic that humans have failed at. Jesus fulfills the calling of (1) Israel's leaders, (2) Israel, and (3) all humanity.

1) Israel's Leaders

As described in part 4, Israel's leaders were almost always prophets, priests, or kings. When Jesus arrives on the scene, he embodies all three!

Prophet - Jesus authoritatively teaches people how the Torah is meant to be interpreted (Matthew 5-7), he predicts the future (e.g. Matthew 24), and has insight into peoples inner thoughts (e.g. Mark 2:8). In these ways and more, Jesus brings the WORDS of God to people.
Priest - We'll be spending all of the next blog post on this topic, but suffice to say right now that Jesus brings the FORGIVENESS of God to people.
King - The title "Messiah" means "anointed one", which for Israel essentially meant the king. The disciples realization that Jesus is the Messiah is a major turning point in the gospel stories (e.g. Mark 8:29). Jesus brings the RULE of God to the people.

2) Israel

In part 2 I described how God chose Israel to ultimately be a blessing to the nations (see Genesis 12). One of Jesus' first public teachings is proclaiming blessings - but it's directed to unexpected types of people (see Matthew 5:3-11; Luke 6:20-22). And some of the main features of Jesus' ministry were his healings, exorcisms, and miracles, all of which brought wellness and joy. Israel was called to be a "light to the nations" (Isaiah 42:6), and Jesus is the very embodiment of that light (John 8:12).

3) Humanity

In part 1 we laid out the foundational idea for this whole series that God created humans to be his "image", or representatives, in the world. It should come as no surprise to us then that Jesus fulfills that calling too: Jesus is described as the "image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15)!

In the past when I heard Jesus described as the image of God, I thought that's what made him unique: Jesus was the image of God and we weren't. Of course it is true that Jesus is God's image to an infinitely higher degree than humans are, because he IS God. But it is equally true that humans are God's image-bearers too, just in a more limited way. Jesus is the "exact representation" of God (Hebrews 1:3), whereas humans are representation of God in some ways but not others.

In Genesis God instructs the humans that being his image on earth includes "ruling" over it (Genesis 1:26), but he doesn't explain what he wants that rule to look like. Over the course of Israel's history people (mainly men) try to rule over others with varying degrees of success, typically failing. When Jesus arrives he finally clarifies and embodies the type of rule God wants his image-bearers to have. Whereas the world's political leaders use power to control others and advance their personal interests, Jesus rules by being a servant and slave (Mark 10:43-45).

In the next blog post we'll look at how Jesus' crucifixion further makes him not only God's representative but ours as well!