This is the 7th and concluding part of our series, Who Is Jesus? If you missed Parts 1-6, please download the ebook on this website.
Apostle John was not your average apostle. Not by any measure. Wrongly labeled apostle of love, this has prevented intellectual appreciation of the depths of this apostle. Truth is, Apostle Paul wrote more about love than John. The locus classicus on love is 1 Corinthians 13. Paul penned it. The scholarship and intellectual sagacity of John is only rivaled by Apostle Paul. His thesis on the Logos is one of the most important philosophical discourses in the annals of human history: “In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What John did was to substantiate the Logos, taking it far beyond Heraclitan and Platonic conceptions.
Apostle John was a theologian. While many documented chronicles of Jesus, he theologized arcane Christology. He was a conceptualist who specialized in the esotericism of divinity. It should therefore come as no surprise that the man given revelation of the recondite dimension of Christ was John. From the Old Testament up to the Gospels, the vision we have of Christ was manifestation in forms – forms of the Lord. It was “a form of the Lord” that spoke “face to face” with Moses for instance. (cf. Numbers 12:1-8).
God manifested in human form to remove the intimidation of divinity, to make God accessible to humankind. He became an ordinary man that he might do the extraordinary in the life of an ordinary man. His incarnation was the measure of the aching love in the heart of the Father. But to imagine that Jesus is a man Jacob can wrestle with, or just a human is to swim in the pool of incomprehension. Those manifestations were purposed and prophetic forms. They in no wise reflect the essence of deity. The book that shows us who Jesus really is, is the Book of Revelation. Unsurprisingly, it was written by John.
The book opens with these declarative words – “This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.” It is “a revealing of Jesus the Messiah” (Revelation 1.1 MSG). For the first time, we see a vision of whom Jesus truly is. And so the Bible begins with Jesus as the God of Creation and ends with Jesus as the Lord of Creation. “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:16). He is introduced frontally to us in the Book of Revelation with a triple-barreled concatenation: “HIM WHO IS AND WHO WAS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
And the exaltation and laudation continues: “Jesus Christ the faithful and trustworthy Witness, the Firstborn of the dead and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 1:5). “To Him be the glory and the power and the majesty and the dominion throughout the ages and forever and ever.” (Revelation 1:6). And then Jesus introduces himself: “I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, He Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.” His voice was “a great voice like the calling of a war trumpet. (Revelation 1:8). When John turned around this is what he saw: “One like a Son of Man, clothed with a robe which reached to His feet and with a girdle of gold about His breast.” In other words, he saw someone identical to the Jesus he knew – a Son of Man.
Jesus often called himself Son of Man in reference to his humanity. His other title was Son of God, a reference to deity. Son of Man and Son of God are the two natures in the hypostatic union of Jesus the Christ. As earlier pointed out in this discourse, “Son of God” is a political title. It does not suggest insemination by God. The Bible is clear on the birth of Jesus. So the issue of God not giving birth to a biological son is a straw argument. And since it is not a biological reference, the issue of a consort or no consort for God cannot arise. It is inventive. It is the attack of a proposition that was never put forward. In logic, it is the fallacy of petitio principii.
About 600 years before Revelation, Daniel had a similar vision of “One like the Son of Man.” This Son of Man “was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him… His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14). In other words, the personage that appeared to Daniel is the same personage John beheld. This is the Jesus John saw: “His head and his hair were white like white snow, and his eyes flashed like a flame of fire. His feet glowed like burnished bronze as it is refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In His hand He held seven stars, and from His mouth there came forth a sharp two edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full power at midday.” (Revelation 1:14-16).
That was not the Jesus John knew in the flesh – the itinerant teacher who thirsted and grew tired; the one who gave himself up to be flogged; whose body was one huge mass of wound; the one the Roman soldiers mocked and pierced his hands with crude metal. This was another Jesus. Understandably, John became frightful. This is a dreadful Lord, John was meeting. “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if dead.” (Revelation 1:17). Daniel had a similar experience.
This is Daniel’s description: “His body also was a golden luster like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet glowing burnished bronze, and the sound of his words was like the noise of a multitude of people or the roaring of the sea.” (Daniel 10:6). Despite the fact that the men around Daniel didn’t see the vision he saw, “a great trembling fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves.” (Daniel 10:7). And just like John, Daniel had a fright: “No strength was left in me, for my fresh appearance was turned to pallor; I grew weak and faint with fright.” (Daniel 10:8). To confirm to John it was the self-same crucified Christ, Jesus said to him, “I died, but see, I am alive forevermore; and I possess the keys of death and Hades.” (Revelation 1: 18).
One day, the world will see this Jesus – the one in the Book of Revelation. And men’s hearts will fail them for fear. There is another dimension out there about which we know nothing of, being creatures of a lower dimension. The zoological community in that dimension is scary – a winged animal that looks like a lion? Another winged animal that looks like an ox; yet another that looks like an eagle and yet another had a human face. These four animals are described as “all eyes, seeing around and within,” meaning they can see into other dimensions. These animals prowl around the throne of the Jesus we speak, chanting all day long: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, Who was and Who is and Who is to come.” (Revelation 4:8).
The “24” – eminent political titleholders called the Twenty-Four Elders, sat on twenty-four thrones round His throne. Every time the winged creatures paid homage to Jesus, the “24” would fall prostrate before Him, throwing their crowns to the foot of His throne. (Revelation 4:10). They cried in unison, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power… For you created all things; by your will they were brought into being and were created.” (Revelation 4:11). This Jesus is not the “form of the Lord” the world has grown to know. He is not a prophet, not a moral instructor, not a guru, not a mere man. He is the Lord God Almighty, King of kings, Lord of lords, Everlasting Father of All Creation. It is this Jesus about which we testify.
If you will like to give your life to Christ, please pray this prayer: Father I acknowledge that I am a sinner, that Jesus Christ died for me, that you raised him from the dead. Please forgive me. I accept Jesus today as my Lord and my Saviour. Amen.
This concludes our treatise, Who Is Jesus?
To download the free e-book WHO IS JESUS?, please go to the ebook section of this website.
© Leke Alder | talk2me@lekealder.com