IT’S A MYSTERY
Jesus repeatedly made the point that the entire OT came to fulfillment in Him. It’s foolishness to think He meant every verse and every event recorded in some immediate way has Him in view. It’s also foolishness to think that He meant we should look for a prediction here and there, put them like pearls on a necklace and we’d have Him. He at least means (as Stephen in Acts 7 and Paul in Acts 13 showed) that the self-revelation of God in keeping with His creation and redemptive purpose & in keeping with His promises remain constant and that they are to be seen in the narrative and words of Moses, Prophets & Psalms (Writings) That’s the claim of Jesus in John 5, Luke 24 (twice) and elsewhere.
“It all comes to fulfillment in Me,” Jesus claims and His witnesses agree. See texts like Romans 1:1-4; John 1:45; Acts 2 & 3; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “according to the scriptures”; 2 Corinthians 1:2, passim.
We see Jesus mainly as a savior from sins and most of our speech is
about His cross and His dying. We don’t teach/preach much on His
resurrection and the little we hear about it has to do with what happens
when He returns. Nothing much is said that relates it to God’s creative
purpose to create a human family, glorious and immortal to be His
companions in unending LIFE and adventure, righteousness, joy and peace
with the incarnate Lord Jesus and even less about Jesus indwelling the
Church now by His Holy Spirit.
Our doctrine about Christ must include the deity and
humanity of Jesus of Nazareth. Not only does He work our redemption and
deliverance from all that is satanic, that is anti-God, anti-human and
anti-life, He is Himself the complete embodiment of the
triumph over the satanic forces. As a human, the human that God is
being, Jesus of Nazareth conquered Sin by resisting all satanic
temptation and deception, by refusing satanic promises of power, by
totally rejecting self-sufficiency and relying completely on God to give
Him life—In all that He triumphed over Sin (see the temptation
narrative in Matthew 4:1-11). In rising from the dead never to die again He conquered Death.
And all He was and did He was and did as “the Seed of the woman.” Not as the seed of the man! Note the Genesis 3:15 text. God makes the woman to be the satanic figure’s enemy, God makes the woman’s children the enemies of the satanic figure’s children and God makes the woman’s particular child the crusher of Satan and it is the woman’s child that is bruised in accomplishing that triumph. (Note Romans 16:20 for her children’s victory.)
Paul reminds us in Galatians 4:4 that Jesus was “made of a woman.” Not
that He was made of a man! The Greek text doesn’t say He was “born” of a
woman but that He was “made” of a woman. I’m taking it that this is an
echo of Genesis 2:22 where the woman was “made” (built) of a man.
In Jesus we have the perfect union of male and female, distinguishable
(!!) yes, but not separable. Here in Jesus we have the new “image of
God” (see Genesis 1:26-27; 5:2).
In His rising immortal, triumphant over Sin & Death humankind rises with Him. The image of God in the first phase of creation chose death without God (Genesis 1:26-27 and 3:1-13) and the new image of God chose LIFE in and with God (see Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 4:4).
The old mortal image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:2) dies
in creaturely weakness and the new image of God ascends to immortality,
power and glory. The old mortal image brought Sin and Death, the new
image (last Adam) brings life and righteousness (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:45ff, “life-bringing spirit”). The one who is received up in glory is triumphant humankind, male and female, the glory and image of GOD, not separable though distinguishable (see 1 Corinthians 11:11)
“This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.”
[Holy Father, deliver us from all that is satanic that sets women against men and men against woman and enable us to sense the great and wondrous mystery. This prayer in your Son who is the embodiment of yourself in union with man and woman.)
