When you and I read our Bible, do we really keep in mind who it is all about and recognize that Jesus is the principal subject of what we are reading? The Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme subject of the Bible and His Person and work are presented to us in many different ways. His works are perfect and yet, as God incarnate, He took on human flesh to present His works to imperfect mankind.In the beginning, God created everything that has to do with this world and the heavens and all they embrace. This is all in the first two chapters of Genesis. Actually, any act of God can be construed as an act of the Trinity and scripture states that the acts of creation were by the spoken word of God. The Old Testament states that when God created these things, man was made in “Our” image indicating that the plurality of the Trinity was no doubt involved. Then, in the New Testament, God reveals, in John chapter 1, that all the things of creation as we know it were made by Christ. This is brought out again in Colossians 1:16-17, "By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things and by Him all things consist."
This does not mean that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit had no part in creation, but it does state Christ was the prime factor in the creation of the universe.
Scripture attributes supreme sovereignty to God the Father, and His purpose is that Christ should rule the world. Psalm 2:8-9. “Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. 9. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.”
He is the Creator, and the whole universe reflects His handiwork and God promises that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and every knee will bow to Him.
Philippians 2:9-11. “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Christ is the promised seed who would conquer Satan and this, too, is an important theme of Scripture. The work of Jesus Christ as the Savior began with man's creation and fall, it will end when the new heaven and the new earth appear. After the fall in the Garden of Eden, God spoke these words to Satan, promising that Christ would overcome him; Genesis 3:15. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
In accordance with that promise made in Genesis 3, Christ is the servant of Jehovah who would defeat Satan's power at the cross and bear the sins of the whole world. Isaiah 53:5-6. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
From eternity past, God knew that man would sin. God demands that all sin be atoned for and that requires a blood sacrifice. The Old Testament scriptures did not specify exactly how God planned to accomplish this atonement but the sacrifice of animals at the temple provided a temporary atonement for man’s sin. These animal sacrifices, however, only pictured the coming sacrifice of God’s Son for mankind’s sin.
In the Old Testament, the animal most frequently used for sacrifice was a lamb, and in the New Testament, God chose the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross and suffer judgment for the sin of the whole world. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Through the sacrifice of His dear Son, God provided a further benefit to the believer in Christ. He would not only be our sacrifice for sin but He would also represent us before God as our High Priest.
Hebrews 7:25-26. “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens.”
The Bible records that man, in times past, rebelled against God, and actually is still in rebellion. It also reveals that Christ, in a coming day, will be sovereign over the entire world.
Psalm 2:1-2 and 7b-8. “Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed.” Verse 7b.“Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. 8: Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” And, Psalm 110:1. “The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."
The day is coming, and I believe it will be soon, when Christ will be Lord over all, sin will be judged, and the sovereignty of Christ will be revealed to the world.
God works in wonderfully designed ways to fulfill His purposes. He has allowed nations like Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, to rise and fall and each one has been a part of God’s overall plan for this world.
He has allowed both good and evil men to be rulers, kings, dictators and presidents to have positions of power but when the kingdom from heaven, the final kingdom this earth will experience, does come, Christ will be the sovereign ruler. This is openly prophesied as far back in scripture as the book of Daniel.
Daniel 7:13-14. “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. 14. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.”
In Luke 1:31-33, even before the birth of Jesus, the angel Gabriel told Mary this; “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Christ will be the King over the entire world. As a Son of David, He will be the King of Israel and reign from the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem. This will take place at His second coming when He returns to establish His millennial kingdom on earth.
The Lord is also the sovereign Head of the church which is made up of all the believers in this dispensation of grace. This is brought out in Ephesians 1 where He is referred to as the “fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:22-23. “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who mankind rejected and crucified, will reign supreme over the world, over Israel, and over the church, and as the supreme judge of all men.
John 5:27. “and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.”
Several scriptures point out that man cannot see God, however, the New Testament reveals that Jesus became the Incarnate Word, the physical embodiment of God in order for man to know the nature of God. Jesus revealed all the attributes of God including His wisdom, His power, His holiness, and His love.
Jesus is called "the Word," and He had the power to express in human flesh what God is.
John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Verse 14 of John 1 explains that He was God in the flesh, He dwelt among us as a man and was still able to be sinless and to reveal His glory as the Son of God, full of grace and truth.
Man in his sinful condition cannot see God the Father, and it is only through the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s Son in human flesh, that we can come to know what God is like in the most intimate ways.
John 1:14. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
God chose to reveal Himself to His creatures through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 1:3, (Christ) "being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."
As these scriptures reveal, one of the main purposes of God is to provide salvation through Jesus Christ for a lost world and from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus Christ is presented as the only Savior, the only way to heaven. Acts 4:12. “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Creation in the early chapters of Genesis culminates in the creation of Adam and Eve. Creation, including Adam and Eve, was designed to glorify God. God didn’t fail there, man did, but through man’s failure, God unfolded His master plan for the human race.
As a whole, man failed again outside the Garden and God destroyed all but eight of Adam’s descendants with the flood. Even this did not deter God's sovereign purposes for the nations of the world that He has unfolded in the history of the race.
The descendants of Noah formed the three major divisions of the human race. (Genesis 10) They failed in following God’s command to overspread the earth and were judged at the Tower of Babel. There God confounded their language and they were forced to separate.
Some time later, God chose to use Abraham in revealing Himself through the people of Israel. Beginning in Genesis 12, a dominant theme of the Bible is the origin, formation and history of the nation of Israel. Most of the Old Testament is taken up with the history of this small nation while only dealing with the much larger Gentile nations when they were directly involved with the Nation of Israel.
In due time, and in fulfillment of God’s purposes and promises, Jesus Christ fulfilled the promise given originally to Abraham that through his seed all nations of the world would be blessed. Christ became the Savior of the world when He shed His blood as an atonement for mankind’s sin.
There is another major segment of humanity called "the church" that emerged as a result of Christ’s shed blood. As the Bride of Christ, it is comprised of both Jew and Gentile who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. God's dealings with the church is a major theme in the New Testament in the Acts and The Epistles. The events in the Book of Revelation are still future and will reach their climax when the kingdom of heaven comes to earth at the second coming of Christ. There will be Jewish believers and Gentile believers alike in the millennial kingdom, and Israel will be granted possession of the Promised Land under their Messiah-King and all the nations of the world will share in the blessings of the millennial kingdom.
The major movements of God as relating to the history of the world center in Jesus Christ and God's purpose to glorify Himself.
We can see this in His faithfulness to His chosen people, Israel, and His sovereignty in relation to the nations and His grace in relation to the church.
This will come to completion when the new heavens, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem appear and time and history are no more. Those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord will enter eternity with God.
The Bible records what God has done or will do, from the beginning of creation to timeless eternity. It manifests the glory of God. The angels were created for this purpose, the universe was designed to reflect that glory, and man was created in His image and likeness. When man exercised his free will and sinned, redemption was provided, all with a view toward the realization of God’s ultimate purpose of enabling man to glorify God.
God is infinite in His being and absolute in His perfection, He is worthy of infinite glory, and creation cannot withhold the full expression of that honor and glory which are rightfully His. God is not self-seeking, He is expressing His glory for the benefit of His creation. The revelation of God and His love to His creatures has provided us with an object for love and devotion, a ground for faith and peace of mind, and assurance of salvation for all time and for eternity. The more we understand the glory of God, the more blessings we receive.
I quote a well known Christian writer here because this statement is so well versed.
“The Bible is God's message to man. Taken as a whole, the Bible differs in its subject and purpose from any other book in the world. It stands supreme as reflecting the place of man and his opportunity of salvation, the supreme character and work of Jesus Christ as the only Savior, and gives in detail the infinite glories that belong to God Himself. It is the one book that reveals the Creator to the creature and discloses the plan by which man in all his imperfections can be reconciled and in eternal fellowship with the eternal God.”