35 Jesus the God of the Old Testament

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Wordwas with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus, the God of theOld Testament

LESSON 35

ChurchLiving

1

Jesus, the God of the Old Testament

This series of lessons has been designed for private study or classroompresentation. The purpose of this foreword is to explain certain conventionsutilized throughout the program. The overall concept is to begin with the basicconcepts necessary for the new convert to understand and progress towardmore complex doctrine. The lessons are numbered in order to maintain theproper sequence of study.

When Scripture references are encountered in the text, various actions arerecommended. When in parenthetical bold (Genesis 1:1) the verse is to belooked up and read right away. Frequently, the next textual statement willcomment on that verse. Reading verse and text in proper order will enhanceone’s understanding of the verse. Direct quotes from Scripture will be “bolditalicized and contained in quotation marks” and, unless otherwise noted,will be from the King James Bible. When the reference is in parentheticalnon-bold (Genesis 1:1) it is to provide the Scriptural basis for the statement ifconfirmation is desired. References in blue Genesis 1:1 will be listed in thelesson section entitled FURTHER STUDY.

FURTHER STUDY is the “homework” section. Its purpose is to encourageBible study at home. The referenced verses have a short summation to assistthe student desiring more knowledge about a subject to find what they arelooking for.

The DISCUSSION QUESTIONS section is primarily for classroom use.Open discussion with the exchange of ideas produces growth for all involved.Most of the time the answer is contained in the referenced Scripture butsometimes the question is offered for open discussion. Even in private Biblestudy, analysis of the question and the search for its answer can be rewarding.

This work is offered to anyone with a desire to better understand God’s Word.It is our hope and prayer that the person studying these lessons will come awaywith a better understanding of God’s will and a closer walk with our Lord,Jesus Christ.

With Loving Concern for all those seeking God’s MessageThe Church of God Rocky Mount

Rocky Mount, Virginia

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Wordwas with God, and the Word was God.”

Examine the Key Verse careful-ly. This Word being mentionedwas with God and was God. Acasual reading of this versewould lead one to think that thisWord was beside Himself,somehow existing in some stateof duplicated form. How canthis be explained? Line uponline, precept upon precept, an-other Scripture is needed toclarify this concept.“Therefore shall a man leavehis father and his mother, andshall cleave unto his wife: andthey shall be one flesh.”(Genesis 2:24). At this point,the lesson is going to make apresumptuous assumption: ev-

eryone partaking of this lessonhad two parents. Read the fore-going verse again. Your parentswere one flesh. You know thatthey remained two separate en-tities that moved independentlyof each other, but in spirit, love,and in God’s will moved andthought as one. This was thestate of the Word. He was Onewith God the Father, in Spirit,love, and will, but moved inde-pendently as Creator God.

“The same was in the begin-ning with God.” (John 1:2).Here it is re-emphasized thatthe Word was with God. Hewas there. He was in the pres-ence of God and was involvedin all that was going on. Whatdid He do? “All things weremade by him; and without himwas not any thing made thatwas made.” (John 1:3). Appar-ently, He was making things.Everything. There was not one

2

3

single thing that was made,visible or invisible, that wasnot made by Him. “In thebeginning God created theheaven and the earth.”(Genesis 1:1). This verse isloaded with information thatverifies the foregoing versesfrom John. The Word that didthe creating was called God.He created the heavens, theEarth, and everything in them(Acts 4:24) and we are toldwhen He did it, in the begin-ning. When was that? It waswhen Adam and Eve were cre-ated: “…he which made themat the beginning made themmale and female” (Matthew19:4). It was when the founda-tion of all Creation was laid(Hebrews 1:10). In this versefrom Hebrews this Creator iscalled “Lord” and provides aclue as to whom it may be.“And to make all men seewhat is the fellowship (of Godand His Son) of the mystery,(with God and is God) whichfrom the beginning of theworld hath been hid in God,

who created all things byJesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:9).There it is in plain language:The Word was Jesus Christ.He was the Creator that madeall things, the One that led theIsraelites in the wilderness (1Corinthians 10:1-4) and, un-deniably, the God of the OldTestament.

Is Jesus divine? Has He al-ways been with the Father or is


4

His beginning sometime later?There is no way to absolutelyanswer this question, but con-sider a few things: A thingdivine is an object of worship.The object of worship haspower and authority; the powerto redeem mankind and the au-thority to render judgment.Angels have power, but theydo not have authority. Theyare powerful messengers thatcan exert great force but theydo not have the authority todetermine when, where or whyto use that force. They are notdivine. If Jesus was created,He would be no more than anangel. He could never havebeen called the only begottenSon of God. Being created isnot being begotten. The begot-ten child is from the body ofthe parent. That’s why God theFather and Jesus the Son areone! When Jesus is referred toas the “firstborn” in Colossians1:15, “Who is the image of theinvisible God, the firstborn ofevery creature:” verse 18

makes it clear He is beingcalled the firstborn from thedead. This has nothing to dowith His state of being beforeHis birth to Mary. When Hecreated all things (verse 16) Hewas not a “firstborn,” He wasthe Old Testament God. Hewas here before anything else(verse 17). The context ofverse 18 is a discussion of thechurch. Christ is declared itsHead, its beginning. Thayer’sLexicon says of this word inColossians 1:18 that it means“in the beginning, when thechurch was founded.” Havingthe preeminence means He isfirst in rank or influence in thechurch. None of these refer-ences have anything to do withHis beginning. There is an-other reason He could not havehad the same kind of beginningas the angels (Hebrews 1:13-14). This Scripture makes itplain enough that Jesus did notstart out as an angel and get“promoted” to Son. There isanother clue as to the longevity


5

of Jesus. In Proverbs chapter8 Solomon personifies Wis-dom. It’s presented poeticallyto represent Wisdom as speak-ing, but what Wisdom is say-ing applies to Christ. Verses22 and 23 say, “The LORDpossessed me in the beginningof his way, before his works ofold. I was set up from ever-lasting, (eternity, Strong’s #5769) from the beginning, orever (before) the earth was.”Before His works of old, inother words, before Creation.How do we know that the per-sonification of Wisdom repre-sents Jesus Christ? In his firstepistle to the Corinthians, Paulcalls Christ the power and wis-dom of God (1 Corinthians1:24). After three years ofone-on-one instruction, face toface with Jesus Himself, Paulshould know what he is talkingabout.

It is not reasonable to expect acreated being to have the di-vine attributes that would en-able it to redeem mankind

from all his sins once for all.To accomplish such an en-deavor, the redeemer must bedivine. Created beings are notdivine. To be divine, in thesense of God the Father, theone considered divine musthave been with the Father foreternity, whether as a separateentity or an intelligent exten-sion of the Father’s body, butone thing cannot be denied; thebegotten Son is one with theFather.


6

Proverbs 8 Wisdom personified.

1 Corinthians 1:30 Jesus is wisdom.

Colossians 1:15-18 Jesus, firstborn from the dead.

1. With whom did Adam and Eve converse in the Garden ofEden? John 5:37____________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Did Jesus ever indicate that He had been around before Hisbirth to Mary? John 8:58____________________________________________________________________________________________________


27 Brookledge LaneRocky Mount, VA 24151

Phone: 1-888-898-7698

Documents

35 Jesus the God of the Old Testament