(Genesis 3:15) Jesus, the Living Word, is revealed in the written Word of God. If you want to know Jesus then you must study your Bible. From the first book of the Old Testament through the New Testament we see Christ. (0943250217) ----more---- Jesus: The Subject of the Bible Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. I do love the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful that He is my personal Savior. And when I come to the written Word of God, I find the living Word of God. If you want to know the Lord Jesus Christ, then you must learn what the Bible says about Christ. Let's begin with a couple of scriptures. One in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament. Discovering Christ in the Old Testament Today, let's begin with the first mention of Christ in Scripture. Now, let me hastily say that there is no beginning. To the son of God. His sonship is eternal sonship. When the Bible says he is the only begotten son of God that is simply a reference to the eternal relationship between father and son. So he didn't begin at Bethlehem. He didn't even begin in the Book of Genesis. No, my friend, he has always been because he is. Coequal, coexistent, and coeternal with the Father and the Spirit. But this is the first reference to the Lord Jesus in scripture. Colossians chapter 3 and verse number 15. It's the first promise that a Messiah was going to come. God says in Genesis 3:15 to the devil, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head. And thou shalt bruise his heel." Ha, I love this verse. What an amazing verse it is. Basically, God looks the devil in the face and says, I want you to know that there's going to come a seed from the line of this woman that is going to conquer you. There's going to come a redeemer that is going to crush you someday. You're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to bruise your head. Heel bruises are not fatal. They're painful, but they're not the end. But a head wound, now that's a different thing altogether. And God says to the devil, you may bruise the heel of the seed of the woman that's coming, this Messiah, this Redeemer, but then he's going to take that bruised heel and he's going to crush your head with it. I want you to know at Calvary, the heel of our lovely Lord Jesus was bruised, but when He came out of that grave alive forevermore, He put his head on the, or his heel rather, on the head of that old serpent, the devil. He has conquered death, hell, and the grave. Satan is under his feet and will be under his feet for all eternity. Aren't you glad everything God foretells, He always fulfills. So this is our introduction to what the Bible says about Jesus Christ. Christ's Preeminence in the New Testament Now when you come to the New Testament, Let's read in Colossians, because Colossians is all about the preeminence of Christ above all. Colossians chapter 1 verse number 14 says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God." Get that. God is a spirit, remember. He is the invisible God. But the Lord Jesus came to reveal God to us. He's the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of every creature. For 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. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, He might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in Him all, should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, By Him, I say, whether they be things in heaven or things in earth and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now be reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. What an amazing portion of scripture. I've marked in Colossians 1 four key words. The first is the word created. Christ is the creator. All things were made by Him and for Him, for His pleasure. Then I have circled the little word CONSIST. God not only created all things by the Lord Jesus Christ. But they are all sustained by Christ. He's the one who keeps us, by whom we continue to exist, in Him we live and move and have our being. I've circled the word cross because that's why He came. That's why He came to earth, to redeem us from our sin and bring us to God. And then I've circled the word church. He who started it all is to be preeminent. among his people. He is the head of the body, the church. Knowing Christ Personally Now the question is, do you know the one who created the world? Do you know the one by whom all things consist? Do you know the one who...
