If you can remember back to our last teaching morning you might remember that the set up of our room was slightly different than normal. This time we had the cross set up in the centre rather than at the front as a symbolic reminder of the absolute centrality of what Jesus has done for us. In Romans 6:9-10 Paul describes what has happened to Jesus and he puts it like this…
‘We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again;
death no longer has dominion over him.
The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God’.
Christ has been raised. Christ will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin. The live he lives, he lives to God. This is a profoundly Christ-focused passage and not only this passage but ultimately the whole of Scripture is Christ-focused. When Jesus opens the disciples minds to understand the Scriptures after his resurrection he says this…
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—
that everything written about me in the law of Moses,
the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Jesus is both the fulfilment of the Old Testament and the source of the New Testament and everything stands or falls in relation to him. Jesus also, as the Messiah, is the representative of the people of God so that he can speak and act on behalf of others. Scholar N.T Wright says that Paul ‘regarded the people of God and the Messiah of God as so bound up together that what was true of the one was true of the other’. This idea, that Jesus, as the Messiah, acted on behalf of the people becomes crucial for understanding how he deals with our sins and how we get to participate in his blessings. We will explore these in the next blog.
So two key points for today:
- Jesus is the centre of the great story that the Bible is telling.
- As the Messiah Jesus lives, dies, and rises representing the people of God.
Messiah
If you are interested in learning a bit more about Jesus as the Messiah, then check out this really helpful video from the Bible Project guys.