Consider as we are looking at Jesus in the Old Testament, how the apostle John sees Jesus. The only Scriptures John had were in the Old Testament, and as he sat down to pen the very beginning of his gospel, the drumbeat of Genesis provides the bass notes for the lovely melody of his words. As you read first from Genesis and then alternate with John, a cosmic picture of Jesus emerges.
In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Now
the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of
the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Through him all things were
made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
And
God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God
saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the
darkness. God
called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there
was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it.
And
God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate
water from water...”
And
God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let
dry ground appear...”
Then
God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees
on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds...”
And
God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day
from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and
days and years, and
let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth...”
There was a man sent from God whose
name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that
through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he
came only as a witness to the light. The
true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
And
God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly
above the earth...”
And
God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds…”
Then
God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our
likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the
birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and
over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So
God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
God
blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in
number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea
and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the
ground.”
God
saw all that he had made, and it was very good…
He was in the world, and though the
world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own,
but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to
those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children
of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a
husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word
became flesh and
made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the
glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and
truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out,
saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has
surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all
received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through
Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus
Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is
himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has
made him known.
Amen. We cannot have the Old without the New, for what the Old concealed, the New revealed.
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