The Final Word About God | Practical Theology

“Reading the Bible is our chief way of understanding what God is like.”

Ask different people what they think about God, and you will certainly get a variety of answers. But the only One who can speak to this subject with absolute authority is God Himself.

How did God reveal Himself to us? Hebrews 1:1 says that God revealed Himself by speaking “through the prophets at many times and in various ways.” First, we learn that God did not reveal Himself all at once; He did so over time. Second, God’s self-revelation has taken many forms, but its primary mode has been verbal. God revealed Himself “through the prophets.” Reading the Bible is our chief way of understanding what God is like.

Each of these things led to God’s ultimate revelation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:2 says that “in these last days [God] has spoken to us by his Son.” Jesus is God’s final (or conclusive) word about Himself, His ultimate revelation. Of course, God was not silent after Jesus came. All of the New Testament was written after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.

Jesus is the final word because He came to dwell among us as God in the flesh (John 1:14). He is the divine Son, the one the Father “appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe” (Heb. 1:2). Because Jesus is God in human form, He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Heb. 1:3). Jesus is not a creation of the Father but is Himself the Creator. As John 1:3 observes, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

Creation bears the stamp of its maker (Ps. 19:1; 97:6; Rom. 1:20). Yet nothing in creation makes God known as clearly as Jesus does. Jesus assured the disciples: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus came to make the Father known. He also came to bring us to the Father by serving as our Great High Priest and Sacrifice (Heb. 9:25). While being God’s final word about Himself, Jesus is also the final sacrifice for sin. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). Jesus is the only way to God.

For Further Study

To learn more, read Jesus, Our Man in Glory by A. W. Tozer (Moody Publishers).

BY Dr. John Koessler

John Koessler is Professor Emeritus of Applied Theology and Church Ministries at Moody Bible Institute. John authors the “Practical Theology” column for Today in the Word of which he is also a contributing writer and theological editor. An award-winning author, John’s newest title is When God is Silent: Let the Bible Teach You to Pray (Kirkdale). Prior to joining the Moody faculty, he served as a pastor of Valley Chapel in Green Valley, Illinois, for nine years. He and his wife, Jane, now enjoy living in a lakeside town in Michigan.