The Prophet Who Incarnates God’s Word

As mediators of the old covenant and new covenant, respectively, Moses and Jesus are prophets who stand out in terms of their importance to redemptive history. Yet while both Moses and Jesus belong to a class of prophets that we may refer to as mediator-prophets, Jesus cannot be classed with Moses in any ultimate sense. In the first place, the covenant mediated by Christ is much greater than the covenant that Moses mediated (Heb. 3:1–6; 8). More significant, however, is the fact that Moses, for all of his importance, could only speak God’s words. Jesus, on the other hand, is God’s Word. He is the Logos, the Word made flesh, the very revelation of God Himself incarnated as the God-man (John 1:1–18).

Jesus is the final and fullest disclosure of who our Creator is (Heb. 1:1–4). If we want to know who God is and what He would have us do, we need look no further than Jesus. In saying this, we are not advocating a view that says the words of Jesus recorded in Scripture are more important than the words of Isaiah, the words of Paul, or the words of any other writer. Moreover, we do not mean that we have access to Jesus and who He is and what He has done except through the written Word of God, the Bible. Instead, we are emphasizing the fact that Jesus is ultimately the subject and object of all the words of Scripture. He speaks not only the sayings attributed to Him in the four Gospels but all the words God has given us in Scripture, for the Son is one with the Holy Spirit, who inspired the prophets and Apostles to give us the revelation of our triune Lord (1 Peter 1:10–12). But Jesus is not only the subject who gives us divine revelation; He is also the object of revelation. All of God’s Word reveals Christ to us in some way, and none of it is read rightly unless we read it in light of His person and work. That is because Christ is God’s Word to us in these last days, in this era when God is calling people into His kingdom from every nation as He prepares to consummate His plan for creation (Heb. 1:1–4).

From beginning to end, all prophecy in the Bible finds its fulfillment in Jesus Himself. He reveals the character of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who loved sinners enough to give up the Son as the perfect sacrifice for our salvation (Rom. 8:32). God’s Word—the Bible—leads us to God’s Word incarnate—Jesus Christ—who leads us into restored fellowship with our Maker.