In Matthew He is the Christ the Son of the Living God. In Mark He is the Miracle Worker. In Luke He's the Son of Man And in John He is the Door by which everyone of us must enter. In Acts He is the Shining Light that appears to Saul on the road to Damascus.

In Romans He is our Justifier. In 1st Corinthians our Resurrection. In 2nd Corinthians our Sin Bearer. In Galatians He redeems us from the law. In Ephesians He is our Unsearchable Riches. In Philippians He supplies our every need. And in Colossians He's the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily. In 1st Thessalonians He is our Soon Coming King. In 2nd Thessalonians He is the coming Judge of the world. In 1st Timothy He is the Mediator between God and man. In 2nd Timothy He is the one who stands by us when no one else will. In Titus He is our Blessed Hope. And in Philemon He makes master and slave, brothers. 

In Hebrews He's the Blood of the everlasting covenant. In James it is the Lord that heals the sick. In 1st Peter  He is the Chief Shepherd. In 2nd Peter He is bringer of the end to this world and maker of the new heaven and new earth. In 1st John He is our defender before God. In 2nd John He is our God who came in the flesh. In 3rd John He resists those who domineer over his sheep. In Jude He is the Lord coming with 10,000 saints.

​And in Revelation.....Lift up your eyes, Church, for your redemption draws nigh. He is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Jesus is all of these things and so much more in the pages of the New Testament. As we continue getting to know him better we will have a better relationship with him and a better understanding of how he impacts our lives. 

The Spirit paints pictures of both the Father and the Son throughout the pages of scripture. In the Old Testament the image of the Father is very clear, but there are outlines and shadings of the Son that will be made clear in the New Testament. Let’s look at some hints and portrayals of Christ being depicted in the Old Testament.

In Genesis Jesus is the Ram that spared Isaac. In Exodus He's the Passover Lamb. In Leviticus He's the High Priest. In Numbers He's the Cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. In Deuteronomy He's the City of our refuge.

In Joshua He's the conquering hero. In Judges He is our Judge. In Ruth He is our Kinsman redeemer. In 1st Samuel He's our Trusted Prophet. In 2nd  Samuel He establishes his Kingly line. In 1st Kings He builds his kingdom. In 2nd Kings He is the faithful future king. In 1st  Chronicles He's our Reigning King. In 2nd Chronicles He disciplines his rebellious subjects. In Ezra He is our Faithful Scribe. In Nehemiah He Rebuilds all that is broken. And in Esther He is the one directing from off the stage.

In Job He's our redeemer that ever lives. In Psalms He is my Shepherd. In Proverbs He's our Wisdom. In Ecclesiastes He is the meaning of life.  And in the Song of Solomon He's the Beautiful Bridegroom.

In Isaiah He's the Suffering Servant. In Jeremiah He is the voice of warning being ignored and rejected. In Lamentations it is Jesus that is the Weeping Prophet. In Ezekiel He's the one like a human above the throne. And in Daniel He is the Fourth Man in the midst of a fiery furnace.

​In Hosea He is my Love that is forever faithful though I am not. In Joel He baptizes with the Holy Spirit. In Amos He's our Burden Bearer. In Obadiah our Savior. And in Jonah He is the Great Foreign Missionary that takes the word to the Gentiles. Micah shows him as the Messenger with beautiful feet. In Nahum He is the Avenger. In Habakkuk He is the Watchman that is ever praying for revival. In Zephaniah He is the Lord mighty to save. In Haggai He is the Restorer of our lost heritage. In Zechariah He is our Fountain. And in Malachi He is the Son of Righteousness with healing in His wings.

Elohim (pronounced “El oh heem”) is the third word in the Hebrew Bible and is used (or a form of it) over 2600 times to refer to either the true living God or false gods. One of the oddest things about the word Elohim is that it is a plural word. It might seem like an odd choice for Moses to use throughout Genesis to introduce his people to the one true God. It seems especially unusual when he literally writes “Yahweh(The self existent one) our Elohim(gods) is one Yahweh (self existent one)”. There is definitely something unusual about this.

When we add Genesis 1:26 into the mix it gets stranger, but becomes clearer at the same time. “Then God (Elohim, the gods) said, ‘Let us (notice this is plural) make man in our (notice this is plural)  image, after our (notice this is plural)  likeness...’” So we have one Lord (singular) who somehow is also Gods (plural). If we explored some other scriptures we would find the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all self existent (Yahweh) and God/Gods (Elohim). How can three be one? Our human minds may never fully understand. It seems like every analogy we try to use falls toward some false belief. We have a tendency to either try to make Father, Son and Spirit three separate Gods, or we try to fuse them together so that they are three different parts of a single God, or we might even go to the point of just three different manifestations of one God. None of these directions is what the Bible teaches. 

Elohim is applied to the three combined and also applies to each one as well. Even though it is Greek and not Hebrew John perhaps explains it best when he says the word (Jesus, the son) was with God and he also was God. You have God with God being God. Jesus certainly recognizes the distinction between him and the Father and the Spirit, but he also says I and my Father are one. Each is distinct and yet still one. It is mind-boggling, but one thing we can be sure of is that Christ is also Elohim.

Isaiah 9:6 gives us what is perhaps the most unusual and for some problematic titles for Christ, that of Everlasting Father. The whole verse says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” It is clearly a prophecy about Jesus Christ who we think of as the Son and not about who we normally think of as God the Father. This has led some down the path of not believing in the trinity (3-in-1 nature of God), but that God simply plays different roles at different times. This is called Modalism or sometimes Oneness and is not what the Bible teaches about God.

We know Jesus is the Son and not the Father within the Godhead, so how is he called Everlasting Father? He didn’t have any children as a man on earth, but that wouldn’t explain the everlasting part of the title anyway. He is the founder and therefore, father of the Christian religion and some believe this is a reference to that, and certainly this is a possibility. Others put the focus on the fact that he is everlasting or eternal and ignore the rest. Still others think of it as a reference to his work in creating all things since the creator of a thing is often called the father of it and that certainly fits as a reasonable explanation given his involvement in creation. There are some who say that the Hebrew should be translated “Father of eternity” or “Father of eons” or something else. I am not an expert in Hebrew, but the vast majority of translations don’t follow any of these alternate translations, and I see no reason to go that direction.

We don’t fully understand this phrase, perhaps it even has to do with the relationship between Jesus and the Father. He did say, “if you have seen me you have seen the Father” and “I and my Father are one” and “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. So there could even be a connection there. Regardless of the exact meaning of this title we can be confident that it is one of great honor for Christ to be called “Eternal Father” and it is perfectly biblical for us to use this title to describe him.

As Jesus was about to come into the world, Matthew reminds us that his birth by a virgin was planned long before and that God had prophesied the event in Isaiah 7:14. This verse is quoted in Matthew 1:23 as an explanation for the revelation by Gabriel that Mary was going to have a son even though she never had been with a man. 

“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel’ (which means, God with us)” Matthew also helps us by giving us the meaning of the title, Emmanuel. He tells us that it means ‘God with us’. What better description of Jesus who was the son of God the Father and in fact was God could there be?

Sometimes it seems confusing to us because we think the prophecy was that his name would be Emmanuel and we know he was named Jesus. But the phrase that translates as ‘shall call his name’ or ‘shall be called’ doesn’t mean that will be his name, but that he will be described this way. There are all kinds of examples of this. James and John were called the sons of thunder, but that was not their name and their father was not thunder. We call Jesus: Lord, Christ, Messiah, King, etc.; however, none of those are the name he was given by his mother. We should not think that there is a problem with this prophecy just because Mary didn’t name her son Emmanuel. The prophecy was that he would be called ‘God with us’ and that is certainly what the early Christians called him and what we still call him today.