Letters to the Church

The mysteries of God previously hidden are revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, and especially through his Death and Resurrection . The Bible   speaks of the “ mysteries ” of God, His ways that are hidden from and contrary to the wisdom of this world. Jesus declared that not everyone could understand the “ mysteries of the kingdom .” God reveals the deep and obscure things to whomever He pleases, and in His Son, He has done so for all the world to see. In Christ’s Death and Resurrection, God has disclosed His nature and the salvation that He offers to all men and women.

The promises of the Hebrew Bible are fulfilled in the Son of God and Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth . The promises of God find their fulfillment in Jesus, their “ Yea! ” and “ Amen! ” The mysteries previously “ hidden ” are revealed in Christ’s life and words, and especially in his Death, Resurrection, and Exaltation. Jesus is the Messiah in whom  all  the shadows and types prefigured in the Hebrew Bible find their substance.

The promises, types, and shadows of the Hebrew Bible are fulfilled by the Son of God and Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth . An accusation commonly heard in popular preaching is ‘Replacement Theology.’ This seemingly dreaded label is hurled against anyone who claims a promise from the Hebrew Bible made to Ancient Israel finds its fulfillment in Jesus and his Church, but the term misses the point of the New Testament – Fulfillment , not Separation or Replacement .

The eighth chapter of  Hebrews  highlights the incomparable benefits believers receive under the New Covenant inaugurated by the death of Jesus. If the fulfillment of the promises arrived in him, especially in his Death and Resurrection, returning to the incomplete revelations of the past means embracing the glimpses and “ shadows ” of the “ coming good things ” rather than the substance provided by the Son of God.