Jesus First-Born Son: Priest and Messiah
Date
2006
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
Faith, a supernatural gift of God is the only means for practical union with
God. A union that has to be real, reciprocal, communicative and of mutual
lcnowledge. This is all we experience in the revelation of the divine plan of
salvation. As such, Jesus the first-born son, priest and messiah fulfils all these and
concretises our relationship with God. Meanwhile, this divine sonship has to be
historically revealed and experienced in the history of humanity through Israel.
For Israel to claim sonship, history and theology had to merge. The election
of Israel as son therefore starts with the promise of progeny and prosperity to
Abraham who through faith is found righteous and blameless before God. Isaac the
apparent fulfilment of this promise bridges the hope of inheritance but introduces the
historical right of the first-born son and a dimension of future hope. With this, the
promise that resides in blessing grows from the personal to the national blessing.
This national blessing finds concrete expression in the formal constitution of
Israel as first-born Son of God through the Sinai covenant events. In the covenant,
Israel is adopted and given a mode of relation with God. This covenantal relation
brings Israel to understand her special intimacy and consecration to God. Hence, the
establishment of institutions like the priesthood. As sons therefore, Israel comes to
understand her place as mediator. All the historical and theological understanding of Israel as mediators and
servants of God simply prefigure the ultimate end of history in the person of Jesus
Christ who fulfils all the promises of God and ushers in a new promise of
inheritance in the kingdom of God. The mediating role of Christ unveils the
distinction between his unique sonship and Israel's adopted sonship.
The uniqueness of Christ's sonship connotes a revelation that affirms his
being the eternal object of God's love. He mediates this love to humanity, as the
baptism experience will show. As a revealer, he shares and reveals the Father's
glory. This means that being the unique son, he sees, knows and reveals the nature
of God, which finds its traces in the Exodus experience. Being son, Jesus reestablishes
the grounds for inheritance and the relations required for it in the
historical and cultural context. This is our priest and messiah.
This project tries to establish a unity in the history of salvation following the
revelation of historical events situated in the culture and tradition of Israel. So doing,
it shall see the nuances of the term "First-Born Son" to place the fact that Jesus'
salvific acts are within the ambience of human traditional, historical and cultural
understanding. Through it, we shall appreciate the "Son-Servant" role of Christ,
which culminates in his proclamation as Messiah after the glory of the resurrection.
Description
Keywords
Jesus, First-Born Son, Priest and Messiah, AKKADIAN PRINCIPLE:, Israel as the First-Born Son