A Complete Bible Study on The Preeminence of Jesus Christ

The Bible is not a pile of religious thoughts collected over time. It is one united message from God, and it keeps moving in a straight line toward Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus can say in John 5:39 that the Scriptures bear witness about Him. If we miss Him, we can end up knowing facts while missing the very goal God had in giving the Book.

What Jesus Said

John 5 is a tense moment. Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders are upset, not just about the healing, but about what Jesus is claiming about Himself. In that setting, Jesus points them back to the Scriptures they claim to honor.

John 5:39 comes as a rebuke. Jesus is not praising them for Bible study. He is confronting them for missing what their Bible study was supposed to do. They search the Scriptures, but they do not come to Him for life. The written Word is doing its job, but they refuse what it points to.

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. (John 5:39)

Information without life

There is a warning here that is easy to miss on a first read. Jesus is talking to people who read the Bible more than most of us do. They study it, memorize it, argue over details, and they can still miss the One the Bible is aiming at. That means Bible knowledge, by itself, is not the same thing as faith. A person can handle the text and still refuse the Christ the text points to.

It is also worth noticing the grammar in John 5:39. Jesus speaks of the Scriptures bearing witness, present tense. The testimony is not locked in the past. Every time the Scriptures are opened, God is still setting the evidence in front of us. The problem is not a lack of light. The problem is a stubborn refusal to come.

What testify means

The word translated testify in John 5:39 is a courtroom word. It means to give witness, to present evidence. Jesus is saying the Scriptures stand as a witness and keep pointing toward Him.

That protects us from two common mistakes. One is treating the Old Testament like it has nothing to do with Jesus. The other is trying to force Jesus into every line in a sloppy way, like a secret code book. Jesus is not claiming every verse is a direct prediction with His name spelled out in it. Some passages are direct prophecy, yes, but His claim is bigger. The whole message of the Old Testament, in its promises, patterns, sacrifices, priesthood, kingship, wisdom, warnings, and hopes, keeps leaning forward until it lands on Him.

God’s voice has a climax

The Bible itself teaches that God spoke in stages and in many ways, but that His message reaches its clearest expression in His Son. Earlier revelation was true and authoritative. It was also preparatory, like foundation work meant to hold up what is coming.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:1-2)

The surprising part for some folks is that the climax is not merely more information. The climax is a Person. God has spoken in His Son. That does not lower Scripture. It tells us what Scripture is for. The written Word is meant to bring us to the living Word.

Who Jesus Is

Once you accept Jesus’ claim that Scripture testifies about Him, the next question is plain. Who is He, really? The New Testament does not treat that as a side issue. It makes the identity of Jesus central, because if He is who He says He is, then everything else has to move around Him.

Colossians 1 is one of the clearest passages in the Bible on the supremacy of Christ. Paul is dealing with teaching that was pulling believers away from the sufficiency of Jesus. His answer is not self-help. He points them back to the Son and tells them who they already have.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. (Colossians 1:15-17)

The image of God

Paul says Jesus is the image of the invisible God. The word image (Greek eikōn) means a real representation, not a rough sketch. It is not that Jesus is kind of like God. He truly shows God as He is, in a way we can see and understand.

God is invisible in His divine nature. You cannot capture Him in a picture or boil Him down to an idea. Yet God has made Himself known in the Son. This is where people sometimes get it backwards. They start with their own idea of what God must be like, and then they judge Jesus by that. The Bible goes the other direction. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. His compassion toward sinners, His anger at hypocrisy, His authority over evil, His purity, His patience, His willingness to suffer, all of that shows the heart of God in action.

who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:3)

Hebrews adds the thought of exact imprint. The Father and the Son are not the same Person, but the Son truly shares the divine nature and reveals the Father without distortion. When Jesus speaks and acts, you are not watching a mere messenger do an impression of God. You are seeing God the Son in real human life.

Firstborn over creation

Paul also calls Jesus the firstborn over all creation. That word firstborn confuses people because in modern English it sounds like origin, as if Jesus was the first thing God made. That is not what Paul means here.

In the Bible, firstborn often speaks of rank and inheritance, the one with the rights and honor of the heir. Israel is called God’s firstborn among the nations, not because Israel was the first nation to exist, but because Israel was given a special place and purpose. In the same way, calling Jesus firstborn is not saying He is a created being. Paul immediately explains why that cannot be the meaning. All things were created by Him. The Creator cannot be part of the created category.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

John’s opening lines place Jesus on the Creator side of reality. Everything that began to exist did so through Him. Paul makes the same point with a list that includes things visible and invisible. When he names thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities, he is not just talking about human politics. He is also talking about the unseen realm. Even spiritual powers that oppose God are still creatures. They are not equal to Christ. They owe their existence to Him, and they are accountable to Him.

Before and holding

Paul says Jesus is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Jesus did not begin at Bethlehem. He took on flesh there. The Son is eternal, and His entrance into human history was an incarnation, not an origin.

Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." (John 8:58)

When Jesus uses God’s own self-identifying language from Exodus, it is no wonder the reaction is fierce. He is not presenting Himself as one more prophet. He is claiming divine identity.

Then Paul says creation holds together in Him. That is not a nice religious thought. It is a claim of ongoing sustaining power. Your next breath, the steadiness of the universe, the basic reliability of the world you live in is upheld by the Son. He is not only the One who started everything. He is the One keeping it going.

If that is true, then Jesus is not a helpful add-on to a busy life. He is Lord over the life you already have.

How Scripture Leads

Put those two truths together. If Jesus is the eternal Son and Creator, and if the Scriptures testify about Him, then we should expect the Bible’s storyline to move toward His saving work. And that is exactly what we find. God does not drop Jesus into the New Testament like a surprise. He has been laying groundwork from the beginning.

Fulfill, not cancel

Jesus said He did not come to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. Fulfill means to bring to completion, to accomplish what they were aiming at. That tells you how to read the Old Testament. Do not treat it as a discarded stage. Treat it as a real part of God’s message that reaches its goal in Christ.

"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17)

Fulfillment does not mean we force Jesus into every verse in a careless way. It means we read the Old Testament in its own context, then we ask where its promises and patterns are headed. God gives real categories like sacrifice, priest, king, and atonement, and those categories do not reach their full meaning until Jesus.

Atonement is a good example. In plain terms, atonement is God’s provision that deals with sin so sinners can be forgiven and brought near. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices taught Israel that sin brings death and that forgiveness requires a substitute. Those sacrifices were never the final payment. They were God-given pictures pointing forward.

Pictures that prepare

Right after sin enters the world, God speaks of a coming deliverer. The promise is not yet detailed, but the direction is set. A coming Seed will triumph over the serpent, and that victory will involve suffering. It is the gospel in seed form, planted early.

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15)

Then the Lord builds more pictures. Passover is one of the clearest. Judgment is real. Sin brings death. God provides a substitute, and the blood marks out a protected people. The lamb in Exodus was never meant to be the final solution. It was a shadow pointing ahead.

John the Baptist later identifies Jesus in that sacrificial category, as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Do not rush past the last part. The world. That is broader than Israel. Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient for all, and His invitation is honest for every person who hears. People are not saved automatically. They are saved by coming to Christ in faith, but the provision is truly for all.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

Paul draws the same line by calling Christ our Passover. In Exodus, the blood did not work like a charm. It was God’s appointed means, received by faith and obedience. In the same way, Christ’s death is God’s appointed means of rescue, received by faith, not earned by works. Works matter, but as fruit after salvation, not the cause of it.

Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. (1 Corinthians 5:7)

Another Old Testament picture is the bronze serpent in the wilderness. People were dying under judgment, and God provided a remedy that required looking in faith. The object itself had no power. The point was trust in what God provided. Jesus applies that account to His own lifting up on the cross. The rescue comes through Him, and it is received through believing.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)

Many people miss how direct Jesus is there. He does not say the remedy is learning more rules, cleaning yourself up first, or proving you are serious enough. The remedy is believing in Him. Faith is not a work you perform to impress God. Faith is reliance on the One God has provided.

Come to Him

That brings us right back to John 5. The leaders searched the Scriptures, but they would not come to Jesus for life. That is the tragedy. The Bible was open in front of them, and the Son of God was standing in front of them, and they chose their system over their Messiah.

So read the Bible with your eyes open for Christ, but do not stop with observation. Come to Him. Salvation is by grace through faith because of what Jesus did in His suffering and physical death and His resurrection. He truly died as the sinless God-man for our sins, and He truly rose again.

And when you come, you are not coming on probation. Jesus promises real security to the one who believes. Eternal life is not a fragile thing you can drop and lose. It is life God gives in His Son. The believer is kept, not by his own grip on Christ, but by Christ’s grip on him.

My Final Thoughts

John 5:39 should keep us humble. You can be around the Bible, even skilled with the Bible, and still resist the Savior the Bible points to. Do not settle for being informed. Come to Jesus for life, and then keep reading Scripture as a witness that keeps leading you back to Him.

If Jesus is the image of God, the Creator and Sustainer, and the One the whole storyline has been aiming at, then He deserves first place. Not first place in your religious compartment, but first place, period. Trust Him plainly, follow Him steadily, and let the Bible do what God gave it to do: bring you to His Son.