Jesus is What God Has to Say: Redeeming Perfect Theology

Why the God of the flood and the God of the cross are the same, and what that means for your Faith.

Photo by Michael Förtsch on Unsplash

You’ve probably heard someone say “Jesus is perfect theology.”

Compelling. And honestly? There’s truth in it. Real truth.

I’ve said it myself, clung to it even, especially in the moments when I’ve needed to remember that the heart of God is not some cold, cosmic tyrant, but a Savior who calls Himself gentle and lowly.

There’s comfort there. A gospel hum.

The image of Jesus holding children, touching lepers, defending the guilty, inviting the outcast. All of it is true, and all of it speaks to a divine tenderness that cuts through our cynicism like morning light through fog.

But here’s the problem. Over time, I’ve watched that phrase take on a warped kind of gravity. It starts to tilt the whole table. In some corners, it’s become a theological shortcut, a way to recast Jesus as the kind of God we wish He were: always permissive, never confrontational, allergic to wrath, allergic to judgment, allergic to the parts of Scripture that make modern minds squirm.

As if Jesus came not to fulfill the law and the prophets… but to distance Himself from them. As if the Son showed up to correct His Father’s PR problem.

While that view might seem appealing to many of us who, like me, cherish the love and grace of Jesus, I think it leaves us with a DEEPLY fragmented picture of who God truly is.

In embracing this view without caution…. we domesticate the Lion of Judah into a therapy golden retriever… all cuddles, no bite, and utterly incapable of protecting anyone from anything.

It’s a version of Jesus that fits comfortably on a Hobby-Lobby coffee mug… but shatters under the weight of actual Scripture.

If we’re not careful, we end up severing God in half... treating the Father like an angry deity who needed a kinder, gentler Son to clean up His mess.

And that’s not just bad theology.

It’s spiritually dangerous.

That’s why I prefer a phrase one of my mentors uses:

“Jesus is what God has to say.”

Not part of the message.

Not a correction to the message.

He is The Message... the full, complete, unfiltered revelation of God’s heart, mission, and character.

I think young Christians (and old ones, honestly) desperately need to understand this. Especially in a world that loves to cherry-pick the parts of Jesus they like while ignoring the parts that make them uncomfortable.

Months ago, I sat down for coffee with a guy who used to be a passionate follower of Jesus. He grew up in church, went to youth group religiously, even served overseas as a missionary for a season.

But sadly, he walked away.

Why?

Because he wanted to party and do drugs? No.

Because he wanted to sleep around? No.

Because he was convinced by a college professor to become a nihilistic secular humanist? No.

It was actually because he desperately WANTED to be a Christian, but he couldn’t reconcile God’s wrath in the Old Testament with the love of Jesus in the New Testament… and this realization shattered the framework that had once held his faith together.

In an instant… the Hobby-Lobby Jesus mug fell and shattered to the floor.

To him, the Bible now felt like two different stories about two different Gods. One angry and violent. One merciful and kind.

And since he couldn’t hold both together, he let go of the whole thing.

He’s not alone. I’ve had this conversation more times than I can count.

So many young people are walking away from the faith because of misunderstandings like this.

So let’s dig into this. Let’s explore what it really means when we say “Jesus is what God has to say.”

And let’s do it in a way that doesn’t flatten God into something He’s not.

Understanding this is crucial for faith that can withstand the complexities of life.

Jesus is the Logos: The Full Revelation of God

When I say “Jesus is what God has to say,” I’m pulling straight from John 1:1:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The Greek word there is Logos. And it’s massive. It doesn’t just mean “a word someone spoke.” It means the full expression of God’s reason, wisdom, and purpose.

His definitive message to the world.

Some people imagine Jesus as merely the “love part” of God... like He reveals the kind, gentle, and merciful side of the divine… while the Father handles the wrath and judgment.

But I believe that’s far too narrow a view.

Jesus is not just a part of God’s character …  He’s the full picture!

Jesus isn’t just revealing part of God’s character. He’s revealing all of it.

Jesus isn’t God’s press secretary, spinning the Old Testament’s “bad PR.”

He’s God Himself, stepping into the frame and saying, ‘You want to know what I’m really like? Watch this.’

Then He heals the sick, rebukes the proud, and dies for His enemies. That’s not a rebrand. That’s a reveal.

Everything God wants to say, He says through Jesus.

That includes His love.

His grace.

His healing touch.

But it also includes His justice. His holiness. And yes, even His wrath.

And I get it. I really do. This is hard stuff.

It can feel harsh. It can feel like it contradicts the loving, compassionate Jesus we read about in the Gospels.

I’ve wrestled with these questions myself. The ones that keep you up at night. “How can a loving God also be a God of wrath?” or “If God is so good, why did He judge so harshly in the Old Testament?”

These aren’t abstract theological puzzles. For so many, they are deeply personal, because they cut to the core of how we see God!

And it breaks my heart when I see people walk away from faith because they can’t reconcile these things.

Let me give you an example.

The story of Noah’s flood.

For a lot of people, this is Exhibit A in the case against God. It’s a prime example of how some tend to compartmentalize Jesus from the Father.

It’s almost as if Jesus is standing to the side, watching an angry abusive father drown people, thinking, “Man, dad sure is an angry brute… but don’t worry, I’ll fix this when it’s my turn.”

But that’s not how the Trinity works. The Father, Son, and Spirit are one.

Jesus wasn’t watching from the sidelines. He was fully present. Fully involved.

The triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—were all acting together with a deeply broken heart, grieving over the brokenness of creation.

Even as judgment fell, there was a deep longing for the day when salvation would come through Jesus. When no one else would have to die for their sins, because Jesus himself would die for them.

The flood wasn’t a random outburst of divine rage. It was a necessary step in the redemptive story. God was preserving a remnant from a world too poisoned to continue... so that one day, salvation could come through the cross.

So that humanity could be rescued.

When Jesus says, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9), He means it.

The Jesus who forgives sinners is the same God who judged sin in Noah’s day. The same God who brought judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jesus isn’t the antidote to the Old Testament God’s wrath.

He is that very same God.

The same God who judged sin because He loved creation… but hated what was poisoning it.

The same God who would later BECOME the antidote by laying down His own life for that same creation.

When we say “Jesus is what God has to say,” we’re saying He reveals the full heart of Yahweh.

Not just love without justice.

Not just justice without love.

But both... perfectly intertwined.

Love and Wrath Aren’t Opposites

It’s easy to see God’s wrath and His love as opposing forces.

But they’re not.

They’re both essential to His character and mission.

Some people ask, “If Jesus is God’s ultimate message, why is there still judgment?”

Fair question.

The answer is this: God’s wrath isn’t like human anger. It’s not petty. It’s not reactive. It’s not driven by frustration or impatience.

God’s wrath is directed at sin, evil, and the dark demonic forces behind them.

He reserves his rage for the things that corrupt and destroy His beloved creation.

It’s holy, righteous anger aimed at the forces that stand against His goodness.

To ask why a good God would be wrathful is like asking why a good surgeon would use a knife. The blade wounds because the cancer kills.

Furthermore… if a surgeon cuts you open, you don’t accuse him of assault. You thank him for removing the tumor. God’s wrath is the scalpel; sin is the cancer; and we keep insisting He should’ve tried essential oils instead.

Think about it like this.

You’re walking down the street and you see an elderly woman getting mugged. Instantly, you feel deep anger. A strong desire for justice. You want the attacker stopped and held accountable.

That’s not petty irritation. That’s a righteous response to blatant wrongdoing.

But here’s the horrifying truth: we’ve all unleashed evil into the world in our own ways. We’ve lied. Hurt people. Acted selfishly. Betrayed trust.

Just as the mugger deserves justice, so do we for our own sins.

We all stand deserving of wrath.

And yet… thank Heavens—God’s default response to us isn’t wrath. It’s mercy.

While He rightfully hates sin, His primary desire is to restore us. The people He loves.

I truly believe some of you need to read this slowly: God’s deepest aim is your restoration, not your condemnation.

Have you strayed? Fallen short? Are you wallowing in your shame wondering what God would say if He saw you at your lowest moment?

He has.

And yet… Jesus is what God has to say.

He offers forgiveness. A path back to goodness. A way home.

For a lot of people, especially those raised in church, there’s been massive confusion about God’s character.

I’ve had countless conversations with young Christians who imagine God as distant, easily angered, always waiting to strike them down for their failures.

They see Him through the lens of pagan ideas... an angry deity who can never be appeased.

Tragically, some leave the faith because they can’t reconcile that version of God with the Jesus they encounter in the Gospels.

But here’s the truth: God’s wrath isn’t arbitrary or petty. It’s aim is not punishing people for the sake of it.

His wrath has always been directed at sin, injustice, and the dark spiritual forces working against His plan for humanity.

He’s the doctor trying to root out the cancer in the world.

His ultimate goal has always been to redeem, not destroy.

At the cross, we see this perfectly.

But we need to get something straight first.

There’s a dangerous idea floating around in some theological circles that when Jesus hung on that cross, bleeding and dying, the Father turned away from Him. That God the Father somehow underwent a cosmic severance procedure—utterly removing Himself from God the Son in that moment.

As if the Trinity fractured under the weight of sin.

As if the Father couldn’t bear to look at His own Son.

My seminary professor, Gerry Breshears, was the first person to wake me up to how deeply wrong this idea is.

The Trinity didn’t fracture at the cross.

The Trinity agonized together at the cross.

Father, Son, and Spirit had planned this moment from before the foundation of the world. They worked together throughout all of human history to reach this point. Every story, every judgment, every act of mercy in the Old Testament was a step on the path toward Calvary.

You better believe that during the flood, when judgment fell and the waters rose, the Trinity was heartbroken.

Scripture tells us plainly: God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11). He wants none to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

But even in that grief, even as the floodwaters rose... the Trinity had already set their gaze on the cross.

“One day,” Yahweh promised, “I WILL fix this brokenness. One day, no one else will have to die. I will bear it myself.”

And that’s exactly what happened.

At the cross, Jesus took on the full weight of God’s judgment... not because God the Father is wrathful in some detached, cold sense... but because the entire Trinity loves us so deeply that They were willing to bear the consequences of sin Themselves.

The cross is where love and wrath collide with such force that death itself shatters.

This is what it means when we say “Jesus is what God has to say.”

What does God say?

“I see you.”

“I love you.”

“I am willing to die for you.”

“There’s nothing left to be done.”

“It is finished.”

That’s not just Jesus speaking from the cross. That’s the voice of the entire Godhead—Father, Son, and Spirit—declaring in unison that the war for your soul is won, the price is paid, and the door is flung wide open.

God’s wrath against sin is real.

But His love is greater.

So great that He would take the penalty Himself.

The Old Testament Prepares Us for the Cross

When you start to understand that “Jesus is what God has to say,” it completely changes how you read the Bible.

Especially the Old Testament.

For so many people, the Old Testament is a disconnected series of stories about an angry God... while the New Testament introduces a Jesus full of love and grace.

But that’s not how the Bible works.

The Old Testament isn’t a collection of random stories… It’s a carefully woven prequel to the cross!

The Bible isn’t Marvel… where they keep retconning characters and rebooting franchises. It’s more like Lord of the Rings: one author, one story, multiple books, and Gandalf the White doesn’t show up to apologize for Gandalf the Grey’s behavior.

Every moment of judgment is connected to a greater purpose. Every act of mercy serves the same redemptive story.

God wasn’t merely angry with the world during the flood or the exile.

He was furious at sin, the devil, and the ancient order of demons who had unleashed Hell upon the earth… the kind of anger you feel when you see a disease destroying the body of someone you love.

Yahweh was a King fighting tooth and nail for His Kingdom and His family. A King willing to fight and die for what He believed in.

This is why we must never view God’s wrath in a vacuum! If you read a story of a man beating up a man in an alley, he seems the villian, but with CONTEXT you learn the truth: the man was fighting a mugger to protect his wife and daughter.

Yahweh has been fighting these evil forces since before you or I were born. His wrath is primarily waged in the war to destroy all evil and bring cosmic peace to His creation.

Every act of wrath is leading humanity one step closer to the Cross… leading humanity to a point where salvation could come through Jesus.

When I explain this to young Christians (especially those who grew up in church but never went deeper) it’s like the Old Testament comes alive for them for the very first time!

They start to see that all those stories they learned as kids aren’t disconnected from the Gospel. No… they are the foundation of it!

Every story is leading to the moment when God’s ultimate message would be revealed:

“I love you enough to die for you. I hate your sin, but I love YOU, and I want to save you.”

The more we understand the Jesus of the Gospels, the more we understand the God of the Old Testament.

God the Father and God the Son aren’t different characters playing competing roles.

They are one and the same.

Final Thoughts

True theology is nothing less than the understanding of God. To understand Jesus, IS to understand God.

Jesus IS what God has to say.

So yes, Jesus is perfect theology.

But only when we understand Him fully.

He is the full and final Word of God. The Logos. The ultimate message of what God has to say to the world.

But I prefer the phrase “Jesus is what God has to say” because it reminds us that Jesus is the complete revelation of God’s heart... not just in the New Testament, but throughout all of Scripture.

We need to teach the whole picture of Jesus.

The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world and the King who confronts evil and defeats it.

Only then can young Christians truly understand the fullness of God’s character.

Only then will they be rooted in a faith that can withstand the complexities of life.

We must show them that the Old Testament is not God losing His temper; it’s God refusing to lose His people. Every judgment carved a path toward the only altar that could end all false gods.

In the end, the God who loves us enough to die for us is also the God who loves us enough to confront the sin and evil that would destroy us.

That’s the message we find in Jesus.

The full, redemptive story of God’s love and justice intertwined.

And that’s the God we worship.

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For more on this topic, check out this podcast episode I recorded with my friend and a man I consider one of my pastors, Evan Wickham. We go DEEP.

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Thank you for walking with me.

– Aaron