CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

 

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  

(Luke 24:44)

Introduction

Christ is the essence and substance of the whole corpus of the Scriptures (The Old & The New Testaments) and we must strive to see him as such. This article is one such humble attempt to help everyone to see Christ clearly in all the pages of the Old Testament.

The Bible is a divine story and has a unified objective truth. But how do we unlock it? Christ himself is the key that unlocks the riches of the Old Testament.[1] One of the greatest interpretive problems in Christendom is failure to see the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. It can be arguably said that most of the doctrinal differences we witness today emanate from this hermeneutical problem.

There is both progression from the Old to the New or continuity as well discontinuity, where certain aspects of the Old find their fulfilment in Christ, e.g. animal sacrifice, priesthood and eventually the temple.

The Bible has one message – the gospel. The gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ as Philip told the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:35. “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” [Emphasis mine]. Therefore, the good news regards the Son of God, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thus, Jesus Christ, the Word, is ‘the main character’ of the redemptive story.

Christ taught about Christ in the OT! 

This is exactly what Christ taught, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they (the Scriptures) that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40, Emphasis added). This is what he told Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:27).

The Lord himself gave this Key to his disciples in Luke 24:44, of those things concerning Christ in the Old Testament beginning from Moses, i.e. the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. For as the Lord said, “these things must be fulfilled.” Indeed they have been fulfilled in and through Christ. But the wonder of the passages quoted from the OT by the Lord himself, is that Jesus taught about Jesus in the OT!

But how is Christ in the Old Testament?

He is in the Old Testament through:

1.    Types like the animal sacrifices, the temple, the bronze serpent, and many others. He is in the Old Testament.

2.    Predictions such as the seed of the woman who shall crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15), the king from the lineage of Judah, who shall sit on the throne of David to reign forever (2 Sam 7:12-13).

3.    Christophanies such as the Angel of the Lord or the Commander of the Lord’s army (Joshua 5:13-15).

4.    Figures. There are many Old Testament figures that point to Christ like Melchizedek, Joseph, David among others.

5.    Perfect righteousness! Finally, reading the Old Testament should bring sinners to the foot of the cross of Christ. For example, when the law is read, it is a reminder that “no mere man since the fall is able in this life to keep the commandments of God (Ecc 7:20; 1 Jn 1:8,10; Gal 5:17), but does daily break them in thought, word or deed (Gen 6:5; 8:21; Rom 3:9-21; Jam 3:2-13).[2]

Therefore, Christ is in the Old Testament more than many Christians realize and my purpose is to show this reality.

 

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[1] Vern Poythress, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1991), 5.

[2] The Baptist Confession of Faith & The Baptist Catechism: Q. 87, (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2010), 114.