At the Bible College I attended, we had a running joke that the right answer to every exam question was, “Jesus.” How could a professor mark us wrong for that answer, right? Well, some of us learned the hard way that theology is a bit more nuanced than that. 

However, we weren’t really too far off. Jesus is in all of the Bible, in a way, and we are going to take the month of November to explore this topic. 

Learning to see Christ in all of Scripture is a beautiful way to learn more about Him and to see the cohesive unity of the Bible on display. Alistair Begg famously explained:

“We find Christ in all the Scriptures. In the Old Testament He is predicted, in the Gospels He is revealed, in Acts He is preached, in the epistles He is explained, and in Revelation He is expected.”

We all might understand how to “find” Jesus in the New Testament when He is incarnate and present in the Gospels or being spoken about in the Epistles. But how do we find Him before He is born? Can we really read about Him in Genesis or Samuel or in the Psalms or Isaiah? YES!

Because Jesus is the second person in the Trinity, eternal and present with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, we find Jesus throughout the Old Testament. In fact, He is not simply hinted at or alluded to a few times, He is the theme of all of Scripture and the whole Old Testament is about Him. The Old Testament is not simply the history of Israel, it is the story of God’s work in this world to redeem mankind. Therefore, it all points to Christ. Jesus Himself affirmed this at the end of the Gospel of Luke:

“And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27, emphasis mine)

How I wish we could have heard exactly how Jesus explained “in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself”! 

But we know that in the Old Testament, Jesus is predicted through prophecy and promises, patterned and exemplified in people, events, and things, and even shown to us in various forms. “Seeing” Jesus this way is not about hidden codes or twisting the text, but allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture and following its patterns and examples. And I’m not suggesting that it is always easy to see or find Jesus in the Old Testament (and some undoubtedly take it too far), but there is a framework we can learn so we find Him correctly in the text. So, this November, we’ll learn four specific ways Jesus is seen in the Old Testament:

Part 1: Christ in Old Testament Promises & Prophecy
Part 2: Christ in Christophanies (pre-incarnate appearances)
Part 3: Christ in Typology (Old Testament people and things that foreshadow Christ)
Part 4: Christ in Patterns (Old Testament events that predict and foreshadow Christ)

There are many ways to study this subject, but I’ve chosen (hopefully) a simple way to introduce you to this topic. Along the way, I’ll suggest more advanced resources for those who might already be familiar with our discussion. I pray this study opens your eyes and hearts to the beauty of Christ and Scripture. And even if you have studied this before, focusing on Christ as He is revealed in Scripture is a wonderful way to prepare our hearts for Christmas.

Part 1: Christ in Old Testament Promises and Prophecy

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus repeatedly told His listeners that He was fulfilling certain Scriptures or the fulfillment of Scripture (referring to the Old Testament). For example, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus famously went into the synagogue and claimed He fulfilled the prophet Isaiah’s words:

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:26-21)

And the Gospel writers and Acts repeatedly interpret events in Christ’s life as the fulfillment of Scripture:

In his Gospel, Matthew repeatedly says:

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet…” (1:22; 2:5; 2:17; 3:2).

In the book of Acts, Peter proclaims:

“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.” (Acts 3:18)

It is clear from these examples that Jesus (and His disciples) taught that He fulfilled what the Old Testament prophets spoke about. In other words, Scripture (the Old Testament) promised and predicted Him in certain ways prior to His incarnation, and now they made the connection. Now that Jesus was revealed, Scripture became clearer. This is not to manipulate a new meaning into the text, but simply to understand its full meaning in light of Christ. 

As Jason DeRouchie explains in Delighting in the Old Testament:

“There is a natural and purposeful connection between what the Old Testament human authors intended and what the New Testament human authors saw fulfilled in Jesus, but comprehension of the Old Testament’s meaning is now often fuller, expanded, or deeper because through Christ God reveals the mystery. Jesus’s saving work supplies the spiritual light that enables one’s spiritual senses to see and savor rightly, and his saving work provides the interpretive lens for properly understanding and applying the Old Testament in a way that most completely magnifies God in Christ.” (DeRouchie, 66).

Through the New Testament, we can see that Old Testament Messianic prophecies (God’s specific foretelling about Jesus) and promises (God’s covenants and word to His people) are realized or fulfilled in Christ. 

For example:

1. The promise of Genesis 3:15-An offspring of Eve will come to “crush” the head of the serpent

Hebrews 2:14 explains that Christ is the descendent of Eve who will defeat satan:

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…” (see also 1 John 3:8 and Rev 12:9).

2. The promise of Genesis 12, 15 (Abrahamic Covenant)–An offspring of Abraham will come and bless the whole world

Paul taught that Jesus fulfilled the promise to Abraham (referring specifically to Gen 12:7; but also includes 22:18; 26:4):

“Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16)

3. The promise of 2 Samuel 7 (Davidic Covenant)- The Messiah will come from the Davidic line and tribe of Judah to establish a kingdom that will last forever 

Luke 1:31-33 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And more.

Regarding Messianic prophecies, the Old Testament gives specifics about the promised Messiah, which the New Testament confirms. The prophecies tell us everything from the place of Jesus’ birth (Bethlehem) predicted in Micah 5:2 and confirmed in Luke 2:4-7, to the nature of His mission (He will redeem the people from their sins) predicted in Psalm 130:7-8 and confirmed in Matthew 1:21. Sometimes the New Testament merely alludes to Old Testament promises or prophecies such as Jesus calling Himself the “Good Shepherd” in John 10 to fulfill Ezekiel 34:23.

Most conservative estimates find that Jesus fulfilled some 300 Old Testament prophecies/promises!

Here is a great (although not comprehensive) list of prophecies that Jesus fulfilled with their Old and New Testament references to help you get started studying this topic. 

I hope what you see here is that we don’t have to guess which promises and prophecies in the Old Testament are about Christ (although some might be vague, the majority are not). We look to the New Testament to guide us. One of the clearest ways to “see” Christ in the Old Testament is by reading how the New Testament points to Old Testament prophecies and promises in light of Christ.

If you are an advanced student or already familiar with this topic, you might enjoy Sinclair Fergson’s article “Preaching Christ from the Old Testament”. This article is not just for preachers, but will help anyone wanting to learn how to faithfully discover Christ in the Old Testament (and gives special attention to interpreting Genesis 3:15). 

Knowing that the Old Testament foretells of an expected Messiah through prophecies and promises should prompt us to be intentional Bible readers. We should read the Old Testament to specifically see the historical story of Israel unfold and also how it points in advance to the person and work of Christ. And we should read the New Testament carefully–to see how the authors point us backward to see Christ in the prophecies and promises of God. And those connections should allow us to read with renewed depth and insight.

Happy Studying! 

And get ready for next week when we dive into Part 2: Christophanies.