How Does the Old Testament Proclaim Christ?
How Does the Old Testament Proclaim Christ?
Perhaps the most important part of Bible Study is the most neglected. We open up the Scriptures and expect profound, life-changing truths leap off the page, as if the Bible is greatest collection of life hacks ever. But the truth is that the Bible doesn’t exist to improve our lives here and now. Neither does it give us the cheat sheet on how to get to heaven. It’s not a product to be consumed, but a revelation from God himself that must be believed. Therefore Johann Gerhard writes,
“Because the divine mysteries of the faith have been put forth in the Scriptures and originated form God’s immediate revelation, they therefore exceed the sphere, so to speak of our understanding, which has been wretchedly corrupted through sin: “the natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God. They are folly to him and he cannot understand” (1 Cor. 2:14) Accordingly, the illumination of divine light is required besides the natural capacities of our understanding and our “original,” so to speak, “abilities,” [privaevas opes]; otherwise the mysteries put forth in the Scriptures will be [for us] a closed and sealed book.”
How do we obtain the illumination necessary? We must pray for it. “Prayer is necessary for us to receive the divine and supernatural light of the Holy Spirit, “for the Holy spirit is given to those who ask” (Luke 11:13).” This is why prayers are given to God for his divine help before the Scriptures are read during the divine service. This is why the pastor begins every Bible study with a prayer. Since the Scriptures are God’s book, not a human book, we ask his help in revealing its intent and meaning. God be praised that with the Holy Spirit’s guidance the Scriptures become a lamp lighting our way toward salvation. As all the evangelical teachers of old have seen, they don’t lead us down the path of works and man-made righteousness. The Scriptures lead us to Christ.
Jesus says, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they what bear witness about me” (John 5:39). Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, comes to us through the means of the written and spoken Word (Luke 10:16). Through his Word he forgives our sins. He rescues us from the fear of death. He brings us into the Father’s presence. This is true of both Old and New Testaments.
But how exactly does the Old Testament bring Jesus to us? There are three ways which every reader of the Old Testament must know. Christ can be depicted allegorical, typologically, and directly.
Gerhard defines allegory in this way, “An allegory is when something in the Old or New Testament is expounded with new meaning and is applied to spiritual doctrine or instruction.”
The most famous allegory of the Old Testament is taught by St. Paul in his epistle to the Galatians. He writes, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically” (Gal. 4:21-24). Each woman and her respective children represent two distinct ways in which men relate to God. Either they try by their own reason and strength to make God’s plan come to pass in their lives, or they wait on God’s gracious working on their behalf as they wait patiently by faith. St. Paul concludes, therefore, “For freedom Christ has set us free!” (Gal. 5:1). We have been adopted graciously into God’s family not on account of our works but on account of grace merited for us by Christ alone. You can see many other examples of such allegories in the Old Testament that demonstrate how God desires to work among us by the Gospel of Christ. In the same way as Christ becomes the sacrifice that brings us life, so also Judah offered to give his life in return to for his brother’s (Gen. 44:33). So also, we see a grand allegory of baptism in both the historical events of the parting of the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10:2) and the flood (1 Pet. 3:20-21).
Whereas allegories are more general and loose in character, types are more specific. “A type is when something in the Old Testament foreshows or represents something that has been or will be accomplished in the New Testament….Types are mode for certain subjects concerning Christ, the church, etc., while allegories are extremely broad and cover any kind of material.”
I’ll mention two examples. First is the bronze serpent being lifted up in the wilderness which Jesus says is really about his own lifting up upon the cross. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). According to Gerhard’s criteria, since the image is of the central redemptive act upon which our faith rests, then this is properly speaking a specific type meant to be fulfilled by the sacrifice of Jesus. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21). The second also pertains to the sacrifices victims of the Old Testament, the animals that were put to death, whose blood was offered before God’s altar to gain favor and forgiveness. As St. Paul explains in Hebrews, “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). This means the animal sacrifices were never a means in and of themselves to get and retain God’s favor. Their purpose was always to point beyond themselves to the perfect sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross. Therefore, each time an animal was cultically put to death according to God’s command in the Old Testament, the animal’s death pointed forward to the perfectly sufficient “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4).
Finally are the direct, prophetic utterances that cannot find fulfilment outside of the person and work of Christ. You probably can rattle a few off the top of your head. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heal” (Gen. 3:15). “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech. 9:9). The only reason someone would doubt these Scriptures pertaining directly to Jesus is if they were influenced by critical scholarship that refuses to acknowledge the supernatural knowledge of future events could have been given to the prophets by the Holy Spirit.
Everything that happened to Jesus, from his birth, to his sufferings, death, and resurrection took place “that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled” (Matt. 26:56).
God be praised that when our minds are opened by the Spirit, rather than finding the Old Testament a dry and uninteresting book written for a religious community thousands of years ago, we discover Christ. He comes personally to us when these Scriptures are preached for our comfort. He makes those ancient promises the living foundation for our saving faith.