The Living Word (Lesson 3)

The Centrality of Christ

The scriptures, written as they were by many human authors, over many thousands of years, are nevertheless fully united in one glorious theme: the Christ. There is no testament, genre, book, paragraph, sentence, or word in the Bible that does not have its final reference point in Christ. This is what sets the Bible apart from other books that contain wise moral counsel. This is what makes the Bible life-giving – unique among all the great works of literature in history. Alfred Edersheim begins his famed Old Testament Bible History with the statement, “That ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’ is also ‘the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,’ and that, ‘they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham,’ – these are among the most precious truths of revelation.” His statement is forceful and true. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for failing to see him in Scriptures Jn. 5:39,40. Later, on the road to Emmaus, he rebuked his own disciples for the same reason, and “beginning from Moses, and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Lk. 24:27). Later, he opened the mind of his disciples, so that they could understand that all the scriptures were written with respect to him, and furthermore, that it was necessary that they be preached with that new understanding to all the nations of the world Lk. 24:44-48. This the disciples did: Philip, in Acts 8, took the Old Testament passage that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading, “and beginning from this scripture, gave him the good news of Jesus.” Acts 8:32-35. This was the consistent approach of the New Testament apostles and prophets. The Old Testament is quoted hundreds of times in the New Testament; a perusal of these quotations, and how they are interpreted by the New Testament authors, makes it plain that Christ is the center of all redemptive history, and that the gospel is the same from one covenant to the next. Hebrews gives us an elaborate picture of the superiority of Christ, applying many OT quotations to him, and showing how all the types and shadows of Israel’s national history, cultic rituals, etc., have their true fulfillment in him Heb. 1:8,9; 2:6-9,11-13; 5:5,6; 7:1-3; 8:3-6; 9:7-14,23,24; 10:4-7; 14-18; 13:11-13. Galatians 3 and 4 declare plainly that we are the spiritual seed of Abraham, heirs to the promises which were made to his one true seed, Christ, because we, as the OT saints, are in Christ Gal. 3:6-9,13-16,26,29; 4:21-31. Peter, in his sermon at Pentecost, inaugurating a new dispensation in the ever-unfolding design of God’s covenant of grace, shows how David, and all the OT faithful, looked ahead to the resurrected and reigning Christ Acts 2:25-36. Paul, in Romans 10, tells us that Moses preached the same gospel he did – that is, the gospel that, “If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” Rom. 10:4-13. This is just to draw a handful of examples from an overwhelming supply of evidence. The resurrected, triumphant Christ was the clear hope and central figure of the OT, seen by all true believers, just as he is the central figure and hope of the NT. And in all the various genres of the OT and NT alike, we will find nothing of any true profit except Christ, and we will understand nothing truly unless we understand it as further disclosing to us the blessed person and work of Christ.

Perhaps someone may say, “I can see that the inspired New Testament authors were able to discern the person and work of Christ in the Old Testament, but when I read it all I see is genealogies and old histories and elaborate rituals of purifications and sacrifices. How can I understand what the Old Testament teaches of Christ since I am not an inspired interpreter like the New Testament authors were?” If this is your struggle, you have hit upon an essential truth: naturally, you will not be able to see all the glory of Christ as it lies hidden under the types and shadows of Old Testament literature. But as a Christian, you do not have to read the scriptures like a natural man would, for two reasons: first, Christ, who taught his disciples of himself from the Old Testament, promised to them and all future believers, “I have spoken these things to you, being present with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you” (Jn. 14:25,26). Just as Christ taught the disciples of himself when he was on earth, so the Spirit performs the same ministry, now that Christ is ascended to the right hand of the Father. Every advantage the disciples had by Christ dwelling with them, we have by the Spirit dwelling in us. And the Spirit “shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, He shall speak…He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will announce it to you” (Jn. 16:13,14). In other words, whatever Christ would tell us if he were here, the Spirit does tell us. He takes whatever he hears from Christ and declares it to the believers. But he does this only as we study the scriptures. This leads us to the second reason that we can read the Old Testament with more than a natural understanding: we have the New Testament now to give us a divinely inspired way of looking at the Old Testament. I say “a way of looking at the Old Testament,” rather than, “the interpretation of specific Old Testament verses.” The New Testament does interpret specific Old testament verses. But it also does more than that. Hebrews 9:2-5 tells us, “For the first tabernacle was prepared, in which was both the lampstand, and the table, and the setting out of the loaves, which is called Holies. And after the second veil was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid all around with gold, in which was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. And over it were the cherubs of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat (about which we cannot now speak piece by piece).” The author of Hebrews has just been giving detailed interpretations of how Old Testament realities pointed to Christ. Now, he says, in effect, “I could give you more of these specific interpretations. But now is not the time. All of those truths are there, waiting for you to discover them. And you are able to do this if you understand the central truth that I have been laboring to emphasize. Namely, that Christ is the central truth of all the Old Testament.” Behind all of the specific truths about Christ that the New Testament authors taught us is the foundational truth that the bible, from beginning to end, is about Jesus. And once we grasp that basic truth, we can study all of scriptures “with an unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). The veil that blinds the natural man’s understanding when he reads the bible is done away in Christ. This is the work of the Spirit.

The following outline of the unfolding story of the Messiah, from Genesis to Revelation may help. It is certainly not exhaustive, and not even very detailed, but I hope it gives a very basic glimpse of all of scriptures as one unified, Christ-centered history. I hope it will help some of you “connect the dots” of all the various portions of scripture, so that you can start to trace the scriptural outline, and see a glorious and incomprehensible picture of Christ begin to emerge.

Christ: the blessed hope of the Old Testament

  1. God promised he would restore what man lost through a victorious Messiah Gen. 3:15
  2. God established and guarded that promise through various covenants, which looked ahead to that Messiah
    • Noahic: Preservation of all flesh (hence, the Messianic line), and elaboration of the principle of life in the blood Gen. 9:3-11
    • Abrahamic: Land, seed, and blessing: “I will be your God.” Gen. 12:1-3 Fulfilled in Christ alone, Gal. 3:16; 2 Cor. 1:20
    • Mosaic: Deut. 30:15-18 Added as a guardian until the promise should be fulfilled, to show our need for the promised Christ Gal. 3:23-25; Never intended to be permanent Heb. 8:13
    • Davidic: Promised Messiah will reign as King forever 2 Sam. 7:11-16
    • New: All who call upon the Lord will be saved Jer. 31:31-34
  3. True Old Testament believers had this hope from the time Eve bore Cain e.g. Gen. 4:25; Job 19:25

Christ: the grand reality of the New Testament

The New Testament differs from the Old, not in its message, but rather in the status of that message. What was a promise in the OT was a grand reality in the NT, and today. The declaration of the fulfilled promise in the resurrected Christ was the inauguration of a new stage in redemptive history. This inauguration effected several accomplishments.

  1. The Fulfillment of the promise Heb. 11:13; 2 Cor. 1:20; 1 Pet. 1:10-12
  2. Inclusion of the Gentiles in the promise Eph. 2:11-13; Gal. 3:26-29; Acts 15:14-17
  3. Guarantee of the resurrection of us all 1 Thes. 4:14
  4. Guarantee of final victory 2 Pet. 3:13

Categorization of the centrality of Christ in various OT genres

  1. Pentateuch: he is the coming Priest
  2. History: he is the coming King
  3. Prophecy: he is the coming Prophet
  4. Poetry: he is the celebrated Christ, the believer’s Hope, Joy, Rock, Confidence, Bridegroom, Wisdom, etc.

Study Questions:

  1. What was God’s purpose in writing the bible? Were there different purposes for the different times he added to the canon? Was there one over-arching purpose? Explain your answers.

  2. Why do you think God gave us the bible in so many different styles and genres? How can we learn from all the different approaches that are contained in the scriptures? Is there one unifying theme that makes sense of all the different styles?

  3. “Progressive revelation” means that God revealed certain truths obscurely at first, but more and more clearly as time went on. Why do you think God chose to give us the bible in this manner? Does Christ’s parable in Matthew 13:31,32 have anything to do with progressive revelation?

  4. Read the first three chapters of Genesis and the last two chapters of Revelation. Do you notice any themes that are common to both passages? (e.g. the tree of life, the problem and solution of sin and sorrow, etc.) Does it sound like the beginning and end of one story? If so, who is the hero of the story? Can you learn anything about the middle of the story by understanding the beginning and end of it?

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