And We Know Him through Scripture
The Old Testament does not stand on its own, because it is incomplete without its conclusion and fulfillment in the person and work of Christ. Jesus and the apostles were positive about the supreme authority of the Old Testament. Jesus regarded the Old Testament as the authority for truth from God.
Jesus and the apostles honored it as God’s way of speaking to his people. They saw it as the faithful record of what God had said through his servants the prophets.
** The New Testament interpretation of the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth makes no sense if there is no substance to the historical claims of the Old Testament.
**Jesus understood the word of the Old Testament to be his most effective weapon because it carried the authority and power of God himself.
- Jesus taught: What the Old Testament says is what God says.
- Jesus taught: The Old Testament is God’s Word about Christ.
Biblical studies over the years have trended towards teaching the Bible in two parts: The Old Testament and the New Testament. They have been taught in complete isolation of one another never presenting a coherent picture to the reader which has resulting in the preaching that we hear having a lot to be desired. It has also been taught from the perspective that the New Testament interprets the Old. This is not a Christian approach to the matter.
As Christians, we must return to the principles of the Old Testament interpretation dictated by the New Testament. When Jesus is saying that He gives the Old Testament its meaning, He is also saying that we need the Old Testament to understand what He says about himself.
- In doing biblical theology as Christians, we do not start at Genesis 1 and work our way forward until we discover where it is all leading. Rather we first come to Christ, and he directs us to study the Old Testament in the light of the gospel.
- The gospel will interpret the Old Testament by showing us its goal and meaning.
- The Old Testament will increase our understanding of the gospel by showing us what Christ fulfills.
Here is the point: Entry is made through the gospel which sends us back to the Old Testament. With prior knowledge that it is a book about Christ, we follow its progressive revelation until it leads us to its fulfillment in the gospel message.