Jesus is the center of the New Testament. His life, death and resurrection are described in the Gospels. The result of His ministry is seen in the ministry of the apostles, especially Paul, in Acts. Jesus is explained in the epistles. Revelation proclaims His plans for the cosmos. The Old Testament (OT) is also centered in Christ. The OT is all about Him (Lk 24: 25-27); Jesus fulfilled what was written about Himself in the OT (Lk 24:44; Jn 5:46).
Before we go further, a thought about the name of this series. Producing a theologically correct yet interesting, catchy name is not easy, for “Jesus”—the incarnate Second person of the Trinity— is not a correct term prior to the incarnation. He is the anointed one: Christ. This is still the Son in His human ministry thus still not completely correct for the purposes of this series. “The References to, the Predictions About, and the Appearances of the Pre-Incarnate Second Person of the Trinity” seems a little long and lacks some punch. So, we will go with “Jesus in the OT”
In a continuing series of posts—which do not have a set order or frequency—we will investigate how the OT points to Jesus. There is three ways Jesus is written about in the OT: Typology, Prophecy and Christophany or Theophany. Early in the series we will publish posts on each type giving a more in-depth understanding of them. For now, here is a brief description.
The OT contains pictures of Jesus such as the bronze serpent as depicted in Numbers 21:9 which Jesus refers to in John 3:14-15. This group is known as typology: “a doctrine of theological types especially: one holding that things in Christian belief are prefigured or symbolized by things in the Old Testament” 1. These are not prophecies about Christ in a predictive sense but illustration which point to Him.
The second group is prophecy about His first or second coming such as the prophecy of his birth in Bethlehem in Micah 5:2. Prophecies tend to be more direct than the types. They speak clearly to coming events or work of Christ not just illustrating some aspect of Christ. In some cases, the prophecy is not as clear until after its fulfillment. It will be amazing to see the fulfillment of prophecies hundreds of years later!
The final group is Christophanies: pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. In other words, these are occasions where Jesus interacts with people in the OT prior to his birth. Christ even comes in a physical form in some of these encounters. Now note, these are somewhat debatable. Not everyone would agree it was Christ who is being mentioned in these passages. One variety of these involves the “Angel of the LORD”. While there is disagreement over if the Angle of the LORD is simply a messenger of God like other angels or a term used to point to appearances of the Son of God in the OT. We will advocate for the later and will give support for this position.
While this is the first in the series, down the road you will be able to do a search under the topic “Jesus in the OT” to find all the post done to date. You will also be able to check the tags: typology, prophecy and Christophany for posts on those specific themes.
I believe seeing how Jesus is pointed to throughout the OT will increase appreciation for God’s grand plan for us and the centrality of Christ in everything! I think this series will be fun and insightful so keep an eye open for future posts.
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg