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A Simple Guide to Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament

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Kevin Halloran offers a simple guide to seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. He offers two simple steps and three helpful questions to guide us.

Two steps:

  1. Study the passage in its original context.
  2. Look for connections and work to understand it in its broader context.

Three questions:

  1. Does the New Testament say anything about this topic or passage?
  2. How does this passage connect with a main theme that points me toward Christ?
  3. How does this passage aid my understanding of Christ and what he has done?

This short article is well worth your time. Check it out!

Jesus and the Proverbs

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How do we se Jesus in the Proverbs? Simple. As J.A. Medders writes, “Wisdom is a ‘Who’ More than a ‘What.'”

The Proverbs are the practical righteousness of Christ, his life, played out in our sanctification. Wisdom isn’t a nebulous concept, or ancient advice for life. Wisdom is draped in Nazarene flesh. Wisdom is the Ancient of Days. And now, by the gospel of grace, Jesus is our wisdom, and our righteousness, and our sanctification.

Medders summarizes the connections in two concise ideas:

  • Jesus lived the Proverbs for us
  • Jesus lives the Proverbs through us

This has been my understanding all through my Proverbs series, and Medders makes it nice and easy. His full article is well worth reading.

Check it out!

Trusting Jesus’ Credentials

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We’ve seen wisdom’s credentials in Proverbs 8:22-31. Despite the historical controversy over whether Proverbs 8 is about Jesus, the New Testament clearly states that Jesus shares wisdom’s credentials.

  1. Seeking Jesus is seeking the Lord (John 14:9).
  2. Life without Jesus isn’t truly life (1 John 5:11-13).
  3. The way of Jesus is tried and true. Knowing Jesus makes the most sense of how the world works (Acts 17:22-31).
  4. Jesus gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy (Mark 8:22-9:1).
Dale Calder (2009), Creative Commons

Dale Calder (2009), Creative Commons

But do you believe it? What does your life communicate about whose credentials you’re willing to trust?

Seeking the Lord

In a day when spirituality is cool, we must be careful to remember that not every spirit is from God (1 John 4:1-6). If a spirit doesn’t confess that Jesus is the Christ, that spirit is not from God but is the spirit of the antichrist. Notice that false spirits do not always attack Jesus’ Messiahship; they prove to be in error even if they simply ignore Jesus or treat him as irrelevant.

So when the CEO of Starbucks returns to his post to return the company to its core values, this rescue from “spiritual” crisis is not done in true wisdom, regardless of what Oprah would have us think.

Do you want to know God? You must know Jesus. Do you want to speak of God? If you don’t speak of Jesus, you may actually have the wrong god.

Living Life

What can’t you live without? What thing, if you had it, would finally help you to stop worrying? What would cut your stress or give you rest and energy? What turns a bad day into a good day? What motivates you to do what you do?

The answers to these questions show what your life is. And though the answer should be Jesus, it usually is not.

Knowing Jesus is eternal life. Eternal = never ending. Everything else will come to an end some day. When it does, will you have any life left? Now is your chance to practice for that Day.

Making Sense

We’re always trying to make sense of things. We want to make sense of our suffering. We want to make sense of our work. We want to make sense of our relationships.

The teenage girl looks for sense when she asks, “Are we dating?” The middle-aged professional looks for sense when he wonders what he’s doing with his life. The common citizen looks for sense when he considers whether the nation’s highest leaders have even read the Constitution.

The ways of Jesus make the most sense. Of course, we’re wise when we obey them because they give him glory. But we’re also wise when we obey them because they’re the best ways. “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3, ESV). The one who loves both God and neighbor is no idiot.

Seeing Happiness

Please don’t misunderstand this one. The Bible does not promise that God will always make us happy, nor that God’s chief end is to serve our happiness. No, sometimes God must make us markedly unhappy in order to show us true happiness. Or more specifically, he must show us that the things that make us happy cannot always make us happy. This produces unhappiness.

But as he strips such things away time and again, he clears the way to the one thing that will never run out, shut down, move on, or empty up: Himself.

Thus, for example, while we grieve the loss of those who have died in Christ (1 Thess 4:13), our grief gains hope only when we remember that in the end “we will always be,” not with our loved ones, but “with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17).

May the Lord Jesus Christ ever grant us more of this wisdom.

Proverbs 8 and Jesus

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Last week, I drew these four “credentials” for wisdom from Proverbs 8:22-31:

  1. Seeking wisdom is seeking the Lord.
  2. Life without wisdom isn’t truly life.
  3. The way of wisdom is tried and true. God’s wisdom makes the most sense of how the world works.
  4. Wisdom gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy.

In this chapter, Solomon praises God’s wisdom to motivate us to pursue it. Since wisdom can deliver what it promises, we’d be foolish not to chase it.

Before I move into more specific application from these points, I’d like to reflect on the connection between this wisdom and the Lord Jesus. This case presents a helpful example of how to see Jesus in any passage.

A Little History

Proverbs 8 provides a mine field for Christ-centered interpretation because it’s been so often misused. Because of the potential for misuse, many interpreters try to distance Jesus from this passage altogether.

"Baptistery.Arians06" by Georges Jansoone

“Baptistery.Arians06” by Georges Jansoone

Here’s the problem: In the third century, a heretic named Arius came to prominence with his teaching that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did not always exist. According to Arius, Jesus was subordinate to God the Father because God had created him. Arius and his followers put much stock in verses like “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) and in biblical phrases like “the only begotten Son” (John 3:16) or “the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15). If he was begotten—the thinking goes—there must have been a time before he was begotten.

Arianism saw clear parallels between Jesus and Proverbs 8, since “all things were made through him” (John 1:3) and “when he established the heavens I was there” (Prov 8:27). If God created everything by his Word, and the Word is Jesus, and Jesus made everything—then Solomon’s declarations about wisdom’s creative work in Proverbs 8 must be about Jesus.

And so Prov 8:22 became a key verse for the Arian cause: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work.” Some early Bible manuscripts use a word for possessed that could be translated as created, and the Arians had a field day with it. Proverbs 8 is about Jesus→Proverbs 8 says wisdom was created→Jesus must have been created. The links in the chain appear to hold tight.

Ramifications for Today

Far from being an obscure 3rd century problem, Arianism remains alive and well. Some of its most populous adherents include many Unitarians and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Leland Ryken also cites a tract from the Jehovah’s Witnesses that make this very argument from Proverbs 8.

Thus Christian interpreters, careful to guard against the dangers of Arianism, sometimes hesitate to acknowledge any connection between Proverbs 8 and Jesus. Proverbs 8 speaks of wisdom→The New Testament speaks of Jesus→Reading Jesus back into Proverbs 8 does violence to the text. By separating the person of Jesus from the personification of wisdom, they avoid the potential Arian problem.

How to See Jesus

However, there is a problem with making too sharp of a distinction between Proverbs and Jesus: We can’t deny that Jesus believed all the Old Testament was about him (Luke 24:44-46). Paul considered Jesus our wisdom from God (1 Cor 1:30). And, well, Jesus was present at the creation as a master workman, just like wisdom (John 1:1-3).

In addition, if you review the four conclusions with which I began this post, connections to Jesus should pop out.

  1. Seeking Jesus is seeking the Lord (John 14:9).
  2. Life without Jesus isn’t truly life (1 John 5:11-13).
  3. The way of Jesus is tried and true. Knowing Jesus makes the most sense of how the world works (Acts 17:22-31).
  4. Jesus gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy (Mark 8:22-9:1).

We could support all four of these statements from the New Testament. That doesn’t mean, however, that we must say Jesus was created (Prov 8:22 – even if “created” is the best translation).

My point is this: Proverbs 8 doesn’t have to be an exact, direct prediction about Jesus in order for it to be about Jesus. If you want to see Jesus in the Old Testament, first discover the author’s main point (in this case, wisdom’s four credentials). Then connect the main point to Jesus. It’s okay if not all the details match up exactly.

The New Testament Uses the Old Testament

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scrollThe apostle Paul provoked an uproar up and down the Roman empire with a simple, two-point message:

  1. The Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead

  2. The Messiah is Jesus

He staked these claims in the soil of Scripture.  Luke tells of his stint in Thessalonica:

And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’ (Acts 17:2-3, ESV)

The citizens of Berea wouldn’t take it on Paul’s word alone.  They had to see it for themselves:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica [who ended up attacking both Paul and his message]; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:11)

Paul wasn’t the only one to use this method of reasoning.  Every apostle used the Old Testament to explain this great message about Jesus, and many of them wrote it down for us in the New Testament.  Some authors were more explicit in their use of the Old Testament than others.  And we can learn much from them about how to read the Old Testament ourselves.

To that end, I’ve compiled a few lists to help launch you into the delightful world of intertestamental hermeneutics (a big phrase that simply means “how the New Testament authors understood the Old Testament”).

These lists won’t give you a complete understanding of the Old Testament and how it speaks of Jesus.  But they will direct you to the passages that most explicitly influenced the apostles’ thinking.  May they help you see Jesus more clearly.

Top 10 OT books quoted in NT

10 OT books never quoted in NT

Top 13 OT chapters quoted in NT

Top 11 OT verses quoted in NT

Top 10 NT books that quote OT passages

10 NT books that don’t quote the OT

Now go, you Berean, and see if these things are so. Check out the Resources page for an exhaustive list of NT quotations of the OT.

Question: What do you think about how the NT authors used the OT?

How to Love What Wisdom Loves

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Desires are not as ingrained as we sometimes make them out to be. We treat them as part of our identity, as though “dog-lover” or “outdoorsman” are written somewhere in our genetic code. But a child who hates vegetables might enjoy broccoli after giving it a chance. And a man who gets dumped by the “love of his life” one week can discover sudden feelings for a new gal the next.

DesireWhen the Lord exposes sinful desires, he expects to win us through offering something better. He expects our desires to change as we trust in Christ. Thus, simple ones can learn prudence and fools can learn sense (Prov 8:5) when they find that all they may desire cannot compare with wisdom (Prov 8:11).

We’ve seen in Proverbs 8:1-11 that wisdom is available to those who choose truth over wickedness, righteousness over crookedness, and instruction over material gain. Last week I gave a few diagnostic questions to test where you might be on each spectrum. If you find yourself living for wickedness, crookedness, or material gain, God wants you to change. Do you believe it’s possible?

For those who love wickedness over truth, know that Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6). He came into the world to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37). He spoke not on his own authority, but he spoke only what the Father commanded him to speak (John 12:49-50). Jesus spoke truth while he was on earth, and then he sent the Spirit of truth to guide us into all the truth (John 16:13). Though we set aside the truth for our wicked desires, Jesus never did. And when we trust in him, his Spirit won’t allow us to get too far from the truth.

For those who love crookedness over righteousness, know that Jesus is the righteous one (1 John 2:1). If you sin and get distracted from God’s straight path, you have an approved advocate before the Father. Jesus speaks as your defense attorney, arguing your case before the judge. And Jesus acts as your defense barrier (the meaning of “propitiation“), intercepting God’s wrath against your unholy desires and choices (1 John 2:2).

For those who love material gain over instruction, know that Jesus became to you wisdom from God (1 Cor 1:30). He who was rich became poor for your sake, so you through his poverty might become rich (2 Cor 8:9). He endured the cross, despising the shame, all for the joy set before him (Heb 12:2) – the joy of winning you!

Armed with this good news, you’re free to make different choices.

Gaze upon Christ the Truth, and you will love the truth. Spend more time in the Word, because it means spending more time with Jesus. Speak the truth to others, because you love them enough to bring them to Jesus. Get help with your finances and choose not to click the porn link, because you know the truth – that these things will make you more miserable and lead you away from Christ the Truth.

Gaze upon Jesus Christ the righteous, and you will love righteousness. Your life will become far more clear as the crookedness straightens out. Decisions will be easier, because the fogginess of sinful self-justification will lift. You’ll learn to choose to love God and love your neighbor, for on these two straightforward principles hang all the Law and the Prophets.

Gaze upon Jesus your wisdom from God, and you will love instruction. You’ll find that which you could never pay for. You’ll receive that which you could not earn. Your heart will soften, your sin won’t feel like something worth protecting, and you’ll know the fear of the Lord and the joy of godly change. Your stuff will become more useful than ever before, because you’ll see it as a tool for the kingdom and not as the end of happiness. You’ll be able to use it without having it use you.

So what should you do when you don’t love what wisdom loves? Love something else. Love Jesus, and you’ll learn some sense in the process.

Is Your Bible Study Group-Centered or Christ-Centered?

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The main goal of group Bible studies is to help people know God through his Son Jesus Christ. And the chief advantage of the group format is interaction.

Sometimes that chief advantage can steal the limelight, and the main goal unintentionally becomes the understudy. Or for the non-theatrical types: that chief advantage can steal the ball, and the main goal gets benched.

In other words, we can get so excited by the positive interaction between group members that we subtly slide our focus from knowing God to knowing each other. And since knowing each other is a great thing, we might not notice the shift.

Marco Belluci (2005), Creative Commons

Marco Belluci (2005), Creative Commons

Here are some questions to help you evaluate where your group’s gaze lies.

  1. Do group members spend more time sharing about their problems or testifying to God’s grace in their lives?
  2. Does your Bible study always land on the same applications, or is there a sense of forward movement and change?
  3. Do people depend on the leader to do all the thinking, or do they actively engage in the study?
  4. Is there general agreement and affirmation on most things, or do people feel free to challenge and disagree with one another?
  5. If the leader had to stop leading the group, would the group have another leader trained and ready to take over?
  6. How long has it been since new people joined the group?
  7. Would someone new have a hard time fitting in?
  8. If any unbelievers unexpectedly showed up, is there a chance they might meet God among you (1 Cor 14:24-25)?
  9. Does your group see Jesus in every passage?
  10. If your group discussed a book other than the Bible, would the discussion be any different?

What other diagnostic questions might help you to evaluate your group’s focus?

How Jesus Read the Old Testament

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Jesus read and studied the Bible, just as you and I do. He observed, interpreted, and applied the main points of each passage, just as you and I work to do.

One difference between Jesus and us, however, is that Jesus knew the entire Old Testament was written both to him and about him.

Nick Batzig, writing at the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, lists 10 implications of this fact in his recent article “How Did Jesus Read the Old Testament?” Batzig admits these are not the only 10 implications, but they get us started.

  1. Jesus understood that the entire Old Testament revealed that He would be the law-keeping Redeemer of His people.
  2. Jesus understood that all the promises of God were made to Him–first and foremost–as the Son of Abraham and Son of David.
  3. Jesus understood that the Old Testament spoke preeminently of His own sufferings and glories (1 Peter 1:10-12), as revealed by His Spirit through the prophets.
  4. Jesus understood that the Old Testament saints were not–first and foremost–examples of moral uprightness for fallen sinners to emulate, but were themselves sinners who were looking forward to Him by faith (Heb. 11).
  5. Jesus understood that all the Old Testament types, shadows and symbols pointed to some aspect of His saving work or benefits.
  6. Jesus understood that every prophecy was about Him.
  7. Jesus understood that He was the True Israel, who came to recapitulate Israel’s history for the redemption of His people.
  8. Jesus understood that His ministry was to be one of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and the Good News of redemption to hopeless and helpless sinners.
  9. Jesus understood that all the festivals and feasts in the Old Testament were pointing forward to what He would accomplish in the work of redemption.
  10. Jesus understood that marriage was ordained at creation in order for Him to have a spiritual bride in the church that He would redeem.

This man, Jesus, understood the fulness of God’s revelation, and he bore the weight of fulfilling it. He did it so we might know him and have eternal life.

Batzig’s article explains each point in further detail. I commend it to you that you might grow in amazement and thanks for your marvelous Redeemer and King.

Check it out!

Jesus the Offender’s Hope

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For a few weeks, we’ve examined the serious consequences of sexual immorality in Proverbs 6:20-35. Before moving on to Proverbs 7, we should take one last look at immorality’s consequences and remember how they fell upon our Savior Jesus. We, who fall for immorality’s promises and deserve to die, find life through the purity of the one who died for us. Our hope must not be in our ability to resist, but in his innocent, unresisting sacrifice on our behalf.

Jesus kept every one of his Father’s words (Prov 6:20, John 14:31), yet he was numbered among transgressors (Prov 6:24, Luke 22:37), and the master became a servant (Prov 6:25, Phil 2:6-7).

Jeroen Mul (2010), Creative Commons

Jeroen Mul (2010), Creative Commons

Jesus wrote the words of God on his heart (Prov 6:21, John 12:49-50), yet he still lost everything (Prov 6:26, John 10:17-18), and did not go unpunished (Prov 6:27-29, 1 Peter 2:24).

Jesus served the Father every moment in his walking, lying down, and waking (Prov 6:22, Mark 7:37). But he still suffered as a cunning robber (Prov 6:30-31, 35, Mark 15:27) and couldn’t have looked any more foolish (Prov 6:32a, 1 Cor 1:18).

Jesus was never tainted by the least sin (Prov 6:23, 1 Pet 1:18-19), yet God was pleased to crush him (Prov 6:32b, Isaiah 53:10) and wound him for our transgressions (Prov 6:33, Isaiah 53:5).

Despite his immaculate purity, Jesus found rampant dishonor and disgrace (Prov 6:33, John 19:15, Mark 10:33-34).

Though faithful to the end, Jesus experienced the furious, jealous revenge of the Divine Husband (Prov 6:34, Matt 27:46).

Friends, look upon this one who was pierced for your unfaithfulness. Don’t let him out of your sights. Don’t turn from his unbreakable love. Don’t settle for anything less.

“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).

When you gaze on Christ, the counterfeits lose their appeal. And—as we’ll see next in Proverbs 7—you’ll gain the discernment to unmask immorality’s silly seductive tactics.

Regular Bible Study May Keep You from God

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At the Desiring God blog, Marshall Segal recently wrote of “The Danger in Our Daily Devotions“:

If we carve out time to be with God in his book, we’ll be rewarded. But the rewards of our meditation — seeing more of God himself — can be surprisingly dangerous. Knowledge can corrupt and distract if we don’t know what to do with it. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1). Paul is clear that we can have “all knowledge” (1 Cor 13:2), but not love. And knowledge without love leaves us with “nothing” (1 Cor 13:2).

So how do we accumulate knowledge about God without ending up far from him? How do we keep our daily devotions from being (spiritually) dangerous?

How to Stay Christian in SeminaryHe then reviews a short book by David Mathis and Jonathan Parnell entitled How to Stay Christian in Seminary. Mathis and Parnell offer the following suggestions:

  1. Stay amazed at grace
  2. Stay dependent on God
  3. Stay focused on Jesus

Though the book’s title appears to focus on seminary students, I agree with Segal that these points are “undeniably relevant to anyone studying their Bible, whether for a focused, four-year degree or just in a regular rhythm of personal devotions.”

As you learn to study the Bible, does your study puff you up and so keep you from the Lord? Or does it help you to know God better?

Check it out!

HT: Ryan Higginbottom

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