Christ in All the Scriptures

Beginning at Moses

On the Sunday afternoon that Jesus rose from the dead, two of His disciples walked away from Jerusalem toward a village called Emmaus, about seven miles away. One of them was named Cleopas. They had heard the women's report of an empty tomb, but they had not seen the Lord, and their hearts were heavy. As they talked, Jesus Himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were holden that they should not know him (Luke 24:16).

Cleopas told Him the story of Jesus of Nazareth, crucified by the rulers, and then the saddest line in the chapter: we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel (Luke 24:21). They thought the cross had ended their hope.

Jesus answered with a rebuke: O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken (Luke 24:25). Ought not Christ to have suffered these things (Luke 24:26)? The cross had not cancelled the plan. The cross was the plan, and the prophets had said so.

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”LUKE 24:27 · KJV

Later the two disciples realized that their hearts had burned within them while He opened the Scriptures (Luke 24:32). That same night He stood among the eleven and said it again:

“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.”LUKE 24:44 · KJV

The law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms: Jesus named the Hebrew Scriptures by their parts, and He left none of them out. He had already told the religious leaders that the Scriptures testify of me (John 5:39), and that Moses wrote of me (John 5:46).

The Old Testament Is Full of Jesus

Here is the conviction behind this whole series: the Old Testament is full of Jesus, and this is God's design. The Old Testament makes up about 77 percent of the words of the Bible. If the Bible is the story of God's redemption through Jesus, He would not leave Jesus missing from three-quarters of His Word. He would fill every page with Jesus.

Sending His Son to save us from our sins was not a rescue plan God devised after the fall. Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). And because the Father loveth the Son (John 3:35), it is His delight to fill the Old Testament with the Son He loves. The story the Old Testament tells is full of Christological significance, and God's plan builds toward the defining moment in human history: the appearing of our Saviour.