From shadow to substance: Jesus in the Old Testament

Key verse(s)/quote(s):

“The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed and the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed” - Anonymous

“The One who hung the earth in space, is Himself hung; the One who fixed the heavens in place is Himself firmly fixed to the tree… Through Whom the Father made the things which exist from the beginning of time.” - Melito (bishop of Sardis, died c. 180)

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Key takeaway(s):

1. Christ is from everlasting to everlasting as clearly seen in the Old Testament and New Testament
2. All fullness of Deity lives in bodily form in Christ (Colossians 2:9)
3. All may honour the Son just as they honour the Father (John 5:23)
4. This should give you confidence to contend for the faith that you have that is once and for all entrusted to you (Jude 3)

Overview:

This post is part 3 of a 3-part series of messages I had the pleasure of sharing at our 2010 church summer conference. The 2 additional components of this series overview the prophetic significance of both The Tabernacle (click here to read) and The Jewish Feasts (click here to read).

In the beginning was… Jesus. So often we find that the deity of Christ has been challenged and not just by those who blatantly refute the Bible as the Word of God but even by those who seem to attest to what I call a “partial theology”. Theos is the Greek word for God and Theotes is the word used for the Godhead – this is where we get the word theology. Therefore, by definition, in order to have a complete theology, we must have a complete understanding of God. We should be able to respond in a complete fashion to any worldview that strips Christ of His deity and lifts us up instead – be it Judaism, Mormonism, the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) or Islam. When responding to the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who attest to be people of the Book, we don’t have to prove the validity of the Bible (in some cases) but instead, our mandate is to clearly communicate the Scriptures accurately.

It is this clear understanding of the Scriptures in their complete form that serves as the impetus for my study of Jesus in the Old Testament. Too often I’ve heard people say that the concept of Christ as God was made up by the church at the council of Nicea or by the Catholic church or by later-day apostles or even by Christians hundreds of years after Christ came. We can respond with confidence by pointing to all of Scripture and more specifically, as this study deals with spending time to understand the Messianic prophecies in Old Testament.

After you complete your review of this post, I hope that the points below will remain with you:

1) Share/Defend - Minister confidently to those who do not hold Christ in His true full esteem. (Jude 3)

2) Know - Build upon a solid foundation and gain assurance in the “Author and Perfecter of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)

3) Comprehend - Attain a complete view of Christ as depicted in all of Scripture (Tota Scriptura). (Luke 24:25-27)

I also had the pleasure of preaching on this topic at CEACT (Chinese Evangelical Alliance Church of Toronto) and below you can find the audio recording of the sermon matched to the slides (with an additional overview of some slides I put into the appendix due to time limitations). I have also posted the pdf of the slides separately if you prefer just going through them.

TiS Media:

• Presentation with Audio/Video

• Presentation Slides

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1. William says:

   October 19, 2009 at 3:48 pm

   Thanks for posting! I’m sure many of us from CEACT will benefit greatly from this.
2. Sumair says:

   October 19, 2009 at 4:29 pm

   William,

   Thank you for your comments and for visiting. It truly was a pleasure to join you this past Sunday and I look forward to seeing you all again on December 27.