Sometimes when someone is reading through the Bible, they may think that Jesus is “a New Testament character who doesn’t really have a strong presence in or connection to the Old Testament.” However, after they spend more time in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, hopefully they will begin to see that their initial conclusion was far from reality. In fact, Jesus Christ is the summary of the entire Bible, from beginning to end. Let us consider just a few connections that Scripture makes between Jesus and the Old Testament.
Jesus believed the Old Testament. While Jesus was living on this earth, He referenced the Old Testament quite often. In Luke 4, He talked about Elijah, the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the leper (4:25-27). He also talked about Jonah (Matt. 12:39-41), the burning bush (Luke 20:37), the brazen serpent (John 3:14), and too many others to name. Jesus believed everything that was written in the Old Testament.
Jesus wrote the Old Testament. Jesus was not merely a student of the sacred text; He was its author. The apostle Peter wrote about the Old Testament prophets, “who prophesied of the grace” that was coming, and “searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Pet. 1:10-11). Did you notice that? Who was involved in leading the prophets in their writings? “The Spirit of Christ” was.
Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. Early in His ministry, He said that He had come “to fulfill” the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17), and at the end of His ministry He assured that “all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me” (Luke 24:44).
Jesus is the purpose of the Old Testament. Paul asked, “What purpose then does the law serve?” and then answered, “It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made…the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ” (Gal. 3:19-25).
Jesus took away the binding law of the Old Testament. In doing the will of God, He came to “take away the first,” in order to “establish the second” (Heb. 10:9), by “having nailed [the first] to the cross” (Col. 2:14).
Jesus is the divine communication of God throughout Scripture. John wrote of Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). Jesus is the full revelation of deity to the world, through the Old Testament and the New Testament. May we stand in awe of His eternality and His revelation.