Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Book Installment)
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament
Chapter 1: Who First Found Jesus in the Old Testament?
(continued)
How We Can Find Jesus in the Old Testament
It’s not just allusions to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection that can be found in the Old Testament, as crucial as those two events are. There are also references to many other aspects of His life that can be found there. Cataloging them all would take many, many books. But we would not know about these references to Jesus in the Old Testament without the New Testament. In other words, we cannot know how to find Jesus in the Old Testament without the New Testament.
The bottom-line reality is that we find Jesus in the Old Testament by reading the New Testament. To borrow some words from Paul:
Heb 2:3 …it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
That is, Jesus was the first to find references to Himself in the Old Testament, and He taught many of these references to His disciples. He did this both occasionally during His earthly ministry (as we saw in Matt 5:17 and John 5:39-40, 44-47 above), and intensively during the 40 days between His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven (as we saw in Luke 24:13-27, 44-48 above).
This does not mean that every reference to Jesus in the Old Testament is documented by the New Testament. The New Testament would be unmanageably larger if that were the case. But there are many, many examples that are recorded in the New Testament. There are also general guidelines for finding Jesus in the Old Testament recorded there. Thus our search for Jesus in the Old Testament should be governed by the New Testament.
The New Testament was not intentionally written to guide our understanding of the Old Testament. In fact, it doesn’t seem to have been written for posterity at all, even though it has been, and will always be, essential to all generations after the 1st century. The writings of the New Testament were produced to meet the needs of that generation. And that generation did not need a new set of Scriptures to proclaim the gospel that the Lord had revealed them. Those people may have needed one or more of the 27 New Testament writings to meet this or that need. But they didn’t need the entire collection; the Old Testament was the only Bible they needed.
Conversely, the Old Testament is hardly worth reading without the knowledge of how to find Jesus in it. Oh, it would have merit as a chronicle of an ancient nation, but it would be useless as a testimony to God because it would only be a record of ancient hopes in God that were never fulfilled. Who is the promised Messiah of Israel if not the Jew from Galilee named Jesus of Nazareth? Have there ever been any other truly legitimate candidates?
Therefore, the Old Testament is invaluable to the degree that Jesus is found in it, and relatively useless to the degree He is not.
Don’t despair if finding Jesus in the Old Testament has been difficult for you. Just realize that this means you are not yet familiar enough with the New Testament. Follow a Christ-centered Bible reading plan such as the ones I publish, and you will find that understanding the New Testament will, over time, improve your understanding of the Old Testament.
When we read and reread the New Testament, we are able to see example after example of its authors finding references to Jesus in the Old Testament. One of the reasons I primarily use the New American Standard Bible 1995 is that it puts into small/all caps every quotation of the Old Testament that a New Testament author makes. Most other English translations put them in quotation marks, but don’t take the extra step the NASB 1995 takes to make them stand out from all other quotation marks.
The more you pay attention to the New Testament quotations of the Old Testament, the more you will recognize Jesus in both testaments. But if you try to read and understand the Old Testament before reading and coming to understand the New Testament, the less both testaments will mean to you. Therefore, don’t be afraid to put off reading the Old Testament until you have a thorough grasp of the New Testament. It’s the best teacher of how to find Jesus in the Old Testament.
The Duty of a Man 