“Wait a minute – Isn’t Jesus found in the New Testament?” Absolutely! In fact, this is one of the very first things we learn about the Bible when we first become exposed to it. Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and many more individuals are all Old Testament characters. Jesus is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible until we get to the New Testament.
Once we get to the New Testament, we find that Jesus is not merely mentioned in it – He dominates it! From its first page to its last, the New Testament is talking about and explaining Jesus. By reading and studying it, we learn how important He is to all of us – collectively and individually. In fact, finding Jesus is so important, and there’s so much to learn about Him in the New Testament, one might wonder why we should ever divert any of our attention from it in order to look for Him in the Old Testament.
For one thing, many people are actually distracted by the Old Testament and never get to Jesus at all. That is, they begin their reading of the Bible with Genesis, get bogged down in the last half of Exodus, and die a lonely reader’s death in the minutia of animal sacrifice found in Leviticus. By following this route, many New Year’s resolutions to read the Bible die an early death.
The Bible is a book, but it is also a library of books. You read a book left to right, but you don’t read the books in a library left to right. Rather, you go to the section of the library that most interests you. Anyone who has read the Bible and understood it knows that because Jesus Christ is the Bible’s most important subject, the New Testament should be read first. In other words, we should read the Bible right to left. (But don’t read the New Testament right to left or else Revelation will grind you down just like Leviticus does.)
Not only should we focus on finding Jesus in the New Testament before we seek Him in the Old, finding Jesus in the New Testament is what will enable us to find Him in the Old. The 27 writings that comprise the New Testament were written in the 1st century – and that’s when the Old Testament was effectively the only Bible they had. People back then found Jesus in the Old Testament because it was the only Bible they had to look for Him! Of course, they were experiencing Jesus in the flesh so they had more than the Bible to go on. Nonetheless, they found the Jesus they experienced in the Old Testament – over and over again.
Why It’s Possible to Find Jesus in the Old Testament
It was the Sunday after Jesus had been crucified, but before His disciples became convinced of His resurrection. They weren’t even expecting Him to rise from the dead.
Luke 24:13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.
Luke 24:14 And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place.
Luke 24:15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.
Luke 24:16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.
Luke 24:17 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.
They were shocked and depressed and had no hopeful answers.
Luke 24:18 One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”
Luke 24:19 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,
Luke 24:20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.
Luke 24:21 “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.
Luke 24:22 “But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning,
Luke 24:23 and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.
Luke 24:24 “Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.”
Jesus then consoles them…with a thoroughly educational rebuke.
Luke 24:25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Luke 24:26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
Luke 24:27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
Later that day, with a larger group of His disciples, Jesus reinforced the point.
Luke 24:44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Luke 24:45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
Luke 24:46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
Luke 24:47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Luke 24:48 “You are witnesses of these things.
Jesus would then spend another thirty-nine days conducting such Bible studies with His disciples before He ascended into heaven. What Jesus was teaching them – and us as well – was that the Old Testament was very much about Him…and that we should be able to find Him in it.
Yet, we should not expect it to be easy to find Him in it because it prophesied His resurrection, and He Himself made this point to His disciples repeatedly before He died, and yet they still weren’t expecting it! Just because finding Jesus in the Old Testament is possible, doesn’t mean it’s probable. It must be something we have to learn how to do.
Jesus Originated Finding Jesus in the Old Testament
Luke 24 is not the only place in the Bible that Jesus spoke this way about Himself and the Old Testament. (Of course, the term “Old Testament” wasn’t used in His day. Rather, He and His fellow Jews spoke of “the Scriptures,” or “the Law and the Prophets,” or “Moses and the Prophets,” or “the Prophets,” and so on.)
At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said this:
Matt 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Jesus saw His biography in the Old Testament – a biography written in advance for Him to follow.
Israel’s Messiah had been prophesied in the Old Testament…in many different ways and by many different titles. So varied were these references that Jews found it hard to agree on the meaning of all these passages. They found it particularly difficult to reconcile the prophecies of suffering with the prophecies of glory – so much so, that many people thought the prophecies were referring to two different people. But as you saw in Luke 24, Jesus explained in straightforward terms that the sufferings came first, during His earthly life. Then, after His crucifixion and death, came the glory – beginning with His resurrection from the dead on the third day.
Another occasion when Jesus talked about the Old Testament’s witness to Him was a direct response to His opponents. They were publicly accusing Him of making Himself equal with God. Near the end of a long reply to them, He said:
John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.
The kind of men to whom Jesus was speaking were more familiar with the content of the New Testament than anyone else in Israel was…and, for that matter, the world. And yet they were unwilling to acknowledge that the life Jesus was living in their presence was a life prophesied in the Scriptures they treasured. They didn’t lack documentation – they lacked the will to accept it as true even when what it documented was standing right in front of them.
Jesus went on to be even more explicit with them:
John 5:44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?
John 5:45 “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.
John 5:46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
John 5:47 “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Moses had written the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Jesus was telling His opponents that in those five books, they could find Moses’ testimony about Him. We can, too. But we have to have a willingness to live with the consequences of finding Him or else we’ll remain as blind as those men were.
So, where did the New Testament authors get the idea that Jesus could be found in the Old Testament? From Jesus. Let’s see what they did with that idea.
What the Apostles Did with Jesus’ Idea
The apostles fully embraced the idea Jesus gave them – the idea that Jesus could be found in the Old Testament. They not only proclaimed that idea, they demonstrated that it was a central aspect of their message. Consider the way Paul wrote of Jesus’ resurrection – the very foundation of the gospel.
1 Cor 15:1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
1 Cor 15:2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
1 Cor 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
1 Cor 15:4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
1 Cor 15:5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Notice that there are two aspects to the apostles’ gospel: 1) the miracle, and 2) the documentation of it – the prior documentation! The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was never proclaimed as an isolated supernatural phenomenon. It was always proclaimed as a miracle God had been promising for a long time. Therefore, “According to the Scriptures” was as central to the gospel as “He was raised.”
What Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 is fully consistent with the way he conducted his ministry. Consider how Luke described the apostle’s custom:
Acts 17:1 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
Acts 17:2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Acts 17:3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”
Paul wasn’t reasoning from an autopsy report; he was reasoning from the Old Testament! (Of course, they weren’t calling it that back then; that naming would come when the New Testament was assembled after the apostles’ generation had passed away.)
The next city after Thessalonica where Paul went preaching was Berea. And there he followed the same pattern: 1) proclaiming the resurrection 2) according to the Scriptures.
Acts 17:10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
Paul was by no means unique among the apostles in this focus. Consider how Peter was making the same point in his preaching. This excerpt comes from a message he preached in the earliest days of apostolic preaching:
Acts 3:22 “Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you.
Acts 3:23 ‘And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’
Acts 3:24 “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.
Acts 3:25 “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’
Acts 3:26 “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
When Peter references Moses and the Prophets, he is making the exact same point Paul was making when he said “according to the Scriptures.”
Consider also what Peter wrote in his first letter:
1 Pet 1:10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,
1 Pet 1:11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
1 Pet 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven–things into which angels long to look.
The apostles spoke in their own personalities and sometimes used different words, but they were always making the same point. I could show you much more along these lines from the New Testament, but let the prime examples of Peter and Paul demonstrate to you clearly and emphatically how fully the apostles embraced Jesus’ teaching that finding Him in the Old Testament was not only possible, it was essential to understanding the good news (the gospel). That gospel was not just that God can do incredible things – but that He keeps His promises!
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.
FJOT!
I participate in an extended-family daily Bible study for adults that takes place by email. We all read from the same Christ-centered Bible Reading Plan, and then email the group with perspectives and insights that stood out to us. When anyone catches a glimpse of Jesus in the Old Testament, he or she will usually type out “FJOT” with an exclamation point…like we’d just found an Easter egg. Here are some examples:
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
How does an expression like “her seed” even make sense…unless it’s an allusion to a virgin birth? FJOT!
Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
Who but Jesus could have found the second greatest commandment buried deep in the bowels of Leviticus!) FJOT!
Deuteronomy 18:15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
Who else was a Jewish prophet of Moses’ stature…who was also “raised up” except Jesus? FJOT!
1 Chronicles 11:2 ”In times past, even when Saul was king, you were the one who led out and brought in Israel; and the Lord your God said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, and you shall be prince over My people Israel.’ ”
If David was a man after God’s own heart, Jesus was even more! FJOT!
Psalm 19:5 …rejoices as a strong man to run his course.
Psalm 19:6 Its rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Whose light is as bright as the sun…and completes His course? FJOT!
Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd,
I shall not want.
Was Jesus not claiming to be found in this Old Testament verse when He said in the New Testament, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14)? FJOT!
Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread?
Was Jesus not claiming to be found in this Old Testament verse when He said in the New Testament, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12; 9:5)? FJOT!
Ezekiel 1:26 “Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man.”
Who could be 1) on a throne, 2) that high up, 3) with the appearance of a man…but our Lord Jesus Christ? FJOT!
Ezekiel 21:27 A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin! The crown will not be restored until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come; to him I will give it.’
Does anyone seriously think that “him” in this verse refers to someone besides Jesus? FJOT!
Daniel 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.”
Daniel 3:25 He said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”
Daniel 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire.
Daniel 3:27 The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them.
Who else could such a fourth man either be or be foreshadowing…but Jesus? FJOT!
Micah 2:13 “The breaker goes up before them;
They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it.
So their king goes on before them,
And the LORD at their head.”
Know any kings or lords? FJOT!
Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation,
Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Who is the most famous man to ever ride into Jerusalem on a donkey amid shouts of praise? FJOT!
Zechariah 14:9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.
What other Lord do you know that would qualify for this level of glory? FJOT!
Malachi 4:2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings…
The passage from Psalm 19 above spoke of “the sun,” and one from Psalm 27 spoke of “the light,” and this allusion to Jesus speaks of a sun that “rises.” All these tie together. FJOT! FJOT! FJOT!
Like a miner shouting Eureka (Greek for “I found it!”) when he sees a glint of gold in the darkness, we can shout “FJOT!” when we’re reading the Old Testament. And like a miner who has once found gold, we can find it easier once we’ve had experience finding it. Whether it is direct messianic prophecy or it’s a type, shadow, foreshadowing, copy, pattern, symbol, or other sign – there are indications of Jesus all over the Old Testament.
This is one of the reasons that rereading the Bible is so profitable. That is, we can FJOT this year a passage that we might have missed in previous years. Don’t try to FJOT too much early in your walk with the Lord. As I’ve said above, dwell in the New Testament for a sufficient period of time before trying to tackle the Old Testament. My daily Bible reading plans start you off reading the New Testament only. For most people I’d hold off on the Old Testament altogether for a year or two…or maybe three. When you do start on the Old Testament, start with Psalms, which are easier to digest than most of the Old Testament. Plus, the Psalms are the Old Testament book that the New Testament quotes most often. You can find guidance about these plans at the Daily Help page of my website.
I provide a Bible commentary on my website that covers every book of the Bible. It’s called Bible Study Notes (BSN). There’s a hashtag you’ll see sprinkled throughout it – #FJOT – verses like the ones above. In fact, just do a search on any page for [FJOT], and you’ll be able to find them one by one. I have made no attempt to catalog them all, because, for one thing, I keep discovering them. I for sure don’t know them all. But ones I’ve tagged will help you to uncover other ones on your own.
Remember: Find Jesus first in the New Testament; after that, you’re more likely to recognize Him in the Old Testament.
The Duty of a Man 