How Should We Interpret Christ in the Old Testament?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

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My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

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Today is an important day because today we end the Gospel of Luke.

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We're going to be in Luke chapter 24.

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This is the account of the resurrection as given to us by the gospel writer Luke.

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And it says a lot about the resurrection, which of course is important.

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The resurrection is the very center of our faith.

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The Apostle Paul says, if Christ be not risen, then we above all men are most to be pitied.

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That's 1st Corinthians 15.

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And so here we have Luke's account.

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Every one of the gospel writers gives us an account of the resurrection.

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Every one of the accounts are slightly different.

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They don't contradict one another, but they each tell the story a slightly different way.

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They all have some very important things that run through it all.

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The women were the first to go.

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There were angels.

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They spoke to them.

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They announced the resurrection.

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They went and told the disciples.

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The disciples came back.

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Now the order in which that happened and all the different things, there's a little bit of harmonization that has to be done.

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Just like whenever you have multiple accounts of any situation, you're getting it, again, all true, but just multiple sources of information.

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You're going to have it told in a slightly different way.

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But the one thing that we have that's unique to the Gospel of Luke and what I want to talk about today is what is happening beginning in verse 13.

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It says that very day, two of them, that is two of the disciples, were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem.

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And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

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And while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

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But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

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And he said to them, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk? I promise I can read.

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I'm having trouble with my eyes lately.

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I recently found out that I actually do need glasses, which I've been wondering, does that mean I'm gonna have to change the graphic that I use for Coffee with a Calvinist? Because now, starting as soon as my new glasses come in, I'm gonna have glasses.

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So I look a little different than the picture on the graphic.

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But anyway, verse 17.

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And he said to them, what is this conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad.

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Then one of them named Cleopas.

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Again, this is not the twelve, this is not the twelve disciples.

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When I say disciples, this is among Jesus's followers.

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It said, and it only names Cleopas, doesn't name the other one.

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Could be, could be a man and a woman.

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Could be a man and wife.

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We don't know.

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But it says, it says, one of them named Cleopas answered, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here in these days? And he said to them, what things? And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people.

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And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

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But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

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Yes, and beside all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

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Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.

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They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

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Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said, but him they did not see.

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And he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoke, or have spoken.

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Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

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And that is the verse I want to focus on, verse 27.

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It tells us in verse 27 that the way that Jesus, who they have not yet recognized, and we don't know why they couldn't recognize him.

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Perhaps he made himself look different so as to not be immediately recognized.

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Perhaps they were somehow blinded to who he was in this moment.

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They didn't know it was him.

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And so it says, Jesus began with Moses and all the prophets, and he interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

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That's a very important passage because what that tells us, it confirms to us something that we should never forget, and that is that the Old Testament is telling us about Jesus not only in prophecy, but also in shadows and in types.

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We see this in Colossians.

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Colossians tells us that the festivals and the Sabbaths were a shadow of Christ, and the substance belongs to him.

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And we know there are utterances, prophetic statements.

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Matthew gives us one after the other about this is why it was written, this because it was written of Christ.

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But this also tells us that he interpreted other things.

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It says he interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself, and all the prophets, and even Moses.

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And he references Moses, which means that there's references to Jesus even in Moses.

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And so this leads to a question, well, how do we know what parts are about Jesus, and how do we know what parts aren't about Jesus? And there's a few, there's a couple of different viewpoints on this, and this actually became quite controversial relatively recently between myself and another person who was sort of debating this issue back and forth, because his point, he took an approach which basically said that we should basically do our best to apply a grammatical historical hermeneutic to the Old Testament, which means that we try to read it in such a way as the original audience would have understood it.

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And he was saying that we should not read back into the Old Testament the New Testament, that we shouldn't, that that would be reading it backwards.

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And while I understand the point, and I certainly do believe in the grammatical historical method, I also believe that the whole Bible is ultimately about Jesus.

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And I think that's one of the things we learn here from Luke 24, is that all of the scriptures ultimately point to Jesus.

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And therefore we have something, the debate among scholars is the question of what is called, whether you take a Christotelic or a Christocentric view of the Bible.

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And defining the two is a little difficult, but I'll do my best.

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A Christotelic view, the word telos means purpose or end or goal, and so a Christotelic means that Christ is the purpose or the end or the goal of the Old Testament, but he's not necessarily on every page, as some of you probably heard, Christ is on every page of the Bible.

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Well, saying that is more of a Christocentric view, saying that everything in the Old Testament is about Jesus.

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And where the real issue comes is what I find is, I tend to be more Christocentric, just to let that be known, I tend to interpret the Bible Christocentrically.

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I see references to Christ and pointing to Christ on every page.

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But to say that, I don't want to incorrectly read the scriptures, and I don't want to force, I'll give you an example of what I would say is a forced interpretation.

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Years ago, I heard people talking about the blood on the doorposts, the Passover.

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They were putting blood on the doorposts, and they said, see, that's the shape of the cross, because they put it down the lintel and across the top, and if you put it down the the doorpost and across the lintel, that makes the sign of the cross.

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And I said, well, not really.

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It sort of makes like an L shape, not really a cross shape.

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I mean, you'd have to sort of be a little wild with your painting if it was going to make a cross.

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And again, the text doesn't tell us that.

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What the text does tell us is that the Lamb represented Christ, and that the blood on the doorposts does picture the blood that is applied to us, the blood that protects us from the judgment of God.

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That we can know for sure, because when Jesus is coming on the scene in the New Testament, what does John call him? The Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.

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And the Bible actually tells us that Jesus is our Passover Lamb.

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He's our Paschal Lamb.

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So there's no doubt that that Lamb represents Jesus, that the blood of the Lamb represents the blood of Christ, who is the Lamb of God.

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But to talk about how we can see shapes and those things, I think that's reaching a little bit.

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I think that's, while not totally wrong, I think it's missing the point, and it's trying to find almost some, it's almost trying to drag in symbolism that's not there.

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So what does all this matter? Well, I do think that what has happened, and the negative thing that has happened in some hermeneutical circles, is that there's come, and this is where my friend that I had debated, almost to the point where they don't see Christ at all, because they take such a rigid grammatical historical approach that they don't, they're not willing to see the fulfillment in Christ.

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This person that I was speaking to said that even Isaiah 53 is not really about Jesus.

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It would later be applied to Jesus, but when it was written to the original audience, it was not about Jesus.

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And I would disagree with that.

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I think that the meaning and the purpose and the prophecy of Isaiah 53, the suffering servant of God, it certainly was referring to Jesus.

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And so having said that, that's the distinction.

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And so I want to look at Luke 24.

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I know this is going a little long today.

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I want to make a point here.

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Notice what it says.

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It says, beginning with Moses, first of all, that tells us there's references to Christ all the way back in the first books of the Bible.

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And I would say all the way back to the very beginning when we see, I think, let us make man in our image is a veiled reference to the Trinity, even though they would say, well that's Christocentric, that's not.

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I would say, yes, I see a veiled reference to the Trinity there.

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When they talk about the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent, I think that's the Proto-Evangelium.

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That's the first reference to Jesus in the gospel, the first reference to the Satan's work being destroyed.

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And then moving on, we know that the promise given to Abraham, Paul would later say that was the gospel when he was told that all the nations of the world will be blessed through his seed.

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The seed is Jesus, and we're told that in the book of Galatians.

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And it says that God preached the gospel to Abraham when he said, through your seed all the nations of the world will be blessed.

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So beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus is in all the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

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Now the last part of the sentence is what I want to say.

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It says the things concerning himself.

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That does tell us that there are things that aren't necessarily pointing to Christ, but ultimately, and this is where I want to caution us, we shouldn't try to, like I said with the doorpost thing with the blood, we shouldn't try to cram Jesus into something.

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We should look for the natural expressions.

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And the safest way to go, if we're trying to see Jesus in the Old Testament, is simply look in the New Testament, because the New Testament tells us where he can be found.

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The book of Hebrews tells us he can be found throughout the priesthood and all the sacrifices and the blood of bulls and goats do not take away sin.

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They all point to Jesus.

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He takes away sin.

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That's how we find the references to Jesus most clearly and most safely.

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Now are there times where there are things that I think point to Jesus that aren't necessarily stated as such in the New Testament? Yeah, I would say like the ark, Noah's ark, is to me, it's a reference of God protecting his people from judgment.

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God providing for them a way of being saved that you have to be in.

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The expression of the New Testament is, in Christ, in Christ, all are made alive.

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And in the ark, they were safe.

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Outside of the ark, they were under the judgment of God.

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I think the ark is a clear picture of Jesus, but that's, again, I'm having to step back and I'm having to say, see what it looks like and see what it represents and how it's fulfilled in Christ.

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Christ is our ark.

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And I think, again, I wasn't on the road to Emmaus.

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I wasn't there with Cleopas and his companion.

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I wasn't there to hear what Jesus said, but Jesus explained to them how he was, even going as far back as Moses, he was throughout the Old Testament.

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We shouldn't forget that.

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Now, again, going back to the issue of Christocentric, Christotelic, whatever side you fall on that, just let me caution you, don't miss Jesus in the Old Testament.

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That's the point, and that's the part that I think that really concerns me with this sort of view of being very strict with the governing principles of hermeneutics, that we can't allow the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament.

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Well, that's what the New Testament is for.

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The New Testament interprets the Old Testament, and I'll stand by that.

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I know there are many people who would disagree.

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In fact, there were some people who would say, that's where you're wrong.

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The New Testament can't interpret the Old Testament.

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But according to the laws of progressive revelation, which means that revelation has progressed through time, and that we actually know more now about the nature of God than did the people in the times of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because we have experienced more revelation, and we have been given more revelation, then I think it's very safe to say that, yes, the best way to interpret the Old Testament is to do it through the lens of the New Testament.

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Critics, you may have an issue with that, and that's fine, but that's where I stand.

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I think looking at the Old Testament through the lens of Christ is the best way to look at the Old Testament.

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This has been Coffee with a Calvinist.

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I hope you have enjoyed today's lesson.

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Again, thank you for watching, and may God bless your day.