How does the New Testament authoritatively explain the particular Old Testament text before you? Through the light of the revelation of the gospel of Christ you are equipped to recognize clearly Jesus in the shadow lands of the Old Testament.

In the wake of the death and resurrection of Christ a number of Jesus’ disciples failed to receive word that their Lord and Savior had arisen from the dead. Under the impression that Jesus was dead in his tomb, the disciples walked on the road to Emmaus until a visitor joined them along the way. This visitor eventually revealed himself as the risen Messiah, and Jesus began to teach them about his ministry from “the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). In other words, Jesus taught his disciples exclusively from the Old Testament. In fact, the phrase that Luke uses, the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, refers to the three major divisions of the Old Testament. Another way of stating Christ’s point is, “The whole Old Testament points to me, Jesus!” If the Old Testament is about Jesus, then how does this affect the way we read it?

All too often people read the Old Testament as if its narratives set forth principles merely about morals, ethics, or leadership. Moses is an example for leadership in how he led a rebellious people through the wilderness—these “life lessons” can then be applied to a host of workplace conflicts. The godly Old Testament saints are an example of how Christians should live their lives, and the wicked people in the Old Testament are examples of how we should avoid sin. When Potiphar’s wife made sexual advances towards Joseph, his swift flight is a good moral example of how we should flee sexual immorality. The Bible definitely discusses questions of morals and ethics, but correctly connecting Old Testament passages to Christ is vital to a proper application of the aforementioned passages. I very much doubt that when Jesus was on the road to Emmaus that he would have appealed to Moses merely as an example of a good leader or to Joseph only as a paradigm of sexual purity. How would Jesus have likely approached these two questions if the Law of Moses was chiefly about his ministry?

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