Jesus taught his disciples to read the Old Testament in a new way; not by changing the meaning of the Old Testament, but by showing them how he genuinely and truly completes the story of the Old Testament. As a result, we can’t understand either the Old Testament or Jesus without looking at both. First, we come to understand Jesus in light of the Old Testament; then, in his fulfillment of it, we come to understand the Old Testament in light of him.

Jesus Is the Authority on Scripture

Does the Old Testament really point to Jesus? To answer that question, we should ask an expert. Who’s the leading authority on Bible interpretation? It’s not the dear person who first shared the gospel with you, as knowledgeable as he or she may be. It’s not your pastor either, despite his wisdom and experience. It’s not even a biblical scholar who has devoted an entire academic career to the study of Scripture. All these people are valuable in the formation of our faith; we should learn from them as much as we can. But the leading authority on all things spiritual—including our question about the Old Testament—is Jesus himself.

Look at Jesus’s credentials. He’s the beloved Son of God, the crucified and risen Savior, the Lord of heaven and earth. I assume that because you’re reading this booklet, you know Jesus in this way. You’ve repented of your sins and believed in him for salvation; you’ve come to know him as the treasure of your life. If you don’t know Jesus in this way, and you’re just reading this booklet out of curiosity, I hope what you read here will help you understand more clearly who Jesus is and what he did—and I hope you will trust in him and be saved. As Lord of all, he’s worthy of your faith.

As Lord of all, he’s also the Bible expert we’re looking for! Jesus is the leading authority on Bible interpretation. So if we could ask him what he thinks about the Old Testament, we would have the answer to our question.

Thankfully, if you read through the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—you’ll discover exactly what Jesus thought about the Old Testament. He valued it as the authoritative word of God. He studied it as a boy (Luke 2:46); he attended synagogue every week where it was read and explained (Luke 4:16); his grasp of it gained him the title Rabbi (John 1:38); he taught it with an authority that surpassed the scribes of Israel (Matt. 7:29); he insisted that it could not be broken (John 10:35); and he referred to it constantly throughout his ministry, even while struggling for breath during his crucifixion (Mark 15:34). Jesus valued God’s word as authoritative.

But these observations only touch generally on Jesus’s perspective on Scripture. We need to press in a bit further if we’re going to find the answer to our more specific question: Did Jesus see himself in the Old Testament? Did he understand that the Old Testament was ultimately pointing to him? The answer is, He did!

The First Easter Evening

During his earthly ministry, Jesus had prepared his disciples for his resurrection from the dead—but they hadn’t grasped what he meant. You can imagine their fear and wonder when he showed up among them after his crucifixion. The Gospel of Luke reports one of his appearances on that first Easter evening. Jesus had already appeared to Mary, to Peter, and to two other disciples; now he appeared to a larger group of disciples gathered in Jerusalem. After convincing them that he was truly alive, Jesus said to them,

“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” (Luke 24:44–47)

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