Why do Jews today fail to see Jesus as the promised Messiah? Doesn’t this show that Jesus is not clearly portrayed in the Old Testament as we think he is? While differences in interpretation and tradition certainly shape how people read these texts, I would like to argue that, in cases like this, the reason people fail to see Him is not because He isn’t there—it is because they are blinded by sin.

One of the first things we learn when it comes to reading the Bible is to never make a text say something the author did not intend to say. The technical term for this is authorial intent. However, we are also taught that the whole Bible is about Jesus. We learn that every page—Old Testament included—leads us to Christ. These two claims should raise an important question: How can we hold to authorial intent and believe that every page ultimately leads us to Jesus? Did the Old Testament authors intend to write about Jesus? Or are we reading Jesus into the Old Testament? I would like to argue that the authors—especially the divine Author—intended for us to see Jesus in the Old Testament. To demonstrate this, I want us to look at three texts that justify seeing Jesus in all of Scripture. From these texts we will learn three reasons we should see how all of Scripture points us to Christ: Jesus says we can, Jesus shows we can, and Jesus reveals we can.

1. Jesus Says We Can

It is appropriate to see Jesus in the Old Testament because Jesus says we can. John 5 makes this exact point. In verses 30–47, Jesus is speaking to the Jews about having witnesses to the claims He is making. Jesus is claiming many amazing things and the Jewish people are wondering who can testify to the truth of these claims.

Jesus is more than happy to oblige this request, and He says that “the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me” (5:37). The Jews want a witness to testify on Jesus’ behalf. Jesus responds and says that God has testified on his behalf. Yet where does God give credibility to his claims? Jesus tells us in verse 39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” The Jews are wondering who can back up Jesus’ claims and Jesus responds by saying, “God backs up my claims in the Old Testament.”

What this means is that it is appropriate to see Jesus in the Old Testament because it is about Him. Jesus confirms this just a few verses later: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:45–46). Moses—the author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—wrote about Jesus. Jesus tells us that we can, and He makes it clear that we are doing so without undercutting authorial intent.

2. Jesus Shows We Can

Jesus does not only claim that the Old Testament is about Him, but He shows that it is about Him.

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