When I began studying the Bible years ago, eager to get a sense of its recorded history and unifying themes, I tried various approaches to hasten the process and mostly came up short. It wasn’t that the Bible was incomprehensible, it’s that I was impatient—too anxious to master it like other books I’d set out to study. But the Bible isn’t like any other book. What eventually unlocked the mystery of Scripture for me was learning that the Old Testament, too, is centered on Jesus Christ. Once that became clear, I truly began to understand the Bible.
I invite you to open your Bible to Luke 24:27 and reread the passage that inspired the title for this book. Then go back to the beginning of the story at Luke 24:13. Two men walking toward Emmaus, a village close to Jerusalem, are puzzling over recent events when Jesus, uninvited, begins walking with them. Now notice verse 24:16: “But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” I believe this is meant literally, but there’s also another meaning—it suggests that most people at the time, including the apostles, fail to fully grasp Who Jesus is. They are deeply perplexed by His death on the cross and the sudden end of a promising ministry. The presumptive Messiah left this earth without making so much as a fizzle in redeeming Israel from its worldly tormentors.
In short order, Jesus sets them straight, telling them Who He is, disabusing them of their errors, and showing them how every page of their Bible—the Old Testament—points to Himself. We can only imagine their range of emotions as waves of understanding pour over them and they come to realize Who Christ is, the significance of His ministry, and how Scripture has pointed to Him all along. Like most people at the time, they hadn’t truly seen Jesus because “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”
But in His time, Christ showed them Who He is—and since we today are no less important to Him than they were, He also wants us to recognize Him on every page of the Old Testament. Jesus wasted no time in His earthly ministry, especially during His resurrection appearances. Every minute counted, yet He chose to reveal Himself to those two men—and to record the encounter in Scripture for our benefit. He wants us to see exactly what they saw. And with the New Testament, He shows us.
The sovereignly orchestrated encounter on the Emmaus road has special significance for me, for it parallels my own experience in finally beginning to understand the Bible. I’m not surprised that some people are intimidated by parts of the Old Testament, but to think it can be ignored or downplayed is inconceivable. If God intended the Christian Bible to consist of the New Testament alone, He wouldn’t have arranged for it to include the Old Testament. But He did, which is all the proof we need of its relevance and indispensability.
Yet knowing it is relevant and understanding how and why are different things. Until I tapped into the answers to those questions, I remained in a theological fog, unable to fully understand the Bible’s message. Thankfully, I came across several books that emphasized Christ’s centrality to the Old Testament. It was as if I’d put on my first pair of glasses. Discovering Christ in the Old Testament gave me a better understanding of the flow of Old Testament history. Scripture—both Old and New Testaments—came into focus like never before. Thereafter, Bible study became richer and more fulfilling.
With my own Emmaus road epiphany, I was itching to share my discoveries with others. As noted in the Introduction, after a false start a few decades ago, this book is the culmination of my Christ-centered Old Testament studies. Its organization reflects my own avenue of study, which is why I devoted considerable space outlining Old Testament history.
I pray that this book has helped you to get a better handle on that history, gain an appreciation for the foundational importance of the Old Testament to the New Testament, and most important, develop a heightened awareness of Christ’s dominating presence in every Old Testament book. The New Testament, as we’ve shown, does not supersede the Old, though the New Covenant supersedes the Old Covenant. With humility, I hope that if the Old Testament was intimidating or seemed irrelevant to you before, it will be less so after reading this book, and that the Old Testament will come alive for you as it has for me.
I’ve tried to demonstrate Christ’s dominating presence in the entirety of Scripture and also in history, from the creation of the universe. God foreknew that man would sin, and although His perfect justice required Him to judge us, He designed from the very beginning a plan for our redemption. He first revealed His salvation plan in shadowy form and with few details, but with a firm, unconditional covenant to bless mankind. As history unfolded, God, through His dealings with Israel and in turn through progressive revelation in Scripture, amplified and clarified His promise-plan with increasing specificity. What began as a vague but certain divine promise of blessing grew into a guarantee of the Messiah, and ultimately ripened into the appearance of Jesus Christ—God in the flesh—born for the purpose of dying a substitutionary death for our sins.
Some critical scholars maintain that the idea of a coming Messiah originated in the mind of ancient man and evolved, over time, into the form that is recorded in Scripture. To the contrary, writes Gerard Van Groningen, “It had its origin in divine revelation. It did not rise in pagan political and religious settings; it did not come from reflection on past, present, and future political, economic, military, or religious events, prospects or hopes. The messianic concept was given its first expression in the creation of man and woman as God’s royal agents. After mankind’s fall into sin, when the royal status could have been lost forever, God intervened to maintain and restore it. He did so by promising and providing a royal mediator who would fully and perfectly restore what had been so severely distorted.”1
Indeed, as we study the Old Testament through our New Testament lenses and with our eyes focused on Christ, we see His image in the portraits, the types, the Christophanies, the Old Testament offices, His work in creating and sustaining the universe, His redemptive activities on behalf of the Israelites, His names and titles, and in the stunning messianic prophecies. We see that all God’s promises and covenants are fulfilled in Him. With the benefit of New Testament revelation we now see Him clearly in every Old Testament book, which enlivens us, renews our faith, and magnifies our gratitude for our Savior, Who created us for an eternal, personal, loving relationship with Himself.
God knew us before He formed us in the womb. Before the beginning of time He had a redemptive plan for us. This plan, grounded in God’s irrevocable promises and culminating in Jesus Christ, His Son, is plainly revealed for all students of Scripture. We must cherish the entire Bible, as it is our roadmap to eternal salvation.
Jesus Christ lives and He saves, and because He saves we may live.