A Biblical Vision, Part I: Mastering the Old Testament Witness to Christ

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A B i b l i ca l Vi s i on, Par t I : Mas ter i ng the Ol d Tes tament Wi tnes s to Chr i s t

4. Rebuilding of Zion and the establishment of God’s glory among his people as a type of the Church’s waiting on God’s building of the New Jerusalem, Heb. 11.13-16 – These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. [14] For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [15] If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city . There are many fitting pictures of Christ in the Old Testament which, properly speaking, should not be classified as types. For a type not only pictured Christ but it was a kind of implicit prediction that Christ would fulfill its function. Such were the sacrifices, the temple, the priesthood, and the feasts of the old economy. They were prefigura tions that were not permanent but pointed to their perfection in Christ. But, besides these types, there are in the Old Testament many pictures which are appropriately applied to Christ. Some of these the New Testament applies to Christ and some it does not. In the former class are: 1) Jonah’s three days and nights in the whale (Matt. 12.40); 2) Solomon and his wisdom (Matt. 12.42); 3) the “Rock” in the wilder ness (1 Cor. 10.4); 4) the “manna” from heaven (John 6.41); 5) the “serpent “ in the wilderness (John 3.14). It is difficult to draw a distinct line this side of religious fancy in regard to pictures of Christ in the Old Testament which are not applied to him by the New Testament. On the other hand, as with typology, it would seem too restrictive to limit “pictures” of Christ to only those things in the Old Testament which the New Testament applies to Christ. It would be better, to use the general principle involved in the above list, namely, anything which appropriately depicts some significant aspect of Christ’s Messianic mission which has some matching Messianic metaphor in the Bible [italics mine].

III. Principles and Implications for Old Testament Study

~ Norman Geisler. To Understand the Bible, Look for Jesus . Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2002. p. 60-61.

Do I recognize the use of types as the general principle of hermeneutics used by the apostles’ use of the Old Testament in the New?