A Sojourner's Quest

PA RT I I I : L I V I NG I N T H E WAY / 2 1 5

• The Bible refers to itself in this way (e.g., the Book of Hebrews, the Tabernacle, the priesthood, etc.)

The question: Should we use the Old Testament as Jesus and the Apostles did, with some reference to typology?

The Christological Hermeneutic: Messiah Jesus Connects the Testaments

Christ at once sums up in himself the perfection of the Old Testament precepts, the substance of Old Testament shadows and types, and the fulfillment of Old Testament forecasts . Those truths about him which bud forth in the Old Testament come into full bloom in the New Testament; the flashlight of prophetic truth turns into the floodlight of divine revelation. The Old Testament foreshadows find their fulfillment in the New Testament in several ways: (1) The moral precepts of the Old Testament become fulfilled or perfected in the life and teachings of Christ. (2) The ceremonial and typical truths were only shadows of the true substance to be found in Christ. (3) The Messianic prophecies foretold in the Old Testament were finally fulfilled in the history of the New Testament. In each of these relationships it can be seen that the Testaments are inseparably connected. The New is not only supple- mentary to the Old but it is the necessary complement to it. As the book of Hebrews puts it, “God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they [Old Testament believers] should not be made perfect” (Heb. 11.40). For what was contained in the Old Testament is fully explained only in the New Testament.

~ Norman Geisler. To Understand the Bible Look for Jesus . (1979) 2002. p. 68.

The Way Paul and the Apostles Read Scripture

As can be clearly seen, the hermeneutical procedure which Paul and the other New Testament authors use to interpret the Law in a spiritual sense is allegorical, in that a meaning other than the literal or immediate sense is perceived from the given text. The usual term which Paul employs to define the relationship between the two