Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 3 | THE OT WITNESS TO CHRIST AND HIS KINGDOM: THE PROMISE GIVEN / 135

Jesus and Meaning of the OT When Jesus of Nazareth referred to the Bible or Scripture, his referent was our OT. Today, it is referred to in non-Christian circles as the “Hebrew Bible,” and the discussions are heated about the meaning of the OT. For most Christians, the highest and best authority on the meaning of the OT is the person of Jesus, who unequivocally in at least five different passages in the NT said that he himself was the theme of the Hebrew Bible (cf. Luke 24.25-27; 44-48; Matt. 5.17-18; John 5.39-40; 1.41ff.; Heb. 10.5-10 with Ps. 40.6-8). These texts give the sense that Jesus believed that the OT, the Hebrew Bible, was essentially a text that pointed to his person in terms of figure and prophecy, and that a correct reading of the OT had to, in some fundamental sense, find its meaning in his own person. This claim, by the way, lies at the heart of the constant controversy between Jesus and the teachers of the Bible of his own day; such a claim, that the entirety of the Scriptures found their theological and spiritual end in relationship to him as the Messiah of God was unacceptable to them, even blasphemous. This Christo-centric use of the Bible is equally controversial today, especially in the world of biblical criticism, which sees such a laser-guided approach to such a diverse set of literature problematic. What is your thought? Based on what you know today, how would you understand the nature of the OT in its relationship to Jesus Christ? How far can you take this kind of hermeneutic before you skew or misread the basic message of the OT?

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The Promise Given Promise and Fulfillment in the Old and New Testaments

B i b l i ca l S tud i e s

Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis

CONTENT

The relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament can be effectively understood through the idea of progressive revelation , which affirms that God has revealed himself progressively and definitively throughout the history of his people, and finally through Jesus Christ. God in diverse manners and at different times made himself known to the nation of Israel in limited ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. Jesus of Nazareth is God’s final and full revelation of himself, now testified of in Scripture. As Augustine suggests: “In the OT the NT lies hidden; in the NT the OT stands revealed.” The testaments have a complimentary relationship, the OT providing the introduction to the NT’s conclusion about Christ, the OT as anticipation to the NT’s climax about God’s salvation story in Christ. Furthermore, the OT prefigures Christ’s person and work fully embodied in the NT.

Summary

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