The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Student Workbook, SW09

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T H E O L D T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.

8. How does Jesus serve as the antitype of the types included in Israel’s feasts, festivals, and convocations: the Feast of the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. 9. How does all of this evidence show that the fundamental witness of the OT, in all of its personages, events, and institutions, prefigures the person and work of Jesus Christ as the coming Messiah?

This lesson focuses the role of typological interpretation in the OT, and its usefulness to help us decipher the OT’s witness to Jesus Christ. Three biblical type scenes help us understand the OT essentially as a witness to Christ and his kingdom reign. God’s deliverance of his people at the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan and entering into the Promised Land, and the restoration of Israel from the Babylonian Captivity all parallel God’s work in Christ spoken of in the NT. Also, the OT provides a comprehensive witness to Christ and his Kingdom in the OT Tabernacle, priestly, and sacrificial system. Jesus is the substance and fulfillment of the Tabernacle, the Levitical priesthood, the sacrifices, and the feasts and festivals. All of these personages, events, and institutions prefigure the person and work of Jesus Christ. Review these and related concepts covered in this lesson below. The simple definition of type is “an object, event, happening, image, or reality that prefigures in the OT a reality in the NT, usually focused on Jesus Christ (as its antitype ).” The major hermeneutical justifications for a typological approach of the study of the Scriptures are that it was the method employed by both Jesus and his apostles, and that the Bible itself makes in comparative study implicit connection between many of the same representations and images mentioned throughout Scripture. The major aspects of biblical types suggest that types (and their antitypes) are historically real, they illumine the person and work of Christ, that true types of the OT are always contained in the NT, they are connected to

Summary of Key Concepts

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