Article I of Friendship’s statement of faith ends by affirming that Scripture is Christ-centered. This is an implication of its earlier statement that Scripture has “salvation for its end.” Since salvation is the aim of Scripture, it makes sense that the Savior would be the focus of Scripture. Indeed, all of Scripture is Christ-focused. Both the OT and NT provide testimony throughout their pages to Christ. Article I rightly concludes, “All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.” We believe this first because Jesus himself instructs us to read all of Scripture as a testimony to himself.
The Gospel of John includes many teachings of Jesus not contained in other Gospels. John shows how Jesus on multiple occasions taught people that he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. On one occasion, Jesus taught the religious leaders who were opposing him,
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people.But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
John 5:39-47
In this passage, Jesus tells his opponents plainly: “the Scriptures … bear witness about me” (v. 39). Jesus was not introducing a new reading of the Old Testament. He was not reading the Old Testament contrary to the intentions of either their human or divine authors. Rather, Jesus was pointing out that the Old Testament all along was bearing witness to him. They were preparing the Jewish people for him. They were setting the stage for him.
Jesus is even more direct (if that were possible) later in the same paragraph. He tells his opponents that he will not accuse them to the Father, but Moses will (v. 45). Jesus audaciously claims that Moses “wrote of me” (v. 46). Jesus’ opponents don’t believe him because they don’t believe the Old Testament (v. 47).
John records another instance of Jesus teaching that he fulfilled the Old Testament. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Jesus goes even further back in biblical history. Not only did Moses look forward to Jesus, but the very Founding Father of the Jewish people, Abraham, looked forward to Jesus’ coming!
If John records how Jesus taught even his enemies to read the Old Testament as a testimony to him, then Luke records how Jesus taught his disciples to read the Old Testament this way. On the day of his resurrection, Jesus rebuked two disciples walking to Emmaus as they mourned his recent death,
O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?
Luke 24:25-26
Luke then tells us, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Biblical scholars who argue that Christians shouldn’t read the Old Testament in a Christ-centered way are quick to point out that this verse doesn’t say that Jesus told those two disciples that everything in Scripture concerns him. But this verse does tell us that there are multiple threads both in the Law and also the Prophets of the Old Testament that point forward to Christ and indicate that he had to suffer before he entered glory. And the New Testament repeatedly shows us how to identify these threads, and following that method, they are in fact everywhere in the Old Testament.
Luke also records that Jesus taught all the apostles likewise. “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Jesus taught the apostles how to read the Old Testament as a testimony to him, and Peter immediately applied various Psalms of David to the infant church (Acts 1:16-20). Peter’s Pentecost sermon similarly models Christocentric preaching from various Old Testament texts (Acts 2:14-36). The Christocentric Old Testament interpretation of the New Testament epistles is itself the fruit of Jesus’ own Christocentric reading of the Old Testament.
We read all of Scripture as a testimony to Christ because Jesus himself read Scripture this way and taught others to do the same.
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