Christ in the Old Testament - Heart For Christ Ministries

369 Pages·2013·1.41 MB·English

Christ in the Old Testament
Complete Edition
Christ in the Old Testament

by Wil Pounds
"O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary
for the Messiah (Christ) to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and
with all the prophets, He (Jesus) explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures"
(Luke 24:25-27). Discover the master theme of the Bible with these meditations centered around Jesus
Christ.
Wil Pounds is a graduate of William Carey College, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist
Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He served as a
pastor in churches in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S. He had a daily expository Bible
teaching ministry heard in over 100 countries for ten years. He and his wife served as
missionaries in Ecuador for 20 years. He is currently the Field Director in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for the Honduras Baptist Medical Dental Mission. He
continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and
his wife Ann have three grown daughters.
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2003. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be
sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from
the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation.
These files were originally published on Abide in Christ website: http://www.AbideInChrist.com/index.
html.
Christ in the Old Testament is locate at http://www.AbideInChrist.com/messages/devotion.html.
Introduction to Christ in the Old Testament
Over thirty years ago I discovered the supreme joy of the two men walking
with their unknown guest along the road from Jerusalem to Emaus. That
"stranger" said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Was it not necessary for the Messiah (Christ) to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? And
beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all
the Scriptures" (Luke 24:25-27). The two travelers invited Jesus into their home for a meal that evening. As
He took the bread and blessed it, He began giving it to them, "And their eyes were opened, and they
recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight" (v. 31). I pray that your response will be like mine and
the two men when they said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us when He was speaking
to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?" My desire is this will be a fresh new
beginning of an intimate journey with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is the key to our understanding the Scriptures. The entire Bible finds its meaning and explanation
in the redemption provided by Jesus Christ. It progressively unfolds the theme of redemption from Genesis
to Revelation. Shadows, types, and foregleams of the great doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in
the death and resurrection of Christ are revealed from the opening pages. The meaning of any single
passage of Scripture is always determined and governed by the larger context of redemption through Jesus
Christ.
When Jesus Christ went to the cross, died for our sins, and rose from the dead, He provided eternal
salvation for all who would accept Him by faith. Each individual in the Old Testament who was saved, was
saved by trusting in the provision that God would make when Christ came and died as their substitute. The
ceremonies and sacrifices pointed to a future day when God would make sure all His promises in that one
person. In the fullness of time we know that person was God's only Son, Jesus Christ. Those who were
saved were saved by faith in the coming of His death as their sacrifice.
We need to read the Old Testament with the expectation that we will encounter Jesus Christ there. The
Old Testament is Christ centric. Christ is predicted and anticipated in the Old and proclaimed in the New.
There is continuity between the two testaments. The New Testament is full of references to the Old. The
Old lays a foundation for the New. Even a casual reading of the Scriptures reveals God's progressive
revelation of the message of redemption that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Ultimately
the Old must be read through the light of the New. The Old Testament reaches its fulfillment in the New.
We can understand the Old Testament more clearly through the light of the New Testament.
It is imperative that we first consider the teaching of the Old Testament in its historical and grammatical
context. What was the author saying to his original audience, and how did they understand the message?
What we must not do is read into the Old Testament what was never intended by the Holy Spirit as the
author of all Scripture. At the same time, we must not over look the clear New Testament interpretation of
the Old Testament passages.
We also need to keep in mind the institutions and ceremonies of the Old Testament were powerless to
save the souls of men. They were devised as types of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. They pictured the
work Christ would do in His death for our sins. Jesus is the one and only perfect priest who dealt with our
sins in His perfect sacrifice of Himself. The Tabernacle and later the Temple typified the place and manner
in which the LORD God met with His people and dealt with their need of a redeemer. Each of the sacrifices
and offerings, feasts and festivals dealt with redemption of God's people and how they should live as
redeemed people. Thus, the entire Bible is the story of God's redeeming love.
Just like on the road to Emaus, Jesus comes to our aid to help us understand the Word of God. "Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). Our problem is in the heart, not the
head. We have the evidence. It's all there. Jesus rose from the dead. He's alive! When we participate in the
learning process, He opens the eyes of our minds to recognize Him and causes our hearts to continue to
burn within us. Even so, let our hearts burn with conviction of who You are and joyful submission to you
sovereignty, Lord Jesus!
Later on the same day, Jesus rose from the dead. He told His disciples, "These are My words which I
spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and
the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Again Luke tells us, "Then He opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise
again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His
name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things'" (Luke 24:44-48).
Now we are, too!
Dr. John R. Sampey observed, "A type may properly be defined as a person, institution, or event in the
old dispensation which was designed to prefigure a corresponding person, institution, or event in the new."
In these devotions and meditations, we will keep our focus on the coming of Jesus Christ as the redeemer
of lost mankind.
Here are some basics principles to keep in mind as we think through some of these great pictures of
Christ in the Old Testament.
o In typology, the physical object or person is often used to represent a spiritual truth.
o Look for the consistent use of the specific symbol or type in the Old Testament. It must
be an illustration of and consistent with New Testament truth. It cannot represent one thing
in the Old and something unrelated in the New.
o Keep in mind that the Old Testament teaches the same truth as the New Testament. It is a
fuller unfolding of the truth in the New.
o Limit the topic under consideration to the context of the Scripture passage. Don't expect
the type to cover every subject of theology.
o Seek to discover the meaning of the details in the passage, but don't expect every detail to
fit. Every analogy, by its very nature, falls short of the full reality. Don't force details to
emerge from a passage that aren't there.
o Set aside the superficial speculative interpretations and look for the basic meaning of the
symbol. What does the passage say, not what do you want it to say.
o Determine an accurate definition of any type or symbol by identifying interpretational
constants that fit all the uses of that type in Scripture. For example, "lion" symbolizes
power, whether applied to Satan as "a roaring lion" or to Christ as the "lion of the tribe of
Judah."
Keep your heart tender toward God and humbly respect and submit to the teaching of His Word.
Like the apostle Paul, "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may
gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but
that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I
may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to
His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:8-11).
Genesis 1:1
In the Beginning . . .
"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us," wrote
Tozer. "Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, 'What comes into your
mind when you think about God?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man" (A. W.
Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 9).
"In the beginning . . . " Those are the most sublime words in the Bible. Imagine with me for a few
moments Moses telling the story of creation to the Israelites. "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth." He knew it because of the self-revelation of God to him. "The earth was formless and void, and
darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated
the light from the darkness" (vv. 2-4).
Those opening words in the book of Genesis tells us about Moses' view of creation and the sovereignty
of the Creator over all of His creation. The God who created Israel also created the entire world and
everything in it. Since God is before all things and created all things, there can be no idols or false gods.
They don't exist. The LORD God of Israel is the only God. There is none other. Not only is He the Creator
of all life, but He is also the God who redeems fallen man and enters into covenants with him.
The apostle John contemplated creation and wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning
with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has
come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and
the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:1-5).
Substitute the name "Christ" in the place of "Word" in the above paragraph and you get to the very heart
of John's believe about God. In the beginning was the second person of the God-head, Christ, and the
Christ, was with God, and the Christ, was God. Christ was in the beginning with God. All things came into
being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life,
and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend
it.
John takes us back to a time before the time of "in the beginning" of Moses. He is speaking of eternity
before time was created. John takes us into the mind of the eternal Triune God. He begins by telling us that
Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. God came to us in the incarnation. The words and works of Jesus, the
Logos, are those of the God-Man. Christ, the Logos did not at some point in the past come into being. God
the Father and the Son have always been in existence and were not created. God the Father and God the
Son have existed eternally in fellowship with one another.
The term logos is applied to Christ exclusively in John 1:1, 14; Revelation 19:13 and I John 1:1. There is
a possible personification of "the Word of God" in Hebrews 4:12.
Years later, the Apostle Paul expressed his convictions about the Creator when he wrote to the
philosophers at Colossae. "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all
things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and
in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the
Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to
Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or
things in heaven" (Colossians 1:15-20). Not only did Jesus create all things, but also He is the super-glue
that holds all things together. The personal pre-existence of Christ is taught by the apostle Paul (II Cor. 8:9;
Phil. 2:6f; Col. 1:17). These words of Paul are parallel to the logos passage in John 1:1–18 and to Hebrews
1:1–4 as well as Philippians 2:5–11.
Jesus said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). A. T. Robertson observed, "Jesus is
the very stamp of God the Father as He was before the Incarnation (John 17:5) and is now (Phil. 2:5–11;
Heb. 1:3) . . . the one who sees Jesus has seen God (John 14:9)."
Paul tells us something else about his thoughts on God incarnate. "See to it that no one takes you captive
through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary
principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily
form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority . . ." (Col.
2:8-10). Lightfoot said, "In Christ dwells the whole pleroma (fullness, plenitude), the entire fullness of the
Godhead . . . " Kenneth Wuest captures the pregnant idea of verse seven when he translates, "Because in
Him there is continuously and permanently at home all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily fashion."
Again John would say, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory
as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . No one has seen God at any time; the
only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him" (John 1:14, 18).
Perhaps a quote from the old Christian mystic A. W. Tozer can bring together the convictions of these
three Bible saints. Tozer writes in The Knowledge of the Holy, page 31:
. . . God cannot so divide Himself that one Person works while another is inactive. In the Scriptures the
three Persons are shown to act in harmonious unity in all the mighty works that are wrought throughout the
universe.
In the Holy Scriptures the work of creation is attributed to the Father (Gen. 1:1), to the Son (Col. 1:16),
and to the Holy Spirit (Job 26:13; Ps. 104:30). The incarnation is shown to have been accomplished by the
three Persons in full accord (Luke 1:35), though only the Son became flesh to dwell among us. At Christ's
baptism the Son came up out of the water, the Spirit descended upon Him and the Father's voice spoke
from heaven (Matt. 3:16, 17). Probably the most beautiful description of the work of atonement is found in
Hebrews 9:14, where it is stated that Christ, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to
God; and there we behold the three Persons operating together.
The resurrection of Christ is likewise attributed variously to the Father (Acts 2:32), to the Son (John
10:17, 18), and to the Holy Spirit (Rom. 1:4). The salvation of the individual man is shown by the apostle
Peter to be the work of all three Persons of the Godhead (1 Peter 1:2), and the indwelling of the Christian
man's soul is said to be by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-23).
Genesis 2-3 1 Corinthians 15:20
The Last Adam
The significance of Adam as a type doesn't become apparent to us until we see him contrasted with the
Last Adam.
Jesus is never called second, third or fourth Adam. In the Bible, He is always the Last Adam because
there could never be another one like Him. He is the only one of a unique kind.
"God after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these
last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made
the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all
things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty on high . . ." (Hebrews 1:1–3).
Even though he was the head of God's creation, Adam failed. With his disobedience he brought
depravity on his whole family and to every descendent down through the ages. We inherited sin and death
from old Adam. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and
so death spread to all men, because all sinned . . . " (Romans 5:12).
In old Adam we all die; however, in the Last Adam, we have eternal life so that we will never die. Jesus
said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and
everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25–26).
The Apostle Paul brings out the contrast vividly when he wrote, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ
all will be made alive" (I Corinthians 15:20). "But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the
transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one
Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many" (Romans 5:15). "For if by the transgression of the one, death
reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of
righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).
Then he adds, "through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one
act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men" (5:18).
The first Adam was tempted and failed the test, and in him, we all continue to sin and die. The Last
Adam was tempted as was the first, but remained sinless, and lived a perfect life of righteousness. Jesus
Christ is the only " . . . One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15b).
The first Adam began with everything provided for him in the Garden of Eden and he lost everything.
The Last Adam began with nothing in a stable and ended with everything. "For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His
poverty might become rich" (II Corinthians 8:9).
The first Adam was commissioned to "be fruitful" replenish the earth. The Last Adam came to "bring
many sons to glory" and to fill heaven with redeemed people known as His Bride.
The first Adam lived a long fruitful life to accomplish his destiny. The Last Adam was born to die to
accomplish God's eternal purpose.
The first Adam was given a bride as a helpmate. The Last Adam had to purchase His Bride, at the cost of
His very life. The bride of the first Adam was painless since he was placed in a deep sleep. However, the
Bride of the Last Adam was purchased through the deep sleep of His death on the cross of Calvary.
The first Adam lost his bride through age, disease and death. The Last Adam will never be separated
from His Bride.
Through the first Adam's disobedience all mankind were all made to be sinners, however, through the
Last Adam "many were made righteous" (Romans 5:19). That righteousness that we have received as
believers is His gift to us. It is not because we merited it, or earned it. It is ours because He has adopted us
and placed us into His family. He is now the head of our family, not old Adam.
Before the Fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed the Garden of Eden as a perfect paradise; however; as God's
redeemed children, we have been made to sit with Christ in heavenly places.
Claim your inheritance today by faith in Jesus Christ. Adam is no longer the head of your family; now
Jesus is the head of your family. Therefore, live like you are a member of the family. Don't forget to whose
family you belong!
Genesis 3:15
The Seed of the Woman
The salvation of every soul begins with God. As soon as Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, we hear
the Shepherd's voice calling out for His lost sheep, "Adam, where are you?" It is the Father searching for
the prodigal (Genesis 3:8–13).
It is in the context of judgment after the Fall that the LORD God curses the serpent. Adam and Eve hear
God speaking to the "shining one." It is not a direct promise to Adam and Eve, but a word of judgment to
Satan (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). He says to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel"
(Gen. 3:15).
There will be an undying opposition between Satan and the generations to follow. No doubt Adam and
Even were so impressed with the message of hope that they reinforced it in the minds of their children and
their children passed it own from generation to generation. Then came the day centuries later when Moses
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit penned this great promise against the darkest day in human history.
The promise of salvation was given before anyone died physically. Here is the first word of grace in the
Bible.
At the time of the giving of this promise no child had been born to Adam and Eve. Probably with the
birth of every male child there was the hope that he would be the one who would overthrow the evil that
had been unleashed on the new world.
The promised one will "bruise you on the head." There will be a head wound. The idea is there will be a
deathblow. Satan would have this eternal dread hanging over him that with the birth of every male child
this could be the very one who would be his end.
In the battle, Satan would "bruise him on the heel." The promised seed would suffer, but he would not
suffer a destructive blow.
It is true that we do not have a great deal of information at the on set of this promise in Genesis.
Hindsight is great for the sincere student! We have the advantage of looking back over time and seeing the
One person who fulfilled this growing hope in the heart of sinful man.
Jesus Christ went to the cross and died on our behalf to crush Satan (Hebrews 2:9–15).
Satan was crushed at Calvary. He was defeated when Jesus rose from the dead. The final blow will be
the submission of Satan to Jesus Christ when Jesus returns in glory (Revelation 20:1–15).
The Apostle Paul saw this great promise being fulfilled in the salvation and sanctification of God's
people. He alludes to this promise in Romans 16:20, "And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under
your feet. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you." The word for "crush" is literally to rub together and so