An Excerpt from Ch. 13 of New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ

In Luke 24, the risen Christ appears to two of His disciples as they are walking to Emmaus, but He conceals His identity. The disciples are quite disheartened, because they thought Jesus was the Messiah, but He was killed. Also, they say it is the third day, the day He said He would rise from the dead. To their knowledge He hasn’t come back to life, though some of the female disciples said they saw Him earlier that day.

Jesus responds, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (verses 25-27). Later that day, Jesus appears to the remaining disciples and says, “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” (verse 44). Jesus opens their minds to under- stand the Scriptures and says, “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” (verses 46-47).

I believe the most important lesson Jesus is revealing is that all the Old Testament is designed to point to Him—that no matter what section of the first 39 books of the Bible we study, there will always be something to direct us to Christ. To illustrate my point, let’s consider the first nine chapters of Genesis:

  

    Genesis 1: Jesus is the life that comes out of the ground on the third day.

    Genesis 2: He is killed on the tree with which we sinned so one day we can again eat from the tree of life.

    Genesis 3: He is the seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent. 

    Genesis 4: He is the better Abel who is murdered out of envy, and thus becomes the perfect offering for the sins of the world.

    Genesis 5: Jesus is the better Seth, the true image-bearer of the Father, and the better Enoch, the one who walked with God without sinning all the days of His life.

    Genesis 6: He is the better Noah, the true preacher of righteousness, who proclaims the way of salvation.

    Genesis 7: He is the true ark to whom the humble will run and the true door we must enter through to escape the flood of judgment.

    Genesis 8: He is the true dove who declares peace to the world.

    Genesis 9: He is the covenant-establishing God who gives His life to keep His covenant of love with humanity.