Jesus Fulfiller of all promise and prophecy Part 3 By Graeme Goldsworthy

Okay, well what's in your outline I think is that study three is about Jesus, the fulfillment
of all promise and prophecy. In some ways we're sort of skirting around in circles and
doing much the same thing. I don't think that's a bad thing because as long as we're not just
becoming boringly repetitious. But the more sort of perspectives you can get on the same
basic reality which, and after all what we're trying to do is to lay the foundations for
the actual practicalities of dealing with Old Testament texts in a Christian fashion.
So let me start with perhaps a couple of more little diagrams and things which apply to
what we've talked about and what we will talk about. This one actually may not seem at all
relevant until I explain why. It's just in a sort of a chart form, the distinction between
what God has done for us and what God does in us. And why I think it's relevant is that
my feeling about so much Old Testament teaching and preaching is that there has grown up this
approach which is basically what we might call exemplary. Some of you may be familiar with a
book which came out quite a few years ago now by, I think he's a Dutch-American, Sydney Gray Danis
called Solus Coutura. And it was really, it sprang out of, it was the background that he's dealing
with the subject, came out of the certain conflicts and controversies in the churches in
the Netherlands around about the turn of the century over preaching from the Old Testament
as to whether it could be redemptive historical, that is within the framework of moving through to
Christ, or whether it would be exemplary, that is simply looking at the way characters in the
Old Testament functioned and learning either how to copy them or how to avoid copying them
if they were the bad guys and so on. And Gray Danis has ever since been, well that was his first,
the first book that I was aware of, he's now produced some more, but he's a great champion
of what he calls the redemptive historical preaching teaching, which is to put the Old
Testament text into the context of the whole progressive revelation of redemptive history
or salvation history that's sometimes called leading through to Christ. Now if you concentrate
on the exemplary teaching, that is he's a guy doing something bad, he's a guy doing something
good, therefore let us imitate them by avoiding what they do bad and doing what they do as
something good. Then in the end as a quotation that Clowney has got in his book on biblical
theology and preaching, a quotation I think from a Dutch theologian that says when you do that,
and this is just my precis of what he said, what the footnote was about, when you do that kind of
preaching you end up preaching about man, man the good, man the redemptive, man the redeemed, man
the sanctified, man the sinful, etc, but never about God or only very very indirectly about God.
And what we really have to see is that we are faithful to the scriptures by preaching about
God and his revelation in Christ. So this kind of distinction which we make between the for us
work of God and the in us work of God is very closely related to that sort of thing because
if you are only preaching about the from an exemplary point of view you are then really
looking at in New Testament terms the doctrine of sanctification. But if the Old Testament as well
as the New Testament is showing us that sanctification is the fruit of your justification,
that is what God has done for us is the grounds of what God does in us, but if you cut away the
ground then you end up with only sanctification and sanctification without the gospel becomes legalism.
Right, so so much Old Testament preaching and preaching is really legalistic and it's just
telling you what to do and what not to do rather than what God has done for you. So you see the for
us work of God and the in us work of God are very clearly distinguished in the New Testament.
And what what I find so often is that both in writing and listening to people talk,
I think evangelical poetism is very prone to this sort of thing. We very easily slip into the in us.
I remember even talking to a guy who had come come amongst us to be a minister for evangelism
in a team ministry and he said I want people to know what God can do in their lives.
I said well that's an interesting start. I said what about telling them what God has done for
them in the life and death of Jesus isn't that surely more important. Now he thought I've been
a bit picky and I was but I thought I needed to be at that point because to me it is like an
evangelical knee-jerk reaction what God has done in my life. You have testimony meetings which is
a former colleague of mine said it's the protestant version of the veneration of the saints.
And you know testimonies are okay up to a point. Where a testimony you know when a person
gets up and says what God has done in their life, where it shines is when it actually then
reflects back to Christ. So that it's not just you know once I was a wizard flower
now I'm a blooming Christian syndrome. So what we what we need to recognize is the doctrine of the
trinity as well as just the way the whole of the new testament works makes a distinction between
the gospel concerning the son and the gracious work of God the Holy Spirit.
Now because God is trinity you see this is this is where your dogmatics comes becomes so important.
If if you start to think any other way and this is especially when you're dealing with
the old testament any other way than as a trinitarian theologian you're in trouble.
As soon as you start to think about how how God the father God the son and God the Holy
Spirit relate in terms of separation even if you don't intend it to be separation but even
if once you start giving the impression or that either they're separate or that you're totally
confused about how they relate. You know I heard somebody get up and pray and they can't be sure
they're not sure who they're praying to. Oh father God our Holy Spirit dear Jesus you know we sort of
we'll get the whole three in you know one way or the other so you know and it's crying out for a
biblical perspective on it as to how these relate. So the work of Jesus Christ for us is the gospel
whereas the work of of the Holy Spirit in us is the fruit of the gospel it's the outworking of
the gospel in our lives. It's not living the gospel it's living out the implications of the gospel.
Now I'm a bit picky about that point because to say to tell people we've got to live the gospel
I know what they usually mean but it's it's a poor way of expressing it and I get very picky
about the use of language because I think the English language is a beautiful
instrument for making good distinctions. I haven't got as many verb distinctions as the
Greek language but it's still a good a good language for making clear distinctions
and therefore we should not be sloppy and I think there's something about Christian responsibility
in that about using using the language you know in the way that will best make the distinctions
are there best make the the links that are there and so on I don't mean we have to be plummy and
you know all the rest of it but language is important. The work of Jesus for us the gospel
is a finished work that's important so you can't you can't add anything to something that is
finished. If the finished work of Christ means anything then how you live your Christian life
is not part of that it's implied by it it's demanded by it it's related to it
etc etc but the relationship needs to be understood. The finished work of Christ for us is
an objective work. The ongoing work of the spirit in us is a subjective work
the spirit works through our minds our wills our thinking doing and so on
the finished work of Christ for us the gospel is in the historic past whereas the
work of the spirit is in the is in the continuous present
the gospel before us work happened without us that is we weren't there
and if we had been there we would have opposed it like everybody else
let's face it you know if you've got any dreamy ideas I wouldn't have been wonderful to have been
there when Jesus was around and don't think you know you'd have been rushing off to follow him
you only would have done that if he would have graciously called you
in us that happens with our consent so the one happened against our will the other happens with
our consent the one is their basis of our acceptance with God this is so important you
see you want people to know the basis of their acceptance with God when you're preaching from
the old testament as well as the new and if you're all the time preaching exemplary sermons
from the old testament examples to follow examples to avoid and so on
then in the end you will start giving the impression that their acceptance with God is based
on how well they're doing now the guilt-ridden Christian who wakes up every morning takes their
spiritual pulse slaps the old spiritual barometer on the chest and if it goes it doesn't say holy
holy holy those they're really shot to pieces the finished work for us is our justification
the ongoing work is our sanctification now I don't want to get into the details of that but
sanctification now I don't want to get into you know making fine distinctions between our
positional sanctification and so on but I think you know what I'm talking about here
our growth as a Christian one one uses the grammar of the indicative
so you can't command the gospel you can only proclaim it
you can command the implications of the gospel you can command people in the name of God to repent
and to believe that the call to repentance and to believe is not itself the gospel it's a call
to respond to the gospel so we can we can say that that to sum it up that the for us work of God is
always the basis of the in us work of God now if we really believe this from the new testament then
that was going to affect it must affect the way you deal with the old testament because if all
you tell from the old testament is what God should be doing in your life and what he shouldn't be
doing in your life and so on and how you should be responding then you have you have taken away
the foundation of the for us work of God yet the old testament is full of it that's what the story
is the whole the whole conflict between God and his covenant people that even even when they are
in rebellion you know God makes it plain through the prophets that whatever happens he is not going
to allow their rebellion to destroy his plan and purpose in the fullness of time to have a faithful
remnant of people for himself that's why I have no hesitation in saying that that in looking at the
unity of the covenant theme in the old testament that the covenant of the old testament although
it is a unity it also has a number of different expressions as you know you have the covenant with
Noah the covenant with Moses the covenant with Abraham covenant with Moses the covenant with
David the new covenant in Jeremiah and the new covenant in Christ yet it's all the same covenant
in my view anyway and that means that the covenant is both unconditional and conditional
the unconditional nature of the covenant is God will have a people whether you like it or not
and the conditional nature of the covenant is if you don't put your trust in God and accept him
then you don't need to be part of God's eschaton in terms of covenant blessings
and so you will find in the different covenant expressions different emphases but it's the same
basic truth so the for us work of God does not happen without the in us work of God following
and the reverse of course is as we've seen the in us work of God really doesn't happen without
the for us work of God as the foundation that's why it is so imperative to my way of thinking
that the old testament has to be treated as a book about the gospel and so then that raises of course
the question how do we how do we perceive and proclaim the gospel from the old testament
confuse the in us work of God for the for us work of God is to destroy the gospel
and our assurance of salvation
and I'm asking you not only to sort of consider that those distinctions but to take them on board
with regard to dealing with the old testament a purely exemplary approach to the old testament
means that you have exalted the in us work of God over and above the for us work of God when
it should be the other way around you've made the in us work of God the basis of our salvation
now we were talking about the need for historical theology and so on as you as you're probably all
all aware the reformation was fought over this distinction put that way
the medieval catholic church had inverted the gospel so that sanctification becomes the basis
of your justification that that I might say is I would think it's probably the most serious
distinction between catholicism and reformed protestantism
and that's why I you know when I'm in the mood for dropping bricks and things I say you know
there are a good many evangelical christian products you know protestant christians
who are far more roman catholic in their theology than they are reformed
simply because they they speak about sanctification as almost the be-all and
end-all in the end whether they they say it or not they seem to be implying
that your sanctification is the basis of your acceptance with God
that's pure and unadulterated catholicism
okay well that's that one
I you know for your practical use I have found that that has been you know people people do
find that making that distinction for them helpful it's just you know because that is that is an area
of confusion that is simply universal I think it's it's around everywhere and we need to even
keep reminding ourselves it's so easy to slip into and it happens as I've mentioned elsewhere
that you know if you're preaching a series and here you know whether it's New Testament or Old
Testament but say you're preaching through doing a series on say Paul's letter to the Ephesians
now Paul didn't mean his letter to the Ephesians to be read over a period of six or eight weeks
and he meant it to be read so that when you get to chapters four five and six
he meant that to be understood in the light of chapters one two and three
now if you've separated chapters four five and six from chapters one and two you know by several
weeks and you don't remind people where you've come from then when you get to all the do's and
don'ts in other words the grammar that you the grammar of the the indicative the is
switches to the imperative the ought what we should do then people pick up the ought
and fail to notice that the ought can only exist on the basis of the is exactly good okay now
another another way that I have used without sort of resorting to the kingdom of God theme
to just to just suggest the way things happen in the in the big picture maybe this one's better
I've got a couple of versions of this it amounts to the same thing some of some of you will have
seen the this sort of thing before I took I took this once I was down at SMBC quite a few years
back and they asked me to do some lectures on the wisdom literature and I drew the circle diagram
on the board and a great groan went up they've heard it adding to an item but I you know for
those of you not familiar with this one to me it's it's a useful way see if you take that other
diagram I did which had God the people of God and the place so you've got the people of God under
God's rule in the place that God gives them and turn it on its side you've got reality consists of
God and and this was pre-inclusive language so mankind M W for the rest of creation world
okay so reality consists of God plus the creation and the bible makes it clear that there is a very
important distinction to be drawn we're not pantheists or panentheists or whatever you
like to think of it one one very important distinctive in in Christian theology is the
distinction between God and the creation but the bible also makes it clear that within creation
there is one special part of it that governs all else and that is the human race it's the only it's
a distinctive part in it's the only part of creation created in the image of God and the the
destiny of the rest of creation depends upon the destiny of the human race so when the human race
falls the whole creation falls Romans 8 tells us when the human race is redeemed and we are
revealed as the sons sons of God then the whole of creation will be redeemed with us okay so that's
that's reality of creation now we can represent what happens in Genesis 3 as a fracturing of all
relationships it's just a diagram it's just a suggestion don't hold you know don't expect a
diagram to tell you everything it just makes the suggestion in a simple way the only relationships
as I understand it that were not affected adversely by the fall of the human race into sin
were the relationships between father son and holy spirit would you agree with that
every other relationship in this universe was affected adversely God and the holy angels
who brung him
I think there's a train leaving for tare in about five minutes
sorry I don't know about that one Peter um yeah I'll think about that one
but generally speaking we don't know a lot about God and the holy angels do we
and the fact I was only thinking about the text that Greg has selected that we should think about
tonight about angels long to look into it you know that I don't think Peter is really wanting
to tell us a great deal about angels he just wants to underline the the greatness of God's
revelations through the prophets fulfilled in Christ but yeah good one one point to you 50 to me
anyway certainly the relationship between God and the human race God and the rest of creation
somehow affected now what what does God do about this if we just simply take the the bare
simple fact of what is achieved by the whole progression of God's revelation and acts through
the old testament and coming to its climax in Jesus Christ what we saw in our other diagram
is that in Jesus Christ God puts the universe back together again that is walking around in Palestine
was the new creation God in all his perfection a human being in all his perfection
and being a human being he was the pinnacle of the created order
right God man and world in one person Jesus Christ and you might say there it is that's
that's what God is going to do that's nice for Jesus because he's now in heaven but where do I
fit in and that's where the gospel comes in and this is why it is so important in Paul I'm
thinking that how God achieves this consummation is through the preaching of the gospel and by the
uniting of people through the gospel to that reality so that that reality is being formed in us
which brings me then to this diagram which I've modified from Gerhardus Vos
can you follow what the logic of this that what God has done in Jesus Christ will will be
universally revealed at the consummation the new heavens and the new earth in the lean time
it is being formed through the preaching of the gospel in the people of God as we are being
transformed from one degree of glory to another and being made more and more into the image of
Christ well if you don't like that diagram you needn't have it that's all right
but this this is if you're familiar with Vos'
Pauline eschatology I think it was about 1934 or something like that it came out somewhere about
then I've added you know sort of this is my own version of it see in the Old Testament what we
have is the perspective on things when you put it all together is that the old age which includes
what God did in the time of Abraham through Moses David etc etc and then that the old age is is
shown to be manifestly a failure the exile the destruction of Jerusalem etc etc and the idolatry
around so that even the restoration from Babylon and the reconstruction of the Israelite state
unto Ezra and Nehemiah and so on turns out not to be the what they're waiting for and so the the
prophetic picture of the coming day of the Lord is that one day God will act finally definitively
to bring in his kingdom in glory forever and ever world without end and the Old Testament depicts
that as a single day doesn't I mean I don't believe that it's saying 24 hours it's saying
there will be a single event one coming of the Lord and the old age will finish and the new age
will come about now I don't know anybody wants to argue with me on that one that that is how I see
the Old Testament perspective on these things there is one coming of the Lord
and then that brings about the end and beyond the end is the new age which goes on forever and ever
in glory okay when we get to the gospel what it does is it's like it's like you see in sometimes
in Time magazine things when they want to deal with a part of the world which is fairly small
and people so they give you a big picture of it and point it to where it is you know might be
somewhere in Grozny you know Chechnya or somewhere and nobody knows where it is and then they blow
it out and they put a blown up version of the little bit in the square so if we take the day
of the Lord and blow it up so we can actually see what's in it in the New Testament I believe it
looks like this it tells us that the one coming of the Lord when we get close to it is in fact
three comings of the Lord that is the coming of Jesus in the flesh the coming of Jesus through
the pouring out of his spirit at Pentecost and during this whole age and the coming of Jesus
in glory the confirmation and between his first coming and what we usually call the second coming
is this period of the gospel our gospel church age however you want to call it
in which there is an overlap between the new age which is in heaven where Jesus is
wherever you might like to consider that as being and the old age which is where we are
so the tension in the Christian life
is the tension between being in the old age but not of it being of the new age but not in it
all right so that's why we struggle we suffer we press on you know that's the whole the whole bit
and that that will not be resolved as Paul talks about you know hope and suffering
but hope that that doesn't resolve and it isn't resolved in the end is is a useless hope
and if we if we hope for heaven and it never happens then we hope in vain
and so the whole thing will be resolved but the point is
but I believe that what the new testament is saying is the whole of the end came
representatively in Jesus Christ at his first coming if he is truly the kingdom of God if he
is truly the new creation if he is God man and world all in one place then the end has come in him
but for us
not in us in him and it has come perfectly and that is why we can have confidence that what
God has done in Christ is finished perfect and cannot be improved on and it can never be
downgraded what's more so when Paul in Colossians 3 says you have died he's not saying you know
you've all kicked the bucket turned up your toes dropped off the twig or whatever you want to say
what he's saying is your relationship to Christ is such that when Christ died you are accounted
for having died with him and more than that you say where is my life now your life is hidden with
Christ in God so that when Christ who is our life appears what does that mean now what are we
evangelical Christians want to make it mean they want to make it mean that Jesus is living his life
in me here and now so as one prominent writer put it I'm nothing more than a suit of clothes that
Jesus wears which is pious twaddle because who commits the next sin and that's not what Paul
is talking about in my view Paul is saying if you want to understand your Christian existence
you have to get your brain around something that you are not used to thinking of and that is
the real existence which counts for you before God is the existence that was
lived on your behalf and is there on your behalf now in the presence of God
so this existence brings in the end in every way all the promises of God find their yes in him
to Corinthians 1 20 says Paul we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers
this is fulfilled to us the children by raising Jesus the resurrection of Jesus is the climax of
the whole procedure of bringing the universe together representatively the perfect way in
the person of Jesus of Nazareth but because God wasn't doing this simply on Jesus account and we
know that because Jesus need never have left heaven and become an incarnate being on his own account
he only did it on our account so how does it fulfill its goal as being on our account
is through the end coming in us as a process so our justification becomes the basis for our
understanding the motivation the patterning and so on of our own sanctification and the
gathering of the people together through the preaching of the gospel in this whole age so
there's a sense in which the end is being formed very imperfectly it's an unfinished work during
this whole age and we look forward to the time when as Paul says again in the Colossians 3 passage
when Christ who is our life appears then we also shall appear with him in glory
or the Romans 8 bit you see the whole creation waiting with longing and expectation for the
revealing of the sons of God why because in in this sort of metaphorical way and personifying
the the creation which was made to fall he says on our account and the whole creation in a sense
is watching you and me because it knows that when the confirmation comes and we are revealed
as the children of God openly to the whole universe then the whole universe will be redeemed
with us John says the same thing in his first letter chapter 1 chapter 3 of 1 John you know we
are the children of God now he says it's you know sort of reassuring you look at me and I look at
you and say yeah there's nothing spectacular about that guy people look at us every day they
don't come rushing and say oh I can see you're a Christian I can see the Lord in your face or
something like that they might think you know after they get to know us but you know reasonably
nice guy and don't lose your cool like like others didn't but see we we need reassuring
because we know you know just in congregational life together how fallible we are how sinful we
are how we we rub each other the wrong way etc etc so to be reminded we are the children of God
now it does not yet appear what we shall be he says but we know that when he appears we shall
be like him because we shall see him as he is same perspective as Paul's got so I think there again
this this ought to help us in in getting our thoughts together about what we do with the
old testament now I guess I've strayed a bit from the the actual text of what I want to talk about
that's okay I'm happy with that as long as you are what do I do with my thing I'm just looking
at what time I've got to stop this here we go 12 to 1 okay we haven't got that long well just just
quickly in study three and I'll just run you run you through what I think I I wanted to get over
here that Jesus the apostles described Jesus ministry in old testament terms and I've given
perhaps you could take a few sort of for instances on that Jesus is is seen as the
fulfiller and I'll just mention some of the basic ones like Acts 2 30 to 32 where
Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost and he talks about David and the promise made to David
and he said David being a promise spoke that David being a prophet spoke of of the resurrection of
the Christ or the Acts 13 of you might see the the wider passage there not all of it but say verses
26 to 32 where Paul brings his sermon on the old testament to a conclusion by saying that what God
promised this he has fulfilled by raising Jesus 1 Corinthians 15 I mentioned that one how Paul says
that he he delivered the gospel to them that he received which is how Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures
2 Corinthians 1 20 all the promises of God find their yes in Christ by the fact that Jesus is the
Christ we often forget it's so simple to forget that Jesus Christ means Jesus Hamashiach the Messiah
the anointed one of the old testament promise
Matthew 1 1 Mark 1 1 and so on
Paul going around convincing you know when he's on his conversion
in Acts 9 22 convincing them that Jesus was the Christ the Messiah
Jesus is the son of God we've talked about that that it's an important old testament theme so
what I'm pointing to is that there are a number of themes that relate to Jesus that keep that
come up from time to time in the new testament which we really need to understand in their
old testament context see what is being claimed so I won't go into the son of God one the son of
man one of course is an interesting one and I'm I'm convinced in my mind that when Jesus
and he is the only one I think I'm right in saying here in the gospels he's the only one who called
refers to himself as son of man I'm convinced that he's referring to Daniel 7 and what's intriguing
about Daniel 7 is that in the Daniel 7 vision you know you remember how it goes he sees has this
vision he sees these four ugly critters coming out of the sea and they're sort of you know warring
against one another and then the fourth ugly critter comes up and he he destroys the first three
and sort of has dominion over them and then he says he sees coming in the clouds of heaven one
like a banasha a benardam in Hebrew it's one part of a Aramaic part of that Daniel one like a son
of man equals a human being it's just a hebraism
unfortunately some of the modern versions have translated it literally well in that idiomatic
way I saw one like a like a human being which then breaks the connection between that and
Jesus referring to himself as the son of man because what's intriguing about the son of man
a number of things first of all he's a human figure secondly he comes from heaven he's a
heavenly human figure thirdly he wins wins dominion over the beasts and then later on in
the chapter he shares that dominion with the saints of the most high that's I think it's not stretching
things to say here is a picture which has its fulfillment in Christ who is the representative
human being winning dominion over all godlessness the beasts are obviously symbols of godlessness
amongst the nations and so on and then having done his work finished his work he then shares
the fruit of it with his people the other interesting thing about it is is that he the
the son of man comes to God to receive dominion now when Jesus is seen to ascend into heaven
at the end of Luke's gospel in the beginning of the acts we're told that they're gazing up
you know as Jesus finished talking to them he's taken up in a cloud and they're gazing up to
heaven as he goes and the angels say we know why are you gazing up to have this Jesus will come in
like manner as you see him going now it's my firm belief and I'm ready to be shaken out of this if
you can prove it to me it's my firm belief that that going in the clouds is the fulfillment of
the Daniel 7 coming to God to receive dominion because Peter then preaches in Acts chapter 2
this Jesus whom you crucified God has made both Lord and Christ but the angels now say and this
goes back to our diagram here that's the way you saw him go you've seen the son of man going to
God to receive dominion and he will come in like manner to share that dominion with his people
forever the other the other I find intriguing thing about the the son of man in Daniel
is that it's dominion over the beasts and beasts are symbols of human godlessness
in Psalm 22 you know save me from the dog and the lion and so on and so forth because at the fall
of creation beasts who should have had you know the human beings who should have had dominion
over the beasts their dominion is just is wrecked it's dislocated and from that point on you find
the beasts at enmity with the human beings Mark's definition or Mark's description of of the
temptation of Jesus is that he was led into the wilderness and tempted he doesn't give us any of
the details as as Luke and Matthew do but he just says he was with the wild beasts now I suspect
what Mark means by that not that Jesus was there sort of holding them at bay
but being the true son of man he is living in harmony with the beasts in the wilderness
he is exercising as he should as the true human being the true son of man dominion over the beasts
now you can argue with that if you like I've mentioned already other other images
Jesus is divine John 15 Jesus is the good shepherd John 10 Ezekiel 34
and just the simple fact that I think I'm right in saying there is only one book in the New
Testament which does not make frequent quotations from the Old Testament or allusions to Old
Testament ideas and that that book is three John one one count was made by one writer is there
something like 1600 quotes or allusions to the Old Testament throughout the New Testament
interesting is the book of Revelation which has more quotes more allusions to the Old Testament
imagery and symbolism and so on than any other book in the New Testament actually has no direct
quotes whatsoever I think I'm writing that he's quite happy John is quite happy simply to allude
to the imagery but you've no way you could really get on top of what the book of revelation is about
a without the gospel and b without the Old Testament okay the second point I want to make
is that all categories of the Old Testament view the Old Testament view of the kingdom are in Jesus
and I've talked about this I won't I'll just just briefly restate it and we won't go into it any
further that we saw that the kingdom consisted of God human beings and the place where God
meets his people and see what what more important what more significant what more
seminal meeting of God and humankind can there be than in the incarnation where in the same
human the same person you have the two perfect natures of God and and human
so my third point then is the Old Testament New Testament link there are various ways of doing
this and I refer to this book by Sidney Gray Darnis called Preaching Christ from the Old Testament
some of you will have seen that and no doubt have read it I think it's a good book as far as it goes
my problem with with Gray Darnis is that he suggests I think what I'd say is I think he's
over cautious and and made and I think a lot of people think I'm you know throw caution to the
wind but I think Gray Darnis is over cautious in that he seems to be suggesting when in the section
where he talks about ways of getting from he's got a chapter which he calls New Testament principles
for preaching Christ from the Old Testament and a section in that chapter he says many roads
lead from the Old Testament to Christ that is there are different ways of getting from an Old
Testament text through to Christ and almost gives the impression is that here's an Old Testament
text now which one of these seven ways do I use which is the valid way and I think I find that a
bit of a problem because I think that these are just simply perspectives on the same basic truth
of connect it's helpful to see that you know that these are there he talks about the way over
redemptive historical progression the fact that you have progressive revelation of salvation so on
the way of promise fulfillment well I'm hard pressed to make any sort of substantial distinction
between that and the previous one because within the historical redemptive progression there is
the whole process of promise fulfillment the way of typology he sort of mentions typology is one
way amongst many and I want to talk to you a bit more about typology which we won't
have time in this session but in the next session and just put it to you that I think
that typology is in fact if we rightly understand it the sort of the umbrella way of going within
which we can see these other various things great artists also mentions the way of analogy the way
of longitudinal themes the way of contrast and so on all of which to me would come you know
are just different aspects on on the same basic truth so that brings the point four on typology
really to to expound the significance of typology in any you know reasonable way would take far
longer than we've got I've written about it I think basically typology is the method that
I've always run with I've suggested I in I think in the book on preaching that
that typology needs to be seen in a broad way rather than starting with examples of the word
tupos in the Greek in the New Testament or its cognates and so on ask us ask yourself the
question what principle does Paul use when he says this is a this is tupikos of that this is a type
of that what actually does he understand to be the structural relationship that enables him to
make that kind of a move to the other and I think it's something which is far more
widespread in fact I would say it is all-pervading and it doesn't just come up
when you have a deliberate reference in the New Testament for something in the Old Testament
which is now answered by the type in the New Testament now I know that that's sounding pretty
vague but I think the way I would want to go is is to is to perhaps go back to the sort of thing I
was trying to represent in those more comprehensive diagrams that if Jesus is God
if Jesus is humanity if Jesus is the place where God meets humanity the sense in which as as one
writer on the Old Testament says Jesus fulfills the promise of the land and so on Jesus is the
world just by being created as a human being then I can't think of anything that comes up in the
Old Testament either by way of substance or institution or event which doesn't have its
fulfillment in Jesus now I might be raving on here but I really think that it's that in one sense
it's as simple as that and it's a matter of asking yourself how how is that how what is
going on in the Old Testament and how is that picked up and fulfilled in Jesus even to the
extent of saying where where the psalmist deals with the godless persecutors
or where the psalmist talks about the judgment of God
or where the whole question of sin comes up you know this very important theological principle
here when you're trying to describe to people what sin is can you do it without telling them
the gospel can you really can you really get to the heart of what the bible teaches about
sin without showing what it meant for someone who knew no sin to be made sin for us and to
bear the full weight of God's wrath because I think if you don't get to that point then you
leave people's idea that sin is just doing he's doing a bad thing here and there telling a lie or
you know something is invite to slap on the wrist or maybe a few months in the clink
whereas when you come to the gospel and you contemplate what is going on at the cross
and that the only reason that Jesus the sinless one suffers and dies on the cross is because
we are sinners then that is an example of fact that the the gospel shows us what the problem is
that that coming to know what it means for yourself to be a sinner is inseparable from
coming to know what it is to be a sinner saved by grace an unbeliever knows has a concept of
right and wrong and will invest the word sin with all kinds of things but the true biblical
understanding of sin I believe belongs only to the Christian you will never know what it is to
be a sinner until you know what it is to be a saved one um look I think that's all to say now
it time's up for this session oh have we oh you're right typically okay we'll get we'll take this on
just a little bit further then um
and and maybe the uh if I can find the right right little diagram let's come back to
now a variation on one of these diagrams I put up before of the of the historical structure
which got Peter all stirred up
right now I realize the printing's a bit small so I'll have to interpret to you what's here this
is just taken out of out of a page in a book sort of thing well I've called this the typological
structure of the bible and what I'm getting at here is that remember I had the three sort of
basic epochs that creation through to Abraham or Genesis 1 to 11 lays the foundation for the
redemptive historical movement that starts with Abraham and comes to its climax with David and
Solomon and I suggested to you by putting up in a chart form the basic ingredients of that
now when I say that every text in the old testament you have me have no trouble with
the new testament every text in the old testament testifies in some way of Jesus I mean first of all
there's a question of what what we mean by text but I mean that the whole of the old testament
testifies to Jesus in some way so what all I'm getting out of here is that in dealing with the
old testament wherever you wherever you pick your text for a sermon or a bible study or whatever
you've got to look at it in terms of the theology of that text of that particular event that person
what is going on in terms of this progression in terms of how God is revealing his kingdom
and salvation or redemption in the history of Israel until it goes foul how how the whole
concept of and dimension of judgment complements that and helps us to understand
something of the nature of the coming of God's kingdom how the prophets during this period of
decline and captivity and historical confusion and so on the prophets pick it up and bring
bring meaning out of the chaos and project it into the future and simply recapitulate this
in terms of the future and how Jesus Christ fulfills it all now I'm with Jesus on this one
you see he says he says the Jews you know you search the scriptures
you think you'll find them in them eternal life well they testify of me
and he says you think you know you appeal to Moses but if you believe Moses you'd believe me
why because he wrote about me now I don't think Jesus is saying that Moses only wrote about Jesus
when he's talking about the Passover lamb or the sacrifice of burnt offering or something like that
but the whole old testament
historical process the law the poetic stuff the psalms the hymns the wisdom literature and so on
are in some way pointing toward the reality which will only have its its fulfillment and
its ultimate meaning in the person work of Jesus Christ so what we have in this first thing is the
kingdom of God in Israel's history don't that I think you can just about read that from here
anyway it's like up the back and I say there that in this epoch the type is established that there
is a progressive building up of the pattern of salvation beginning with Abraham and reaching
its climax with Solomon the temple that is what I call the period in which this recording is
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