Christ is not foreign to the Old Testament. After His resurrection, Jesus opened the Scriptures to show His disciples the things concerning Himself. The apostles continued to preach Christ from Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. But this does not give the reader permission to invent hidden meanings or make every verse an allegory. The issue is not whether Christ is there; it is how Scripture teaches us to see Him there.
READ THE KEY PASSAGES
Begin with what
Scripture says.
Luke 24:25–27Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
John 5:39Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
Acts 8:30–35And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
01
Christ is the center of the whole biblical story
Luke 24:27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
The Old Testament prepares the reader for Christ in more than one way. It records promises concerning the Seed, the Prophet, the Priest, the King, the Servant, and the coming Kingdom. It gives sacrifices that teach the seriousness of sin and the need for a substitute. It provides offices, deliverances, judgments, covenants, and patterns that God develops across the canon. The unity is real because the divine Author has given one unfolding revelation.
Luke 24 does not say that the disciples needed a new imagination; they needed their understanding opened to Scriptures already given. Jesus did not treat the Law and Prophets as an embarrassment to be left behind. He showed how they testified of Him. That means a Christ-centered reading should make us attend more closely to the Old Testament, not less closely.
02
Honor the first meaning God gave
Nehemiah 8:8So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
Every passage came through real human authors, in real history, with real words and arguments. Before we announce a connection to Christ, we should ask what the text says in its own setting. Who is speaking? What is the problem? What covenant or event is involved? What do the words and images mean in the passage itself? Context is not a rival to Christ; it is one of the ways Christ has taught us to hear His Word truthfully.
This keeps us from turning the Bible into a collection of symbols that can be made to say whatever a teacher desires. A passage about Israel does not become meaningless because it may also teach principles that bless believers. A historical event does not stop being historical because later Scripture uses it as a pattern. The original meaning remains the foundation on which any wider biblical connection must stand.
03
Follow connections Scripture itself makes
Romans 5:14Adam… is the figure of him that was to come.
Some Old Testament connections to Christ are direct and unmistakable: a prophecy is quoted and identified as fulfilled, an apostle explains a psalm, or Jesus applies an event to His own work. Other connections are established through repeated words, God-given institutions, covenant patterns, or a sequence that later revelation brings into clearer focus. Adam is called a figure of the One to come. Passover, priesthood, sacrifice, the wilderness, David’s sonship, and the temple are not arbitrary inventions of later readers; Scripture develops these themes.
The reader need not demand that every true pattern be introduced with the identical formula. Yet resemblance alone is not proof. Scripture, not confidence, establishes a type. We should look for the original setting, repeated biblical language, covenantal development, and inspired explanation. The task is not to create types but to recognize the patterns God has given.
04
Types are real history with forward design
Hebrews 10:1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things…
A biblical type does not deny the historical reality of the earlier person, event, or institution. The Exodus really happened. David really reigned. The sacrifices were truly offered. The tabernacle served a real purpose for Israel’s worship. But the God who governs history also designed these realities to teach and prepare His people for a greater fulfillment. A type is not a secret meaning hidden behind a false historical surface.
This matters because Scripture can preserve both the earlier meaning and its forward witness. The sacrifice teaches something in its own covenant setting, while also directing the reader toward the need for the perfect sacrifice of Christ. David is a real king in Israel’s history, yet God’s covenant with David gives the reader categories for recognizing the greater Son. The pattern confirms the history; it does not dissolve it.
05
Reject allegory and uncontrolled speculation
2 Peter 1:20Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
The richness of Scripture can tempt a reader to go beyond Scripture. If every color, number, object, or narrative detail is assigned a confident spiritual meaning, the interpreter begins to rule the text instead of receiving it. Such creativity may sound devotional, but it leaves no safeguard against contradiction. One reader can make a detail mean one thing; another can make it mean the opposite.
The answer is not to deny types, shadows, prophecy, figures, and symbols. The answer is to let Scripture establish, explain, and limit them. Christ is honored when we believe all that God has said about Him, including what He has said through the original context, the historical pattern, and the later inspired explanation. He is not honored when we improve the Bible with meanings God has not given.
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
Questions for further reading.
- 01
What does the Old Testament passage mean in its own setting?
- 02
What later biblical passages return to this text, pattern, or promise?
- 03
Is the proposed connection established by Scripture, or only by a resemblance that appeals to us?
Read patiently. Let God’s Word speak.
The Old Testament truly bears witness to Christ because its God-given promises, patterns, offices, and prophecies reach their appointed goal in Him. A faithful reader keeps both truths together: Christ is the center of Scripture, and Scripture’s actual words and context govern the way we see Him there.
