Do we go to the Old Testament looking for the exalted Christ? Do we see the Old Testament as pointing to Jesus and the fulfillment of His Work? The Bible is a plot, a storyline. It is the history of God’s acting to redeem and people to Himself. Like a story, it moves to a climax. The climax is Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of God’s covenant plan.
Since the rise of modern Biblical criticism, it is common in some circles to think that there are little to no predictions of a Messiah in the Old Testament. But this is not the view of the Scriptures. This is not what the New Testament explicitly teaches. Christ can be found in the Old Testament.
1Pet. 1:10-11 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
The prophets in the Old Testament were prophesying about the grace that was coming. The grace that we experience today was foretold long before the person of Jesus came and manifested that grace. These prophets were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). As the prophets were given the message by the Holy Spirit, they diligently searched and inquired. They wanted to know more. They walked by faith. They were looking for the Messiah that the Holy Spirit was telling them about.
We have one benefit that the saints of the Old Testament did not have: we now know the time and person of the Messiah.
