Sermon Tone Analysis

The Center of the OT is Christ

Centrally, the Old Testament is a book about Christ, and more specifically, about his sufferings and the glories that will follow—that is, it is a book about the promise of a coming Messiah through whose sufferings God will establish his glorious, eternal kingdom.

(Iain Duguid)

Luke 24:

Luke 24:4-47

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 434-436).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.

Thus, when we interpret the Old Testament correctly, without allegory or artificial manipulation but in accordance with Jesus’s own teaching, the central message on every page is Christ.

That does not mean that every verse taken by itself contains a hidden allusion to Christ, but that the central thrust of every passage leads us in some way to the central message of the gospel.

The Old Testament Had a Message for its Original Hearers

II.

The Old Testament Had a Message

This is an important complementary truth to the first principle.

It is a mistake to read the Old Testament as if its Christ-centered message were only revealed to us, who read it through the lens of its fulfillment in him.

The Pentateuch spoke God’s Word of challenge and promise to those who were about to enter the Promised Land in the days of Moses.

Isaiah spoke to those who lived in Judah in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah, not only to those who read his prophecies about the Babylonian exile and about Christ after their fulfillment.

The Book of Kings addressed the spiritual needs of those who found themselves wrenched away from the Promised Land because of their sins and the sins of their fathers.

Ezekiel and the Chronicler wrote to discouraged believers in their own times who wondered about the value of any attempt to serve God in the aftermath of the exile.

The Old Testament Writers Did Not Fully Understand Everything about which they Wrote

This reality is clear in a number of places in the Old Testament itself.

Prophets like Daniel and Zechariah frequently did not completely grasp the visions that they were shown

Understand Everything about Which They Wrote This reality is clear in a number of places in the Old Testament itself.

Prophets like Daniel and Zechariah frequently did not completely grasp the visions that they were shown (see ; ).

; ).

The Old Testament Writers Truly Understood SOME Things They Described

For that reason, it is important not to overstress the ignorance of the divinely inspired prophets, as well as the other writers of the Old Testament.

Abraham did not have a full understanding of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow, perhaps, but he had a true understanding that just as the Lord had provided the ram to die in place of his beloved son, Isaac, so too the Lord would provide a substitute for Abraham’s own sins.

Daniel may not have grasped the exact details of the coming conflict between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids as described in ; he did, however, recognize that the broad philosophy of history presented in that chapter provided a clear rebuke to his overly optimistic hope that, with the completion of the seventy years of judgment prophesied in Jeremiah, the end would soon be nigh (see ).

Instead, before the end would come, there would continue to be wars and rumors of wars, with empires rising and falling, but when the dust finally settled, the triumph would belong to the saints of the Most High.

Moreover, the content of these visions that the Old Testament saints correctly grasped is nothing less than the gospel itself, albeit in types and shadows.

The gospel of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow was clear to Old Testament readers from the earliest days, even if only in outline and sometimes obscure form.

Many things that were concealed during the Old Testament period have now been revealed in the light of Christ’s appearing.

Some things will remain partially hidden from our eyes until the consummation.

Nevertheless, the consistent and plain message of the gospel runs throughout every page of God’s Word, from Genesis to Revelation.

The Bible’s message of the gospel repeatedly points the saints of all ages and generations back to the sufferings of Christ and the glories that will follow.

Recommended Reading from Iain M. Duguid

Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality: The Gospel According to Abraham.

Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1999.

Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel According to Isaac and Jacob.

Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2002.

Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel According to Isaac and Jacob.

Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2002.

Living in the Light of Inextinguishable Hope: The Gospel According to Joseph.

Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2013.

Is Jesus in the Old Testament?

Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R and West-minster Seminary Press, 2013.

Living in the Light of Inextinguishable Hope: The Gospel According to Joseph.

Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2013.

Is Jesus in the Old Testament?

Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R and West-minster Seminary Press, 2013.

Duguid, Iain M.. Seeing Christ in All of Scripture: Hermeneutics at Westminster Theological Seminary (Kindle Locations 451-452).

Westminster Seminary Press.

Kindle Edition.