The Person of Jesus: Who Is He?
30 min read
Jesus did not appear randomly in history. He arrived as the fulfillment of a story Israel had been living for two thousand years.
"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." — Luke 24:27
1. The Old Testament is the story Jesus came to complete.
Luke 24:27 records the resurrected Jesus walking the Emmaus road, opening Moses and the Prophets to show they spoke of him. The New Testament authors make this claim everywhere: Jesus is the fulfillment, not the replacement, of Israel's entire story.
2. The Abrahamic covenant finds fulfillment in Jesus.
God promised Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed Genesis 12:3Genesis 22:18. Paul identifies that singular "seed" with Christ Galatians 3:16. The global mission of the church — making disciples of all nations Matthew 28:19 — is the Abrahamic promise kept. Every tribe and tongue before the throne in Revelation 7:9 is the fulfillment of a promise made to one man under a night sky.
3. The Mosaic covenant and the Law point forward.
Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it Matthew 5:17. The entire Levitical system — the Passover lamb, the Day of Atonement, the high priest — was a shadow of the reality that arrived in Jesus Hebrews 10:1. When John the Baptist called Jesus "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" John 1:29, centuries of sacrificial theology collapsed into one person.
4. The Davidic covenant promises an eternal king.
God promised David that his throne would be established forever 2 Samuel 7:12-16. That promise had been dormant for five centuries since the exile. Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey (fulfilling Zechariah 9:9), is called "Son of David" by the crowds Matthew 21:9, and is raised to reign at the Father's right hand Psalms 110:1Acts 2:34-36.
5. Prophetic detail demands explanation.
Isaiah 53 — written seven centuries before the crucifixion — describes a servant despised and rejected, pierced for our transgressions, buried with the wicked but with the rich in his death, who sees the light of life after suffering. Psalm 22 — one thousand years before the cross — contains the words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (v. 1), describes hands and feet being pierced (v. 16), and soldiers casting lots for clothing (v. 18). These are not vague prophecies. They are remarkably specific.
6. Jesus understood his mission through Israel's script.
At Nazareth he read from Isaiah 61 and announced, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" Luke 4:21. At the Last Supper he reinterpreted the Passover around his own body and blood. On the cross he cried out the opening of Psalm 22. He was not improvising. He was the fulfillment of a script written across centuries.
Reading the Old Testament as a separate religion with only occasional connections to Jesus. The two Testaments are one book with one story.
Choose one: the Passover (Exod. 12), the bronze serpent Numbers 21:4-9, or the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25). Write two paragraphs: what it meant in its original context, and how Jesus fulfills it.
Submit your list from Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, and your paragraph on the chosen passage.
A: The Law was a shadow pointing to the reality that arrived in Jesus — he completed what it always foreshadowed.
A: Paul identifies Jesus as the singular "seed" of Abraham through whom all nations are blessed Galatians 3:16.
A: Their specificity — written centuries before Jesus — provides historical evidence that his life, death, and resurrection fulfilled a divine plan.
Lord, open the Scriptures to me as you opened them to the disciples on the Emmaus road. Let me see you on every page. Amen.