Ch. 23 - Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament

Understanding the Scriptures

In this lesson, Carson discusses how Jesus perfectly fulfills the Old Testament in two main ways: (1) Jesus fulfills various Old Testament foretypes that point to him, and (2) Jesus is the answer to the building climactic story of the Old Testament. In this particular chapter, focus is placed on the first of these two means of fulfillment. Numerous Old Testament characters served as types or figures of Jesus. We get the English word "type" from the Greek term tupos {too-pos}: "impression, figure, or stamp." These types find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus who is the antitype. The Greek term anti {an-tee} means "opposite to" or "in place of." So, the antitype is that which the type finds fulfillment in. This has been discussed previously in Chapters 2 and 3, and this lesson sums up our study of various major Old Testament types. You will learn how Jesus is the New Adam, the New Noah, the New Moses, the New Israel, the New Isaac, the New David, and the New Solomon. The major characteristics of these prominent figures are mirrored in our Savior, as the authors of the Gospels are careful to point out. Throughout the course of Salvation History, God has prepared humanity for the climactic revelation of his Son. We are granted the blessing of 20/20 vision as we look back in hindsight and discover this gradual and beautiful divine work of preparation. Jesus summed up the Sermon on the Mount with these words: "Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock" (Mt 7:24-25). Jesus' audience knew well of a famous wise man (Solomon) who built the most famous house of all (the Temple) upon the stone of foundation, which today is housed under the golden capped Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Like Solomon of old, Jesus builds his Church - the New Temple - upon Peter, the Rock. Almost two-thousand years later, that kingdom continues to thrive as it is united around the successor of St. Peter: the pope.