The Presence of Christ in the Old Testament

When you read the Old Testament and you hear God speak, think of Jesus for He only speaks through His eternal Son.

Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God. He is from everlasting to everlasting, although He was not called “Jesus” until His incarnation, and he was not “the Christ,” the Anointed One until his incarnation. It was in his incarnate state that he presented himself as the High Priest and abolished the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 9:11). The incarnation was such a historical and phenomenal event that we tend to treat the Old Testament in terms of pointing to Jesus and anticipating the Son of God. The Old Testament saints, however, not only anticipated the coming of the Son of God; they also experienced his presence.

Jesus is not just in the Old Testament in typology, but in reality and in activity. This fact is taught to us in the New Testament by two points that force us to think or perhaps rethink about the revelation of God in the Old Testament. These two points are that God is heard only through the Son (John 1:1, 14) and that God is seen only through His Son (John 1:18).

When you read the Old Testament and you hear God speak, think of Jesus for He only speaks through His eternal Son.
• As the Eternal Word, the Son of God is the usual way that God speaks to sinful humanity
• As the Incarnate Word, the Son of God is the revelation of God.
• As the Written Word, the Son of God is the way that God reveals Himself to us today.