Question: If Jesus is the one who saves us today, how are all who died before Jesus?
- How is the Bible articulated as a whole? Biblical events took place for thousands of years and in different cultures How can we unify all this into one topic?.
One of the unifying themes of the Bible is divine authority. All the books of the Bible are the word of God. Biblical events are there because of God’s will and he placed them for the instruction of his people: “For all that has been written before, for our teaching has been written, that with the patience and comfort of the scriptures we may have hope (Romans 15:4).
The Bible also declares that God has a unified plan for history. His ultimate goal, a plan for the “fullness of time,” is to “unite all things in Christ, in heaven, and on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). ), “in praise of his glory”? (Ephesians 1:12). God has had his plan from the beginning :?Remember the old things; Am I God and is there no other, who declares an end from the beginning, since ancient times?Will my advice survive? (Isaiah 46:9-10). ” But when the 30th of times came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that he may receive the adoption of children (Galatians 4:4-5).
Christ’s work on earth, and in particular his crucifixion and resurrection, is the pinnacle of history; It is the great center in which God consumes the salvation to which the whole history of the Old Testament is directed, fulfilling the promises made by the Old Testament. Today he looks at the accomplished work of Christ, but also the consumption of his work. when the time comes for the “new heavens and new earth in which justice dwells” (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21: 1?22: 5).
God’s unified plan led him to include promises and predictions throughout the past, and fulfill them later. Sometimes the promises are explicit, as with the promise of the messiah’s coming (Isaiah 9:6?7). Sometimes they are symbolic, as when he decides that animals should be sacrificed as a symbol of forgiveness of sins (Lv 4). In itself, sacrifice has not forgiven sins (Hebrews 10:1:18). They showed Christ.
Because God’s plan is for His glory, focusing on Christ (Ephesians 1:10), is it natural for Old Testament promises to point to Christ?(2 Corinthians 1:20). When Christ appeared to the disciples after his resurrection, He made them understand that he (Christ) was in the scriptures and said:
O foolish and foolish of heart to believe all that the prophets have said!Wasn’t it appropriate for Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?And, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what had been found of him. in all the scriptures; And he said unto them, These are the words which I said unto you when I was still with you: that all that is written of me in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the psalms may be fulfilled. Then he opened their understanding for them to understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it was fitting for Christ to suffer, and on the third day be resurrected from the dead, and that in his name repentance and the remission of sins in all nations should be foretold, beginning with Jerusalem (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47).
When does the Bible say it?(Luke 24:45), this does not simply mean that Christ showed them some predictions about himself as Messiah, this means that Christ is the center of the whole Old Testament, encompassing all three parts of the Old Testament as the Jews knew him: the Law of Moses, including Genesis in Deuteronomy; Prophets, including previous prophets (such as Joshua Seuthoric, the judges, Samuel, the kings) and later (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Twelve). The Psalms represented for the Jews the third part of the books called The Heart of All These Writings is that they have emphasized Jesus’ suffering, his resurrection, and the consequent preaching of the gospel to all nations (Luke 24:47). The AT as a whole, through its promises, symbols of salvation, indicates the fulfillment of the Redemption that took place once and for all in Christ.
In what ways does the Old Testament indicate Christ? First, through promises of salvation and promises of God’s commitment to His people. God has given us specific promises about the Messiah as Savior in David’s line. Through the prophet Miqueas, God promised that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David (Miqueas 5:2), a prophecy that was perfectly fulfilled (Matthew 2:1-12). But God has often made general promises concerning future days of salvation, detailing their fulfillment (for example, Isaiah 25:6-9; 60:1-7).
A common refrain was “Will I be your God, and they will be my people?”(See Jeremiah 31:33; Osseas 2:23; Zechariah 8: 8; 13: 9; Hebrews 8:10). Sometimes variations of that promise focused on people and what they should be, and in other cases it was About God and what God should do. Promise, will I be your God? It’s really a commitment to be with your employees, take care of them, discipline them, protect them, meet their needs and have a personal relationship with them. Continually, this promise is finally consumed in the salvation that God wants. bring Christ.
This principle extends to all the promises of the Old Testament: “Do all of God’s promises have a yes in Him (Christ)?(2 Corinthians 1:20). Sometimes God immediately gave temporal blessings. These blessings were simply an anticipation of the rich blessings that would come through Christ: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all kinds of spiritual blessings in heavenly regions?(Ephesians 1: 3).
But God’s relationship with his people was not only a relationship of blessings, of course, but also of warnings and promises of curse, because of God’s righteous reaction to sin. These warnings referred to Christ and pointed him out in two parts First, Christ is the Lamb of God, who bears the curse (John 1:29; 1 Peter 2:24). He was innocent of sin, but he bore the curse for us (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). Each occasion in the Old Testament that describes God’s wrath against sin and its punishment indicates the wrath that fell upon Christ on the cross.
Second, Christ will fight sin and destroy it at the Second Coming. His Second Coming and Consummation will be the moment when the final judgment against sin is executed. Each punishment for sin in times past indicates the final judgment. Christ anticipated his final judgment when in life he cast out demons and denounced the sins of religious leaders.
God’s promises in the Old Testament are not only in the context of God’s commitments to his people, but also in the obligations of the people to God. Noah, Abraham, and others whom God meets and addresses are called not only to believe in God, but to respond with their lives to God’s call. God’s relationship with his people is consumed by covenants. When God makes an alliance with man, he is presented as the Sovereign who specifies the alliance’s obligations to both sides. ?Will I be your God? It is the fundamental obligation on God’s side, while ‘will they be my people?’It is the fundamental obligation on the human side.
For example, when God calls Abram, He says: “Get out of your country and your kinship with the country that I am going to show you” (Genesis 12: 1). This command specifies an obligation on Abram’s part. But God says what he will do for you: “And will I make you a great nation and bless you?” (Genesis 12: 2). God’s statements take the form of promises, blessings, and warnings. The promises and blessings point to Christ, who is the fulfillment of the promises and the ultimate source of God’s blessings. The warnings (curses) indicate Christ in his role as substitute and executor of judgment against sin, especially at his second coming.
Christ also has obligations on the human side of covenants; Christ is completely man and completely God; as a man, he is with his people on the human side; fulfills the obligations of covenants by their perfect obedience (Hebrews 5:8). He received the reward for his obedience in his resurrection and ascent (Philippians 2:9-10). Old Testament covenants on the human side indicate their realization in Christ.
By confronting God’s wrath against sin, Christ has changed man’s situation from alienation to peace. He reconciled us with God (2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Romans 5: 6-11). He brought us the privilege of a personal relationship with God, the fact that we are called children of God (Romans 8:14-17). Intimacy with God is what the whole Old Testament anticipates. In Isaiah, God declares that His servant, the Messiah, will be the covenant for his people (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8).
With covenants, the Bible focuses on a special element, namely the promise regarding the offspring of Jesus. In the covenant with Abram, God calls him to “walk in his presence and be perfect” (Genesis 17:1). Is that the human side? Obligation of the pact. On the other hand, God promises to turn it into? Father of the mob?(Genesis 17:4), and changes its name to Abraham (Genesis 17:5). And this covenant extends to the later generations of Abraham: “I will establish my covenant between you and your offspring after you through an eternal covenant. Will I give you and your offspring the land of possession?(Genesis 17: 7-8).
The promises made to Abraham are very important because they are the foundation of the nation of Israel. Abraham’s story shows that he had a son, Isaac, who was the result of God’s promise and gave birth to the twelve tribes.
But how does all this relate to Christ? Christ is the descendant of David and Abraham (Matthew 1:1). He is Abraham’s posterity: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and his offspring. He does not say, And to offspring, as if speaking of several, but as one: And for thy seed, who is Christ?(Galatians 3:16; Genesis 22: 15-18).
Did Abraham hear the call, walk behind me, and it was perfect?(Genesis 17:1). He trusted God (Galatians 3:9; Hebrews 11: 8-12, 17-19), but he had his faults and sins. In the end, who walks in God’s presence and is perfect?Not Abraham! No one in this world except Christ (Hebrews 4:15). Everyone else who succeeded Abraham in the?Descendants? They were sinners. That is why the covenant with Abraham has a certain point for Christ, Christ is the final descendant to whom all of the above points out: Isaac, Jacob and jacob’s children, among them, it is Judah who will have a kingdom (Genesis 49 : 10). David is a descendant of Abraham and Judah; Solomon is a descendant of David; followed by Jeroboam and the other descendants of David and Solomon (Matthew 1:1?16).
Christ is not only the heir by law, but the only perfect one; thanks to her, we unsern and become ourselves?Descendants? From Abraham (Galatians 3:29); Christians, Jews, and pagans are partakers of the promise (Galatians 3:28-29).
Christ is not only the perfect descendant of Abraham, but, before that, the descendant of the woman (Genesis 3:15). Victory over the serpent and evil and the reversal of its effects is rooted in the offspring of women. , passing through Eve, Seven, Noah, etc. (Luke 3:23-38). Thus, Christ is also the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-49) and, as Adam was, Christ represents all who have descended from him, by faith.
The NT constantly speaks of Christ and salvation. What’s not so obvious to people is that the same goes for the Old Testament, but now it’s happening as anticipation, okay?Shadows? And
For example, 1 Corinthians 10:6 says that the events that happened to the Israelites in the wilderness were “examples to us. “And 1 Corinthians 10:11 says, “These things have happened as an example to us, for our instruction. ? In 1 Corinthians 10: 6 and 11, the Greek word for “Example” is typographical errors, of what?Type? (see Romans 5:14).
A “type” in theological language is an example, symbol, or special figure that God has planned for the future. Animal sacrifices were “types” of Christ. The temple was the presence of God. And is Christ the complete realization of this kind?(Matthew 1:23; Jn 2:21). Old Testament priests were types of Christ, the high priest (Hebrews 7:11?8: 7).
Perfect fulness has its place in Christ (Ephesians 1:10; 2 Corinthians 1:20). But the NT also says that those who are “in Christ,” who put their faith in him, receive the benefits of what he has consumed. So, can we find it at the AT? Types? Referring to the church For example, the temple foreshadows Christ, whose body is the temple (John 2:21), but also foreshadows the church, which is called a temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Some symbols of the AT speak of the final consumption that will take place in the “new heavens and the new earth” (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21: 1?22: 5). The Jerusalem of the Old Testament foreshadows the new Jerusalem, which comes from God?(Revelation 21:2).
The Bible clearly states that since Adam fell into sin, sin and its consequences have been the greatest problem for the human race. Sin is a rebellion against God and your wage is death (Romans 6:23). God is holy and no one can be in his presence without dying (Exodus 33:20). Therefore, man needs Christ as a mediator to answer for him before God (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Christ is God and man, but without sin, and is the only one sufficient to carry out this mediation.
Although in the latter case there is only one mediator, in the Old Testament there are several representative mediators: Moses, for example (Ex 19). When the people were terrified of God’s presence, Moses interceded for him (Exodus 20:18-21, Deuteronomy 5:28-33).
But if the mediator is one, how could Moses be?Moses foreshadowed the mediation of Christ, who is the true mediator; because Moses was a sinner, he could not be in God’s presence without forgiveness, that is, without having a Therefore Moses could be there in God’s presence only because, according to God’s plan, Christ’s work would make the Atonement of Moses’ sins. How could the benefits of Christ’s redemption be provided for Moses, like all Old Testament Saints, how could they be saved if God demanded perfection?God is perfectly holy. Christ, who was to come, applied perfection to them with grace.
This means that there is only one means of salvation in the Old and New Testaments: only Christ can save us (Acts 4:12) and in the Old Testament salvation is often represented by a mediator, who can be a lying person or institution. between God and man.
Then the unity of the Bible increases when we see the cases in which God saves his people and the cases in which a mediator in the Old Testament stands between God and man God brings spiritual salvation in the form of personal communion, spiritual intimacy, and promise of eternal life with God. Not only cases of spiritual salvation, but temporary salvation, in the “physical” sense, which foreshadows salvation in the spiritual sense. In fact, salvation is not simply spiritual. Do we observe the resurrection of the body and the?New heavens and new land where justice lives?(2 Peter 3:13). Personal salvation begins with the renewal of the heart, but in its consumption it will reach cosmic dimensions. The AT, with regard to physical earth, material prosperity, and physical health, anticipates the prosperity of believers in new heaven and the new earth from a physical point of view.
Cases of mediators in the Old Testament include prophets, kings, and priests; prophets bring the word of God to the people; kings, when they submit to God, bring the kingdom of God to the people; priests represent the people in the presence of God. Christ is the Prophet, King, and Priest who performs these three functions in the ultimate sense (Hebrews 1:1-3). We can also observe the wise, who bring God’s wisdom to the people; and the warriors, who bring the liberation of enemies; and musicians, who praise God among the people, showing God’s character with music.
Mediation involves not only human figures, but also institutions. Covenants play a mediation role in bringing the word of God to the people; The temple brings the presence of God. Animal sacrifice brings God’s forgiveness. As we read the Bible, we see all these means of mediation established by God. And because there is only one mediator, it means that everyone points to Christ.
Translation: Pablo Monteiro, 2011. Supplied by: monergismo. com