Is Christ in All of Scripture?
My husband and I looked down at the GPS on our phone and then back up at our surroundings. There was supposed to be a coffee shop here, but we couldn’t see it anywhere. “Maybe we’re on the wrong side of the building?” I suggested. So we walked all around to the other side, but it still wasn’t there. “Maybe it’s not here anymore,” I wondered. I was ready to give up and pick another shop that was actually visible, but my husband insisted that we try and go back to where we started. We went a little further than last time, turned a corner, and there it was—a coffee shop tucked in an alleyway.
When we think about looking for Christ in all of Scripture, we might feel like it’s a complicated hunt. There are passages of Scripture where the connection to Christ is obvious. But then there are passages of Scripture that don’t seem to have anything to do with Jesus at all. Is Christ in the long lists of censuses and genealogies? Is Christ in the passages that seem obscure and hard to understand? Is Christ really in all of Scripture?
Christ is in All of Scripture
Christ is in all of Scripture because all passages in Scripture either point to or are fulfilled in Him. In Luke 24, Jesus appears to some disciples after His resurrection. To help them understand what the Old Testament says about Him and the purpose of His death and resurrection, Luke writes, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). Jesus also tells His disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). 2 Corinthians 1:20 says something similar as Paul writes, “For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him.” All of these passages teach us that all of Scripture is about Jesus and is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. This even includes the parts of the Bible that don’t seem to allude to Jesus on the surface.
How to See Christ in All of Scripture
You might be thinking, Okay—I’m with you in recognizing that all of Scripture is about Jesus. But how do I go about finding Him in everything I read in the Bible? Here are several ways you can see Christ in your own study of God’s Word.
1. Look for God’s promises
Because God’s promises find their “Yes” in Jesus, every promise that we read in the Old Testament is fulfilled by Christ in the New. This means that as you look for and read promises God makes in the Old Testament, you can consider how these promises are eventually fulfilled through Christ. For example, God’s promises to bring His people restoration are ultimately fulfilled through Christ who restores our relationship with God and makes us new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
2. Look for problems
There are so many instances in Scripture where we come across brokenness, evil, and pain. While these passages are often hard to read, they point us to the need for Christ’s redemption and restoration. Only Jesus can fix the brokenness sin creates. So when we come across passages in the Bible when people are behaving wickedly or sin is apparent, we can allow those passages to remind us how Christ is the solution for the problem of sin and how He took all of our sin upon Himself to bring about salvation and restoration.
3. Look for people
As mentioned above, the sinfulness of people can point us to our need for Christ. People’s failures and weaknesses can also point us to Christ, because Jesus is the only One who is perfect. Certain people in the Old Testament are also often designated as “types” of Christ who reflect Christ’s roles or characteristics in different ways. For example, David is a type of Christ because He was king and a man after God’s own heart, but Jesus is the true King who rules over all of creation and in perfect obedience to God. So don’t breeze past people’s names in Scripture. Even genealogies point us to Christ because the names in those genealogies often play a part in God’s story of redemption that is ultimately fulfilled through Christ.
Don’t Give Up When the Hunt is Hard
Discovering Jesus in all of Scripture takes intentionality and practice. So don’t feel discouraged if you can’t see Christ in the text you’re reading. The more time you spend in Scripture, the more you will learn to see Jesus in all of Scripture. Be patient with yourself, keep reading, and ask God to help you grow in your understanding of the passages you read. And if you are looking for a resource to grow you in this area, check out our yearlong study, Christ in All of Scripture! As you spend the year making connections to Christ in the passages you read, you will learn how to make connections on your own and grow in your knowledge of how Christ truly is in all of Scripture.
