Proving that Jesus is the Christ From the Old Testament. Part 15

[Repeat of series introduction that began on 17 December 2023: Where would you go today in the Old Testament to argue that Jesus is the Christ? There’s so much to this that cannot be dismissed. We’re given in many ways what the Messiah would be like, what his character would be, how he’d be received (even by different people), what he’d do, how he’d redeem, that we’d have his lineage, what he’d say, how it would all end, how he’d come and more. So much, and we see it all done in just one man! How would you know that he is the promised Messiah? Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, and glorification all demonstrate the facets of his excellent work. Jesus himself asked two of his disciples the same question I could ask you today, and then went to the same source to explain it that I’d like to go to as well in this series: “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:26-27. Jesus had to suffer to then enter into his glory he said. With this premise, he goes through some measure of the 39 books of the Old Testament revealing himself to them thereby. This is the same Old Testament we have today. I wish we were given the transcript of that talk, but God didn’t wish to give it. But can we see it? Many historical events in the Scriptures could be fulfilled by men and women, but no one but Jesus (Messiah) could fulfill them all. The Lord himself demonstrated that he was and is the Christ, and our New Testament reflects that its writers were well aware of this. The clear approach of the Apostles was to argue the same from the Bible that Jesus read- the 39 books we now call the Old Testament. To know what it means that Jesus is the Christ is to show the fulness of God’s revelation to mankind in the New Testament in him. In the Old Testament, God said he’d defeat sin and death; the New Testament shows us that work done. There are so many ways to talk of this. So many passages. I won’t exhaust them, but in this series, I wish to examine some of these passages. These passages are how I would prove Jesus is the Christ from the Old Testament].

According to the Bible, Adam was made as the first of mankind. He did not evolve from lower life forms some six million years ago. That’s obviously just unreasonable and a-scientific poppycock. Adam was without doubt made special from the start less than ten thousand years ago in our Creator’s own image and likeness. He and Eve were made the same. After their unique creation, God chose to allow mankind to create life. Seed. To participate in bringing life itself about. From these two therefore, we all came. There have been interesting studies emerging lately from numerous geneticists whose models are becoming more and more biblical. An internet search for “Y chromosome Adam and mitochondrial eve” will show you some models that are becoming more biblical. Many geneticists, some of whom I’d actually trust, are today affirming that all of us descended from two ancestors within just hundreds of thousands of years ago out of Africa. It’s not that they’re affirming Genesis…yet, but the studies are sounding more accurate according to the Bible. The math adds up just fine through today. Ever since we were made, we get to share in making life. We pro-create. Amazing! Children are referred to as “seed” many times in the Bible. Seed is a tremendous theme in the whole of the book as to God’s blessings. Genesis 1:28; 9:1; 22:17; Psalm 127:4-5, etc. One of the most incredible ways the blessing of offspring was set forth in the Bible is in the blessing Rebekah’s family spoke over her just before she was to return with Eleazar to Isaac. Eleazar had found Rebekah in God’s guiding providences. She agreed to go back with the man and her family says to her just before he departure: “May you, our sister, become thousands of ten thousands, and may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them.” Genesis 24:60. What a beautiful idea. The blessing of seed is clear. But there’s one Seed above them all that blesses. Jesus is The Seed of mankind, but is 100% God.
In the story of my father Abraham, he is promised seed. To an as yet childless man God says one evening, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them…so shall your descendants be.” Genesis 15:5. Thousands of years earlier, God spoke cryptically of a seed who would in fact undo the curse on mankind as a whole. Genesis 3:15. From a study of the whole, we can see that this is God bringing about the promise of Christ’s (God’s Son’s) incarnation from the day Abraham’s great great…great grandfather Adam first sinned. Jesus is spoken of as the Seed to whom the promises to Abraham was actually made. This plays out through the whole of the Bible. There are two seeds on earth among men, one of Satan, and one of God. A godly seed, the elect, and an un-godly seed, the non-elect. Believers and non-believers. Billions of people. Jesus is The Seed over all the seed.
Listen to Paul in Galatians: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.” Galatians 3:16. Paul says here that Jesus is the Seed to whom the triune God spoke the promise. This promise is Christianity ultimately. Abraham was given promises by God; they were indeed fulfilled in his life in many ways, but ultimately are fulfilled in Jesus, the incarnate Godman who came much later. I think of them like a layaway fee paid later.
God gave grace and still does. To everyone grace is given, Jesus paid for it. He justifies it. God will lavish his love on an untold multitude and Christ made it all justifiable and possible. I cannot understand the nature of this promise to Abraham without understanding the triune nature of God. The Father promises the Son something here and he involved Abraham. It’s even possible that the two items that passed through the cut animals while Abraham was fast asleep were to represent the Father and the Spirit with the Son represented by all the animals slain in sacrifice. Genesis 15:7 reads: “It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.” The promises to Abraham were really between God’s Persons. Abraham just gets the blessings granted as a result. God produces seed and the Seed, and both, in their ways, from mankind. Jesus is that virgin-born Seed Paul said to whom the promises were truly made. Now, the promises took God’s timing to unfold. It included Abraham’s descendants and their time in Egypt and a lot of other folks for two millennia, but what it ultimately took was the Cross to bring it all to pass. Christ fulfills the Law and fulfills the promise. Abraham is now, in Christ his Lord and his descendent, the spiritual father of every Christian on earth since. This is the fulfillment of the counting of the stars exercise.
Jesus is the Seed of all seed. He is the Christ. Abraham now bows at his feet and we should too. The continuity of this is like a thread from page one to the last in the Bible.

God bless!!!
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