[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].
There is a lot of command in the Old Testament (OT) about offerings “without blemish” or “unblemished.” We now know how all of this speaks of Jesus’ death, yes, but we can also know of the unique type of his death as well. Jesus is truly the only innocent man who ever died. So much in the OT about the need for quality sacrifices. Exodus 12:4a: “Your lamb shall be an unblemished…” See also: Numbers 19:2; Exodus 29:1; Deuteronomy 17:1; Ezekiel 43:22-25; 45:18, 23; 46:4; Leviticus 22:21, etc. The underlying idea conveyed is that the unblemished animals were the best, and were commanded. This is similar to those in the priesthood needing to have no deformities. There were more blemished than unblemished animals. Though they too were created by God and had civil laws applying to them, the unblemished animals were always considered the best of the animals. The all-black horse. The all-brown cow. The all-gray goat, etc. God asked for the best in offerings. When one considers the whole range and scale of God’s redemptive work from Moses through Jesus it becomes clear that this was not for no purpose. The unblemished nature of the best animals pointed toward the blood to be shed, amazingly, by God’s Messiah. It was the very best of blood.
The New Testament gives us this in great detail. Its imagery here is like a right hand to the left hand of the Old Testament. In one offering Jesus shows us why God demanded blood sacrifices in Israel.
1 Peter 1:18-19 leaves no doubt. Peter says to all believers, “You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” Hebrews 10:5 puts the appropriate following words in the mouth of Jesus: “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “You have not desired sacrifice and offering, But You have prepared a body for Me.” This is the Son speaking to the Father. The blemishes represented sin or imperfection. Jesus had no sin. His body was slain in its perfection. Jesus alone is called “sinless” several times in the New Testament. Of course, if he was one degree less than so then he’d need a Savior just like 100% of the rest of humanity (Mary his mother included).
That Jesus be sinless or “without blemish” is an essential doctrine. It is substantiated by his virgin birth being that he is not in that sense “from Adam” or under the heading or family of sin. And it is substantiated in the New Testament as a witness to the perfection of Jesus’ shed blood. Hebrews again presents the following to Christians, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things having come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by hands, that is, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all time, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:11-14. God purchased his church with his own blood. Acts 20:28. His own sinless body’s perfect blood.
This is the grandest picture of redemption my puny head can imagine: life was lost in death when our parents sinned by disobeying God’s order. “…on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:17. They ate, and they died a death far more sobering than just a physical death. Jesus came as another Adam and never “ate” of sin. Never sinned. Never rebelled. His death literally allows for God to be justified in forgiving all of his elect. All believing sinners are redeemed and Jesus’ blood is so perfect it makes all things right again forever in a new heavens and new earth to come. No one will say God didn’t fix it. Jesus died a death worth more than us all so that we could live. This is all because of his submission unto death in the place of all sinners before the Spirit and before the Father. The triune God has accomplished a pardoning work for his bride through the unblemished body of Jesus. Repent and believe the good news. Christ has perfectly died (that perfect blood has been shed), Christ rose again perfectly, and Christ will come again perfectly.
God bless!!!
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