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Ask FGBC #9 - How is Jesus the greater fulfillment of the Old Testament Israel?

Jim Butler · 2024-08-05 · 1,263 words · 8 min

Ask FGBC Anything

Now, I've just randomly selected 
who I'm going to ask questions of. As I said, we've got quite 
a few here and some really good ones. When I first saw this document 
from Wim, my initial response was, I'm not being very clear 
in preaching or teaching. with all of these questions. But then as I pondered, I do 
think, you know, questions in theology is good, as long as 
we're going to the scriptures for our answers. But I think 
the theological enterprise is about questions and answers. 
You know, in our Saturday morning studies, we've noticed, you know, 
after the Nicene Creed comes, that wasn't it. There were other 
creeds that came as a result of good questions. If Jesus is 
the second person in the Holy Trinity, Well, what does that 
mean in terms of His humanity? So, of course, Chalcedon is the 
natural sort of progression after considering who Jesus is that 
way. So, I think these questions do reflect thought on the people 
of God. As well, it is encouraging to 
hear from our people. I'm sure you guys have met this 
as well. You know, I'm talking to so-and-so, or I'm being asked 
questions by family members or by friends. So, the people of 
God want to be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them. 
And I've been convinced for the bulk of my life, well, all of 
my life as a Christian, the Bible and our confession of faith is 
the goods. We have the answers, and we just need to be faithful 
with that. So, I'll start with Dr. Barcelos. And the question 
is, how is Jesus the truer and greater fulfillment of God's 
Old Testament people, Israel? So perhaps before you deal with 
the truer and the greater, there might be listeners that haven't 
thought through this, that Jesus is the fulfillment of God's Old 
Testament people, Israel. I pass. That's actually a really 
good question because it assumes some continuity and a relationship 
between ancient Israel and our Lord. So that would be promise, 
fulfillment, type, anti-type. When you read the scriptures, 
In their totality, the whole canon, you conclude Adam was 
the first son of God. And there's a helpful triad of 
terms or a threefold statement that I read Graham Goldsworthy, 
I think it was. in the early 90s, where he said, 
God's people in God's place under God's rule. The first time that 
threefold description comes to play is in the garden. Adam and 
Eve are God's people in God's place under God's rule. And Adam 
is in Luke 3.38 called son of God. Okay, so then you take Luke 
3.38 back with you and you go, oh, there's the first son of 
God. In Exodus chapter 4, verses 22 and 23, Israel is called my 
son and then my firstborn. And then if you go and read the 
prophets, of course, if you continue reading in the book of Exodus, 
you get to the the account, the narrative of the Exodus itself, 
the redemption of the Old Testament. Most Christians throughout history 
until recently viewed it as God setting the world up for a greater 
act. There's going to be another, a new Exodus, okay? So use the 
language of new, new Exodus or new, new something. How is Jesus 
the truer, greater fulfillment of God's Old Testament people? 
So when I'm using new, I mean synonymous with true and greater. So you see the narrative of the 
event. predates the narrative, and the 
narrative isn't a theological, exhaustive theological treatise 
of all the entailments of the act of God at the exodus. So 
that we can say this, acts of God can be pregnant with more 
meaning than the first narration of the act. So how do we know 
this? We keep reading the Bible. So 
by the time you get to the prophets, the prophets are looking back 
at the exodus, and yet And they're scolding the people on the one 
hand, because they're God's prosecuting attorneys, you know, who is declined. 
But they're also holding out promise for the future in the 
language of Exodus, using the language of on the way. They're 
using wilderness language. They're using language of light, 
taking God's people out of a dark place into the light and things 
like that. That's all in the prophets. But 
it started in Moses, OK? So when you get to the New Testament, 
there's interesting things that happen. You have Matthew chapter 
2, verses 13 to 15. Hosea 11.1 is cited in a fulfillment 
motif. This happened in order that that 
which the prophet said would take place, or God through the 
prophet said would take place, out of Egypt shall I call my 
son. If you go back and read Hosea, you might just go, How's 
Matthew doing this? You've got to read the entire 
book of Hosea, OK? So there's these technical terms 
that theologians use for that. When writers cite the Old Testament 
and they're saying this current event is that which the prophet 
said took place, they're inviting you to not just go read the verse. 
They want you to read the context. That's right. And the broadest 
context, obviously, is the whole canon context. But they want 
you to read the context in the Old Testament. because they didn't 
have a New Testament when Matthew wrote Matthew. Although Matthew 
wrote the first, he was the first writer of the New Testament. Yeah, so they want you to go 
back and read the cognitive peripheral vision of the reader should be 
like the writers, broader than just the citation. We should 
take other data. And when you do that, there's 
interesting texts in the first part of Hosea, and then in the 
middle part as well, and then in the end, that are both looking 
back and forward. So you have this looking back 
to the Exodus, and then using Exodus language to look forward. 
Isaiah is probably the biggest example of that. By the way, 
is there a time limit? Yeah, another three minutes. 
So Isaiah is probably the biggest example of that. And you guys 
know the second exodus prophecies of the Isaianic literature. There are scholars that have 
written books on Isaiah's second exodus in the Gospel of Mark, 
Isaiah's second exodus in the Book of Acts. Somebody could 
write a book, Isaiah's second exodus in the Book of First Peter 
as well. So Jesus comes on the scene, 
he's identified with corporate Israel, and yet he's an individual 
person. He's also the fulfillment of 
the servant oracles of the prophets. Sometimes the servant oracles 
are plural, corporate, sometimes they're individual. And even 
the ones appended to our Lord during his earthly ministry, 
sometimes they're corporate, sometimes they're individual. 
What's happening? Jesus is the new Israel, obedient Israel. 
doing what Israel should have done but didn't, and of course 
doing what God's first son failed to do. Israel is a new Adam that 
fails, and then Christ is the last Adam. So we could go on 
for days, but you said three minutes. No, that's very helpful. 
Very good. And you certainly see those links 
made by the New Testament authors. By the writers. Yeah. By the 
Lord. By the Lord and then his apostles. Why do you think they 
did what the Lord did? Because he's their Lord. Lordship 
hermeneutics. That's right. There you go. Lordship 
hermeneutics. That's a good book title. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. 
All right.