Reading Scripture - PART 4

Preface

In this fourth foray into the reading of scripture, we will look at the New Testament with the Old Testament (1) in view, as it relates to Jesus in John’s gospel. How does Jesus employ the Hebrew Scriptures?

Introduction

The New Testament constantly references the Hebrew Scriptures because they are the foundation of God’s revelation of himself. It is where Jesus and the apostles started from, and they are interpreted as seeing Jesus as the completion/fulfilment of God’s promises to Israel.

They speak of him, in ways unforeseen and unimaginable. It has been said that if all we know is the New Testament we don’t know the New Testament.

The Revelation of John

The Revelation of John has over 500 allusions in its 404 verses to the Hebrew Scriptures, and no book speaks more of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In simple terms we can’t read the New Testament, nor could it have been written, without a clear understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures; we can’t read the Revelation of John without understanding its constant references to Daniel and Ezekiel.  These references and allusions guide our hermeneutic of John’s Revelation.

The Gospel of John

Jesus in the gospel accounts, and the more so in John’s gospel, consistently interprets the Hebrew Scriptures as being fulfilled in himself. Our problem is we see these illustrations of who Jesus is as quaint pictures, pictorial descriptions of Jesus the Saviour. But they are of significantly more importance than just pictures Jesus used to describe himself. Every statement he made about who he was in John’s gospel is a prophetic explication and extension of the Hebrew Scriptures - he is that light, that door, that life, that bread, that life the prophets spoke of.

Jesus didn’t call himself the good shepherd as though he was just a caring gatherer and protector – having a pastoral nature. This statement made in John 10.1-18 has clear Davidic allusions, but more so he is identifying himself as the ‘Lord is my shepherd’ from Psalm 23. This is far from just mirroring the nature of a good shepherd, this is Jesus proclaiming his pre-existent divinity. He is the I am. He is the Lord David wrote of in his Psalm about God’s protection and providence. Jesus is the good shepherd, and he determines all that are his. John 10.1-8.

In the same passage, Jesus said something those familiar with the Prophets would hear strains of Ezekiel in. Jesus calls himself the gate (NRSV) or the door. Again, this isn’t just tied to the immediacy of him talking of being the Good Shepherd with the key to the sheep pen. It has far-reaching implications that Ezekiel prophesied in chapters 44 to 48. He saw a new temple, a door, a river, amongst other things. This temple was never built after the exile, which points to the possibility of something else going on. Either it is a yet-to-happen event, or it has been fulfilled in ways not foreseen, nor imagined by the prophet.

If we understand what God was doing in Jesus, we will see how he fulfils and thus makes redundant the temple. Jesus is the door, he is the river of living water, and he is the temple. There is no greater or yet-to-be fulfilment as these promises of God are Yes and Amen in Christ. To hanker for a new temple in Jerusalem is sentimental at best, and a misunderstanding of all that Jesus is, at worst. In Him is fulfilled all that was spoken through the prophets.

Not only this, the rivers of living water also speak of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus spoke of the living water, he was referring to the Spirit. The life-giving source flowing from the temple culminating in a great river speaks of the Spirit being poured out on the church. John 7.37-39.

Jesus called himself the bread of heaven, with direct and specific reference to the manna given via Moses in the wilderness to Israel. John 6.22-59. This is a clear fulfilment of that bread given to the people.  Jesus is that bread that gives life; he is broken to feed us. It is obvious Jesus is saying that for all that the towering figure of Moses brought, he is greater. Jesus is the prophet Moses said would come after him and that the people should listen to him. Deuteronomy 18.15 -18. Acts 3.22; 7.37.

This isn’t just about bread that perishes but a life that never fades, a forever life – about which the bread, the wilderness manna, was only a foretaste. Jesus is heaven’s life.  Jesus is therefore God, and not just a good spiritual meal.

In John 8.12 Jesus called himself the light of the world; an audacious claim as it means he is the light Israel was meant to be. Acts13.47. What they failed to be; he fulfils.  The purpose of Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles – Isaiah 49.6. Jesus is Israel embodied as the obedient servant. He fulfils the Abrahamic covenant in that in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Gen 12.1-3.

Add to this the claim to be the resurrection and the life. John 11.25-26. Any Jewish person knew what this meant, as it has Daniel 12.2 in mind, where God raises everyone on the last day for judgment.  Jesus is saying this is him – he is the resurrection, he has resurrection power – displayed in the raising of the thoroughly dead, Lazarus. He is in so doing proclaiming his divinity, as only God can raise the dead.

Conclusion

All these statements John has recorded for us are remarkable and, to many, disturbing. Jesus is interpreting the Hebrew Scriptures/promises as being fulfilled in his person. And he is stating his divinity - his oneness with the Father. Paul writes that all the promises of God, in the Hebrew Scriptures, are yes and Amen in Jesus. All: land, temple, law, nation, world, etc., “for in him every one of God’s promises is a yes.”  2 Corinthians 1.20. Even the amen could refer to Psalm 41.13 where a double affirmative is spoken in praise of “the Lord, the God of Israel.

When we read these remarkable descriptions of Jesus sourced in the Hebrew Scripture, we see that Jesus is the goal, the fulfilment of the prophets. He wonderfully fulfils these scriptures because he is what they point to. The prophecies were completed in a person -  the second person of the Trinity. The themes of temple, law and land, etc., are completed in him, in Christ, and in his church.  He fulfils the law, he is the temple, the nation, and the land.

Everything is by him, for him, and through him. This is what the Hebrew prophets prophesied, and this is how the Hebrew Scriptures were interpreted by Jesus, Paul, and the early church.

(1) Hereafter called – Hebrew Scriptures.