Where Jesus Saw His Own Face

British Bible scholar and churchman Chris Wright--

We are . . . familiar with the idea that, as Paul put it, 'all the promises of God are "Yes" in Christ' (2 Cor. 1:20). But in a sense all the acts of God are 'Yes' in Christ also. For the Old Testament is much more than a promise box full of blessed predictions about Jesus. It is primarily a story--the story of the acts of God in human history out of which those promises arose and in relation to which only they make sense. . . .

It was the Old Testament which helped Jesus to understand Jesus. Who did he think he was? What did he think he was to do? The answers came from his Bible, the Hebrew scriptures in which he found a rich tapestry of figures, historical persons, prophetic pictures and symbols of worship. And in this tapestry, where others saw only a fragmented collection of various figures and hopes, Jesus saw his own face. His Hebrew Bible provided the shape of his own identity.

--Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament (IVP, 1995), 27, 108; emphasis original