18 February 2009

The Whole OT Gathered Up

My favorite passage from France's Jesus and the OT. Each of these assertions is footnoted with references from the Gospels.

Jesus' types are drawn from a wide range of aspects of Israel seen in the OT. . . . he uses persons in the OT as types of himself (David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jonah). . . ; he refers to OT institutions as types of himself and his work (the priesthood and the covenant); he sees in the experiences of Israel foreshadowings of his own; he finds the hopes of Israel fulfilled in himself and his disciples and sees his disciples as assuming the status of Israel. . . .

In all these aspects of the OT people of God Jesus sees foreshadowings of himself and his work, with its results in the opposition and consequent rejection of the majority of the Jews, while the true Israel is now to be found in the new Christian community. Thus in his coming the history of Israel has reached its decisive point. The whole of the OT is gathered up in him. He himself embodies in his own person the status and destiny of Israel, and in the community of those who belong to him that status and destiny are to be fulfilled, no longer in the nation as such.

--Jesus and the Old Testament, 75-76, emphasis original

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