Understanding Jesus’s Sacrificial Work as Fulfillment of Old Testament Scriptures

Many still doubt that Jesus is Israel’s promised Messiah. Many refuse to believe that He is the Son of God. But it is not for lack of evidence. God doesn’t ask us to take a blind Kierkegaardian leap into the dark. Christianity is rational. Christianity is historical. The resurrection is more real than reality itself. Christianity is not a series of arbitrary spiritual concepts that we must simply take ‘on faith’ as much of liberal Christianity tells us. The spirituality of Christianity dynamically flows from the actual events of Jesus’s life and ministry. If the history is not real, then neither is the spiritual reality.

In this light, I have been asked over and over again for evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. What apologetic and defense do I give for my belief (1 Peter 3:15)? In answering that question, we could point to the actual historicity of the resurrection, which the Apostle Paul said demonstrated that Jesus was ‘the Son of God in power’ (Rom 1:4). We could also point to the fact of Jesus’s miracles, which time and time again demonstrated that He was the promised Messiah (John 20:30, 31). Jesus even pointed John the Baptist to the miracles, when John faced a cloud of doubt, while in prison (Luke 7:22, 23). Of course, the Jewish leaders misinterpreted these miracles, as unbelief always does, and wickedly attributed the miracles to Satan (Luke 11:14, 15). We could even point to Jesus’s own claims—that He claimed to be “one with the Father” (John 5 17; 10:30; etc.).

But there is another line of evidence that compels us to believe. There is another type of proof that demands faith. And that proof is fulfilled prophecy. Jesus’s ministry did not materialize out of thin air. Virtually everything Jesus did throughout His life and ministry fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and types in such a way that would be impossible for any other person to do so. For example no other person has ever been born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14). The specificity of  Bethlehem as the location of the Messiah’s birth is astounding (Micah 5:2). The location of Jesus’s ministry being in Galilee is startingly precise (Isaiah 9:1, 2). Moreover, the apologetic of scriptural fulfillment is the one that Jesus used on the Road to Emmaus with His disciples when He explained to them the necessity of His own sacrificial death. He said to them:

[25] “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! [26] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” [27] And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself”(Luke 24:25-27).

So when Jesus explained His sacrificial work to His disciples, He explained it in light of fulfilled Scriptures. He is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies and Messianic types. He is the perfect king, priest, and prophet. It was this explanation of the Scriptures that caused His disciples’ hearts “to burn” within them (Luke 24:32).

The apostle Paul also understood our Lord’s death and resurrection in terms of Old Testament fulfillment. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4, “[3] For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, [4] that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (italics added for emphasis).[1] So it is with special interest that we must examine the Old Testament prophecies, which our Lord fulfilled in His death and resurrection. The following chart is not exhaustive, but rather marks the beginnings of my work on the subject. I think the apologetic of fulfilled Old Testament prophecy is overwhelming and demands faith.
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[1] Hans K. LaRondelle, The Israel of God in Prophecy: Principles of Prophetic Interpretation (Barrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1983), 66.