Can You Prove It?

3.6 Jesus's Approach to the Old Testament

Jesus himself told the Jewish religious leaders who opposed him:

'You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me so that I can give you this eternal life.' 17

After Jesus was raised from the dead, when he was teaching his followers on the road to Emmaus, the Bible says that he:

'...quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself.' 18

Later he told his followers:

'When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true.' 19

Our web site, www.facingthechallenge.org lists several references in John's Gospel that show how the relationship between the Old Testament and New Testament is understood there. See also session six, on understanding the Bible's story line, for more on how the whole Bible points to Christ - Old Testament as well as New.

When you think that Abraham lived around two thousand years before Christ, and Isaiah's prophecy was given seven hundred years before Christ, the way the Old Testament points forward to Jesus is a remarkable confirmation that the message is reliable and God-given.