And as they were saying these things, he himself stood in their midst, and says to them, Peace [be] unto you.
The two disciples back from Emmaus were still telling their story when the risen Lord stood among them. He greeted them with an everyday word, peace — yet they first had to be sure this was the same Jesus who had died.
This was not a triumphant welcome. He came to a group hiding behind shut doors, and He used words any Jew would use at a door.
John, who was there, tells us the doors were shut for fear of the Jews. Yet the Lord stood among them and greeted them with words everyone knew: "Peace be to you." It was the usual Jewish greeting (Luke 10:5). They were terrified and frightened at what they saw, for they thought it was a spirit.
The same familiar phrase now carried more than it ever had. Earlier in Luke, Jesus sent seventy messengers out to say "Peace be to this house" — a wish. Here the risen Christ is not wishing.
"Peace be to you," the risen Saviour said to His disciples when He came back to them. He let them read their title to peace. Peace was now not merely wished for. He pronounced it with authority and handed it to them on the strength of the Cross. Jesus now gave peace to them, because He had already made it for them… We do not just say, like the seventy He sent out, "Peace be to this house," as a greeting or a good wish. We proclaim the sure, settled, purchased peace, which sinners have a title to in the blood of the Cross.
Christ made peace at one point in history and announced it at another. How does it become yours?
He rises from the dead, and the very first word He says to the company is, "Peace to you."… How do you get it? "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). Christ is it. On the cross He made it. Risen, He proclaims it. In faith you receive it, and in the power of the Holy Spirit you enjoy it.
He announced peace, yet the room filled with terror. What He did next shows where troubled hearts are meant to look.
When the Lord appeared among His disciples on the day of the resurrection, He found them troubled by thoughts arising in their hearts. At once He dispels their fears by directing their gaze to Himself. He says, "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself" (Luke 24:36-39). Looking within filled them with doubts and fears. Looking outward at their risen Lord, they saw at once in His hands and feet the proofs that He had died for them and that He was risen. This brought peace and joy into their hearts.
He would not leave them guessing about who He was.
The end of the Gospel of Luke is the basis of every record in the Acts. It is remarkable how Jesus, in perfect grace, takes pains to make the disciples certain that He was the same Jesus whom they had known. Luke tells us there that He ate and drank to show it (Luke 24:36, etc.).
The body He showed them had flesh and bones. One thing it did not have.
"A spirit," He said, "does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." He was clothed in His body raised from the dead. Flesh and bones marked it out, for He was, and is, a Man. It should be noted that there is no mention of blood. Blood, which is the life of the flesh (Lev. 17:14), was poured out when He died (Luke 22:20). That life given up was never taken back.
The little group in that room was the start of something that has not ended.
"As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them." Around Him stood the company of disciples who were His own, whom He never ceased to love. There was the beginning of His kingdom, the start of His Church on earth over 1,900 years ago… That company began on the resurrection day. It continues to this day, and you, Christian, are part of it. If we have given the Lord His place in our hearts we will not assert ourselves in His circle.
- Made — The greeting did not create peace. Christ made it at the cross, then came from that finished work to announce it.
- Pronounced — An everyday greeting became a settled gift. He did not wish them peace; He gave what He had already purchased.
- Received — He made peace on the cross and proclaims it risen. You take it by faith and enjoy it in the power of the Spirit.
- Proved — Looking outward cured their fear, not looking inward. He showed them hands, feet, flesh and bones — the same Jesus, risen.
- Gathered — He stood in the middle of His own, and that circle has never closed. Every believer since belongs to the company He entered that evening.
But they, being confounded and being frightened, supposed they beheld a spirit.
The disciples had just been saying that the Lord had risen, when He Himself stood among them. Why did people who had just spoken of resurrection take Him for a ghost, and how did He calm them?
These were not strangers. They were the very people who had just announced the resurrection out loud. One writer sets the confession beside the collapse:
They too needed a risen Saviour's challenge to bring them to their senses — to calm their fears and lift their drooping spirits. They had just declared to their two brothers from Emmaus, "The Lord is risen indeed." Yet when their risen Lord appeared they did not know Him. He had to challenge their hearts with His stirring words: "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?"
Commentators differ on the cause. One says they knew whose face they were looking at. What shook them was the way He arrived:
Here it is plain they recognised the form of the Lord. In none of His appearances to them do we find anything ghostly that would make them think they saw a spirit. The two on the road to Emmaus had just before taken Him for an ordinary man… His sudden appearance, with the door shut, staggered them… So it was not a question of whether it was Jesus or someone else, but whether it was Jesus in the body or as a spirit only.
Another traces it to failed recognition, and sees in it something wider in us all:
They most likely failed to recognise Him. They were not expecting Him to come at that time or in that way. So they imagined they saw a phantom until the Master said, "It is I."… In general, the hidden unbelief of man's heart stops him from accepting divine power and love at work in ways beyond the ordinary.
He had already greeted them before the fear rose. Many still live in that gap between His word and their feelings:
At the start of that day the disciples did not enjoy peace. We read, "But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit." Many believers today, sad to say, are terrified and frightened. Why? They have not got Christ simply before them… Are you troubled in your mind? Have you any ground for it?… This is Christ's way with the troubled. We see others troubled and perhaps say, "Poor souls." Then we leave them in their misery and make no real effort to help. In all this we are not much like Christ. He always stoops to put a troubled person at peace.
Their guess was wrong in a way that mattered. The Lord answered it with evidence they could see:
There was His body; it was risen. Who could doubt any longer that it was really the same Jesus who died, and will yet come in glory? "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself!"… The point here is the reality of the resurrection. The risen Jesus is the same one they had known as their Master — still man, not a spirit, but having flesh and bones, and able to eat with them.
Fear was not the only feeling in that room. Joy came next, and it hindered them just as much:
It may be worth noticing that our natural feelings often work against faith. It was so with the disciples at this moment. First they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. Afterwards they did not believe for joy. Both their fear and their joy — their natural emotions — were hindrances to faith. But it should be added that emotions produced by the Spirit of God are helps to faith, not hindrances.
Notice what the Lord did not tell them to examine. He turned their eyes outward:
At once He drives away their fears by directing their gaze to Himself… Looking within filled them with doubts and fears. Looking outside themselves at their risen Lord, they at once saw in His hands and feet the proofs that He had died for them and that He was risen. This brought peace and joy into their hearts.
- Confession — They had said "The Lord is risen indeed" and still did not know Him. Right words are not the same as a heart at rest.
- Cause — Some writers say the shut door and sudden arrival staggered them. Others say they failed to recognise Him, because they expected nothing of the sort. Either way, unbelief was underneath.
- Correction — He answered their word "spirit" with hands, feet, flesh and bones. It was the same Jesus who died — risen, and still a man.
- Caution — Fear blocked their faith, and so did joy. Feelings, whichever way they swing, do not measure what is true.
- Cure — Their fears rose from within. Their peace came from outside: He fixed their eyes on Himself, and He still stoops to put a troubled person at peace.
And he said to them, Why are ye troubled? and why are thoughts rising in your hearts?
The risen Lord has just spoken peace into the room, and the response is terror — the disciples take Him for a ghost. His answer is a question, not a rebuke. It points to where the fear began: in their own hearts.
The question is not cold. One writer traces the fear to its cause, then sets Christ's way with troubled people beside our own.
There are many believers today who are terrified and frightened. Why? They do not have Christ simply before them... Are you troubled in your mind? Listen to what He says. Have you any ground for it? Have you any occasion for it? "Why are you troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" This is Christ's way with the troubled. We see others troubled. Perhaps we say, "Poor souls," but we leave them still in their misery, making no great effort to help them. In all this we are not much like Christ. No, He always stoops to put a troubled person at peace.
The ESV says "doubts." One commentator gives two other ways the word has been translated.
Luke 24:38. — "Reasonings." American Revisions: "questionings."
These questionings are not harmless. When our own thoughts take the place of God's, we pay for it.
You will find that the thoughts you have are not always God's thoughts. The thoughts of your heart are a frequent cause of loss of communion, trial, and discomfort to you. "Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" was the question our risen Saviour asked His disciples. It was followed by, "Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." It brought Him before them instead of themselves.
The Lord does not send them searching inside themselves. He turns their eyes to Himself.
It is the outward look to Christ risen that gives the inward peace, and the word of God that gives assurance. The Lord appeared among His disciples on the day of the resurrection. He found them troubled by thoughts arising in their hearts. At once He dispels their fears by directing their gaze to Himself. He says, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself." Looking within filled them with doubts and fears. Looking outward at their risen Lord, they at once saw in His hands and feet the proofs that He had died for them, and that He was risen. This brought peace and joy into their hearts.
He answers the fear of a ghost with His own body. Even the words He picks carry meaning.
"Why do thoughts arise in your hearts?" He asked them. "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see Me have"! ... Why did our risen Lord say "flesh and bones," and not "flesh and blood"? His blood had been poured out for our eternal redemption.
Behind the question stands a wounded affection. The One asking it had died for the very people now unsure of Him.
He had said to them, "Peace be to you." It touched His tender heart that there should be trouble or a thought in their hearts! How could such deep, sincere love bear to be doubted? He had loved them to death... One had denied Him, and all had forsaken Him. But now God had raised Him from the dead, for their justification... how could He then bear a cloud of trouble, or one doubting thought, in the hearts of those He had so loved?
Christ does not lift them up into glory here. He comes down to where they are.
The whole scene in Luke 24 has this character. He meets men in their weakness. He does not take them up to the higher place in glory... "Why do thoughts arise in your hearts... handle Me and see... it is I Myself." How gracious!
- Peace spoken. He greets them with peace before He asks the question. The trouble was in the room, not in His heart toward them.
- Thoughts risen. The "doubts" are reasonings, or questionings. Our own thoughts take the place of God's, and cost us communion and comfort.
- Eyes outward. Looking within produced fear. Looking at the risen Lord produced peace, and His word gives assurance.
- Hands and feet. The proof is a real body: flesh and bones, not a spirit. He does not say "flesh and blood," because His blood had already been poured out for redemption.
- Grace stooping. He meets them in their weakness instead of lifting them to glory. His love cannot bear a doubt from those He died for.
A note on wording: where the ESV says "doubts," older translations say "thoughts arise in your hearts." Where the ESV says "See my hands and my feet," they say "Behold." Several quotes above use the older wording.
behold my hands and my feet, that it is *I* myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see me having.
The disciples had already heard that the Lord was risen. Yet when He stood among them, they thought they were seeing a ghost. His answer was not an argument but an invitation: look at the hands and feet, and put your own hands on Him.
He met their fear with the simplest proof of all. He gave them Himself, to see and to touch.
He presents Himself to His disciples. Their hopes are ruined and their future is scattered, and they are terrified and afraid. They had laid all their hopes in the grave of Jesus, never to rise again, as they thought... And how does He reassure their hearts? He presents HIMSELF, saying, "See my hands and my feet, that it is I MYSELF."
The words "I myself" answer what they feared. A visit from His departed spirit would not have been Him as they knew Him.
To those who had known Him as the living man among them, a mere visit from His departed spirit would not have been "Himself." It is not a question of exact definitions, but of the heart, and the Lord answers the heart. They saw Him. They did not believe that a living man could come among them in that mysterious way, so they thought they saw a spirit. He answers that by telling them to prove He had flesh and bones.
The proof went further than touch. He asked for food and ate in front of them.
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead. He is a real man, with hands and feet, able to be touched and seen — not a spirit, but a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by going on to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So the resurrection of the body had its glorious proof in His own person. Their faith needed that, and nothing could support it more strongly.
Blood belongs to a life that wears out and must be replaced.
The blood applies to the present life. It is the vehicle of change. It is what implies the need of continual sustenance and renewal. A body that needs no renewal cannot need blood to renew it. So the Lord speaks of Himself as risen from the dead, not as having flesh and blood, but as having flesh and bones... He has poured out His blood and left it with the earthly life He had lived. He has entered a new sphere, keeping all that makes Him truly man, but not the conditions of the old earthly life.
Some reduce the risen Christ to a spirit in an unseen world. The word He left out answers them.
Spiritists say that Christ is the supreme Spirit in the unseen world. But God says He is a Man, in a raised, glorified body at His right hand! Why did our risen Lord say "flesh and bones," and not "flesh and blood"? His blood had been poured out for our eternal redemption.
Some treat "spiritual" as the opposite of physical. This verse settles what the believer's raised body will be.
Scripture does not speak that way. The Spirit tells us that the body the saints will have in the resurrection will be incorruptible and immortal, and spiritual as well. When He rose from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples, "Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." His body was still "flesh and bones," yet it was spiritual. The body of the believer will be the same in resurrection.
He showed them the hands and the feet that had served them long before the nails went through.
What wonders those "hands" had worked in their sight! How those "feet" had walked the path ahead of them, never growing tired! Now each one shows, in the mark of the nails, man's cruel and murderous hatred of Him — and even more strongly, the Saviour's love for sinners.
Terror came first, then joy — and neither one produced belief.
Our natural feelings are often in conflict with faith. It was so with the disciples at this moment. At first they were terrified and afraid, and thought they had seen a spirit. Later, their joy kept them from believing. Both their fear and their joy — their natural emotions — were hindrances to faith. But it should be added that emotions produced by the Spirit of God are helps to faith and not hindrances.
- Himself. He did not argue them out of their fear; He gave them His own Person to look at and to touch.
- Bones. "Flesh and bones" says the body is real; the silence about blood says He never took back the life He poured out at the cross.
- Handled. He told them to touch Him, then ate in front of them. That proves a real body — one that could eat, but no longer needed to.
- Spiritual. His risen body was spiritual and still flesh and bones; the believer's raised body will be of the same kind.
- Faith. Fear kept them from believing, and so did joy. Only He Himself, seen and touched, settled their hearts.
And having said this he shewed them his hands and his feet.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But while they yet did not believe for joy, and were wondering, he said to them, Have ye anything here to eat?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they gave him part of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb;
It is the evening of resurrection day. The disciples are standing in a room with a Man they had watched die. They are too glad and too startled to trust their own eyes. What they hand Him — a piece of broiled fish — settles the question that words alone had not. Some translations also add a honeycomb to the meal, which is why several writers name both.
Their problem was not coldness but confusion. Joy and wonder ran ahead of faith, and His question about food met them right there.
Wonder and joy were mingled in their minds, and I can understand the mixed state of their hearts. They were thrilled with joy, while hampered with unbelief and wonder. His words, "Have you anything here to eat?" made the reality of His presence absolute to them... All was now clear. Every mist of doubt rolled away as they saw Him eat.
His eating proves He has a body. It does not mean He was hungry. Commentators draw a careful line here between what the risen Lord was able to do and what He required.
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead. He is a real man, with hands and feet they could touch and see. He is not a spirit, but has a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by proceeding to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So His own person gave the resurrection of the body its glorious proof. Their faith needed this, and nothing could support it more strongly.
The same act says two things at once. It rules out a phantom, and it also shows a body that is no longer tied to earthly conditions.
Scripture also shows us that the resurrection body does not depend on earthly conditions. At the same time, it can enter into them. He ate the broiled fish and honeycomb to show them His body was truly material. Yet it was no longer a body for the earth.
Why does a meal matter so much? One writer answers: rescuing the spirit alone would have left the body as Satan's trophy.
Suppose God had said, "Satan has ruined your body, so I will take you to be with Me in spirit." That would have confirmed Satan's victory over the body. Did God come into the world to do that?... it is necessary to see that He has got a victory in this world; so to prove this, the Lord stoops down in a wonderful way. "He said to them, Have you anything here to eat?" Why was all that? Simply to verify that it was no mere spirit that stood before them. The Lord came to fight a battle for you — real flesh and blood you can touch. Manhood you can touch was destroyed, so manhood you can touch must be redeemed.
Risen and glorified, He does not hold Himself at a distance. He is still the same Man His friends knew.
The Lord presents Himself as the very same Man... Here also His hands, His feet, all that marked His manhood, His previous wounds are presented. He eats... The Lord shows it to them in a very ordinary, close-up way. He eats and drinks in front of them — how far He stoops! But this was reality and truth. It restored their souls and made them know Him as still a Man — risen indeed, but a Man, truly and really.
Notice whose meal this was. The fish came from their own supper. A later meal by the lake turns that around.
The Lord was about to give them the strongest proof that His Person was real. So He eats the broiled fish and honeycomb they had provided for themselves. This assures them it is really Himself. When you come to John 21, again there was broiled fish, but this time He provided it, to assure them that He cared for them. How rich and deep is the grace that ever provides that which will confirm our faith, and feed and sustain our souls.
The meal met a need, but not His own. Behind the evidence stands His love for His own.
The One they killed on a tree ate and drank with His own after He rose from the dead. He did not need the food. They needed the evidence that He was alive from the dead — a truly risen Man, Who loved His own who were in the world, and loved them to the fullest.
- Doubt — their unbelief came from joy, not hardness, and He answered it with a fact they could watch.
- Body — as a man He could eat; as risen He did not need to, so the meal proves reality without implying weakness.
- Victory — Satan ruined the manhood you can touch, so Christ redeemed the manhood you can touch. A rescued spirit alone would leave the body lost.
- Stooping — the risen Lord takes food His friends had kept for themselves. Later, by the lake, He provides the meal Himself.
- Witness — He did not need the fish. They needed the evidence that He was alive, and that evidence became the ground of their faith.
and he took it and ate before them.
Here the risen Jesus takes a piece of fish from His disciples' hands and eats it while they watch. Commentators ask two things: what this proves about His body, and why He would stoop to such a plain proof.
The disciples wondered whether they were seeing a spirit. Eating settles the question in a way no argument could. One writer draws a careful line between what the risen body could do and what it needed:
It is the Lord Himself, risen from the dead, but a real man, with hands and feet that they could touch and see — not a spirit, but a spiritual body. Of this He gave the fullest proof by proceeding to eat in their presence. As having a body He could eat; as having a spiritual body He did not need to eat. So the resurrection of the body was gloriously proved in His own person — the support their faith needed, and the weightiest it could have.
So why eat at all, if He had no need of food? One writer answers by describing the kind of body He now has:
Scripture also shows that the resurrection body does not depend on earthly conditions, and yet it can enter them. He ate the broiled fish and honeycomb to show them that His body was real matter. Yet it was no longer a body for the earth.
The marks on His hands and feet tie that new condition back to the cross:
His was a body of "flesh and bones." The conditions were new, yet it was to be recognized as the body of "flesh and blood" in which He had suffered. The marks of that suffering were there in both hands and feet. While the truth was dawning in their minds, He made it plainer still by eating in front of them, so that they might see He was not just "a spirit."
The point is not only that a man rose, but that this man rose. One writer shows how the apostles' testimony rested on meals like this one:
The apostles were witnesses of His resurrection. They had eaten and drunk with Him afterwards. That was the proof that He was still a true man, though He then had a spiritual body, and that He was the same Jesus whom they had known alive on the earth. The end of Luke's Gospel is the basis of every record in the Acts. There it is remarkable how Jesus, in perfect grace, takes pains to make the disciples sure that He was the same Jesus they had known.
Notice the order of what He offers them — words, then sight, then touch, and only then the meal:
But notice how kindly the Lord cleared away their doubts and fears. See what pains He took to convince them that His resurrection was real. He gently says to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?" Then with infinite grace He says, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself." He even said, "Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And finally, to chase away the fears that still clouded their sight, He said, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave Him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb. He took it and ate before them — the blessed Lord, as the Risen Man, stooping to share the food of His humble followers.
Rising from the dead changed the shape of His life with them, but not the nearness:
It is true that He no longer shared one home and table with His disciples, as He once had… But still there was full intimacy… He eats and drinks with them, as He once did. He calls them "brothers," as He had not done before His resurrection. He speaks of having one God and Father with them, as He had not done then.
- Doubt. The disciples thought they were seeing a spirit, and the meal met that exact fear.
- Proof. Eating showed a real body: as a man He could eat, though in a spiritual body He had no need to.
- Identity. The One eating was the same Jesus they had known, with the marks of His suffering still on His hands and feet.
- Grace. He took pains, step by step — word, sight, touch, food — stooping to share the plain food of His followers.
- Fellowship. The meal that proved His resurrection also kept the friendship: He eats with them as before, and now calls them brothers.
And he said to them, These [are] the words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.
The risen Jesus stands among His disciples and points them back to His own earlier words — and behind those, to the Scriptures already written. Two questions follow: what did He mean by "the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms," and what did the disciples still need before those writings made sense to them?
He does not start a new lesson. He picks up the thread He left with them before He died, and now He adds what was missing.
The risen Lord here recognises the very place where He had left His disciples in His earlier teaching. He reminds them of what He had already told them. Scripture was the great witness of the divine mind, and everything written there must certainly happen here. And now what does He do? "Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." His power now joins itself to His earlier instruction. He is making good in them what He had already given them.
He names three sections, not a handful of passages. That puts His seal on the whole collection — and He does it as the risen Christ.
The critics who pull those ancient writings apart miss their true spiritual connection. It is "Christ"… Here, too, the Lord points to the well-known threefold division of the books of the Hebrew canon: the law, the prophets, and the psalms. These together made up the "scriptures," as the next verse shows. So, as someone has said, "we may accept the Hebrew scriptures from the pierced hands of Christ Himself in resurrection."
"The Psalms" does not mean only the book of that name. Each of the three names covers a group of books.
By the law was meant the Pentateuch. The prophets covered the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, along with the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets. The Psalms covered the rest of the books that make up the canon of Old Testament revelation. That section likely got its name because the book of Psalms stood first in the third great division of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The claim is not that a few verses happen to match. Writers separated by centuries all point to one person.
There are over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ… These three hundred and more prophecies are like rays of light. The rays are not all the same length. Some are longer than others. Some come from as far back as Moses. Others come from a shorter distance, like Micah. Others come from Isaiah. These rays of light, shot across the centuries, meet on the Baby in Bethlehem's manger… He was the perfect answer to those prophecies. They spoke of Him, and He lit them up. No one could understand them properly until He came.
The word "fulfilled" also points ahead. The Pentateuch is the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses.
The first coming of the Lord has already fulfilled much of what stands written in the Pentateuch. The rest will come true when He comes again to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
The verse names two things: His own spoken words and the written Scriptures. The next verse adds a third.
There are three things here. The first is the words of Jesus, which give faith its true basis. The second is the Scriptures. The third is their understanding, opened by the risen Lord. So they could say more than, We have heard these words, we have heard Him say it, we have listened to His own voice. They could say, It must be so, because God has said it. There is the real and true basis of faith. The words of the Lord Jesus, now in the Scriptures as God has given them, are the ground on which faith can always rest.
What He gives here is not yet the coming of the Spirit. Understanding and power are not the same thing, and they came in that order.
There you get the value of "He opened their understanding to understand the scriptures." That is one of the points we have to notice — the difference between intelligence and power. There was power when the Holy Spirit came down. But they received intelligence before they got power… He had now opened their understanding, and Peter could explain Psalm 109. But they still had no power.
- Spoken. The risen Christ points back to what He said before He died. He takes up His old teaching again instead of replacing it.
- Written. The three names cover the whole Old Testament: the five books of Moses, the prophetic and historical books, and the rest, headed by the Psalms.
- Fulfilled. Prophecies from many centuries meet in Him. Much came true at His first coming. The rest waits for the day He returns to reign.
- Understood. He opened their understanding first. Power came later, when the Holy Spirit came down.
- Grounded. Faith stands on three things: His words, the written Scriptures, and an understanding He Himself opens.