Is Jesus present in every book of the Bible?

In these words also were exposed the evil motives lying deep in the hearts of His opponents, yet He was not their accuser. Moses was that through the law that had been given by him. They boasted in Moses, because they felt that great man conferred some honour upon themselves, but they did not really believe him. Had they done so they would have received Christ. Verse 39 applies to all Old Testament scriptures: they "testify of Me." Verse 46 alludes specifically to the early books written by Moses; and he "wrote of Me." This, then, is the key which unlocks all the Old Testament — the main theme is the Christ, who was to come.

Have we not much cause to bless the Lord for these words of His addressed to His poor perplexed ones on their way to Emmaus? They may seem severe; but it is the necessary severity of a pure, a perfect, and a divinely wise love. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory? And" — mark these words! — "beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." He Himself — all homage to His glorious Person! — is the divine centre of all the things contained in the Scriptures from cover to cover. He is the golden chain that binds into one marvellous and magnificent whole every part of the inspired volume, from Genesis to Revelation.

Do any then inquire, "Where can I meet Christ — be in companionship, so to speak, with Him, so as ever to learn more of Him?" The answer to this question brings out the special thought lying on our mind. The only place where we can come into contact with Christ is in the written word of God. The Lord then said to the Pharisees, "You search the Scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39.) We find Christ — Christ in every aspect, position, character, and office in the Scriptures; Christ in humiliation and rejection, and Christ in exaltation and glory. The more therefore I read and meditate on God's word, the more I shall learn of Christ.

The Scriptures testify of Christ. This is the declaration of the Lord Himself: "They are they which testify of Me," He says, referring to the Scriptures. And He does not here refer to the Gospels, as some might suppose, for they had not yet been written. He is speaking of the Old Testament Scriptures. So throughout the whole of the Old Testament canon we may expect to find allusions, direct and indirect, to Christ. This is what makes it all so interesting. God has chosen a double method of bringing Christ before us in these ancient writings. He speaks of Him by direct reference, as in the 53rd of Isaiah, Deut. 18:15, and in many other places. Then He shows us Christ in type and figure. In doing this, He uses inanimate things, such as the ark, the tabernacle, the manna, etc. He uses animals also, as the firstling of Abel's flock, the passover lamb, the scapegoat, sacrificial bullocks, and doves. But His most striking and effective method of manifesting beforehand the character of the coming One was in the use of persons.

It is not my purpose now to point out to you all these persons. They are many. Some are named, and others are unnamed. A few are in a very manifest and full way typical of Christ; others are only so in a somewhat shadowy and mystical way. Seven stand out prominently from the general background of the less apparent. These are Adam, Melchizedek, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, and Solomon. There we have the perfect number, seven, giving us a perfect sweep of the sky of prophecy ("for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," Rev. 19:10) from the dawn of human history to the end of time. Adam ("figure of Him that was to come" — "the last Adam," Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45) heads the list; and Solomon, beautiful figure of Christ in His millennial reign, completes it. And in the five that come between we are given a good general outline of all the leading truths of Christ's person, character, offices, and work.

The Revelation is preeminently His revelation; the revelation of His person and His glory. "In the volume of the book it is written of Me..." (Heb. 10:7) Martin Luther asked, "What Book and what person?" and answered, "There is only one Book--the Bible; and only one Person--Jesus Christ." The whole Book, the Word of God, bears witness of Him, Who is the living Word. He is the center, the sum total and the substance of the Holy Scriptures. The prayerful reader of the Bible will never read in vain if he approaches the blessed Book with the one desire to know Christ and His glory. His blessed face is seen on every page and the infallible Guide, the Holy Spirit, never fails to satisfy the longing of the believer's heart to know more of Christ. Inasmuch as this last Bible book is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, an "unveiling" of Himself, we find in it the completest revelation of His person and His glory.

The bright line which runs from Genesis to Revelation, and gives the whole Book a unity which nothing else could, is its testimony to the infinite glory of the Person of the Son, the eternal efficacy of His one sacrifice for sin, His moral worth and excellency beyond all thought, the glorious offices on our account He now sustains, as well as His glories yet to be revealed when He comes with clouds, and His saints accompany Him, to put down all that is contrary to God, and fulfil all the promises to Israel, and much more, which assure us of the verity of our Saviour's words when speaking of the "scriptures," "they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39.)

The same applies to other parts of the Bible. All the prophets witness of Christ (Acts 3:24; 10:43). Not only this, but it was ‘from Moses’ that the Lord began showing ‘the things concerning himself’ (Luke 24:27). This was not only a matter of applying the Scriptures, but of directly ‘opening’ them (v. 32), including the entire Old Testament: ‘all that is written concerning me in the law of Moses and prophets and psalms’ (v. 44). The ‘Father’s word’ is a field of study that is as wide as it is wonderful.

The object of this volume is to answer this question by showing that Christ is the theme of these twelve wonderful books. "To Him give all the prophets witness." Just as the face of Washington looks out from the old document which we have described, so the face of Christ looks out at us from these ancient prophecies. He is to be found in the little-read pages of Joel and Zephaniah as well as in the better known passages of Isaiah and Daniel. It should be our constant object, in reading the Scriptures, to see how Christ is presented in its different parts.

The whole of the Scriptures revolve round the Person of the Son of God. It has been put in a striking way as follows. The Pentateuch gives us the figures of Christ; the Psalms, the feelings of Christ; the Prophets, the foretellings of Christ; the Gospels, the facts of Christ; the Epistles, the fruits of Christ; Revelation, final judgments by Christ. Remembering how ancient are the Scriptures, how many are the different writers of the various Books, how they lived far apart from each other, both geographically and in time, it is astounding that such a statement can be made about one Person and one Book. It is absolute proof that there is a Master Mind behind the Book. And if GOD thus presents in such different ways and phases a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, it follows that such a presentation should command our deepest homage.

This photograph may illustrate for us the meaning of the Old Testament, for there the sharply defined shadow of a MAN is clearly seen on the pages of it. Much more than a man, surely—“God over all blessed for ever,” a wonderful, glorious Person, “whose being none can know;” but yet a Man, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. From Genesis 1 to Malachi 4 we find the sacred page full of the shadow of Christ. He Himself talking to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets… expunded to them in all the Scriptures THE THINGS CONCERNING HIMSELF” (Luke 24:27). No wonder their hearts burned within them as they listened to such an unfolding from such a Person.

Adam, Abraham, Melchizedek, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Solomon, and a host of others prefigured Christ. In them in divers ways we see the shadow of Him who was to come.