The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Matthew 1:22 and 23 indicate this: “Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” This Son brought forth of a virgin is the seed of the woman prophesied in Genesis 3:15. Therefore, the birth of Christ was a great fulfillment of prophecies in the Old Testament.
The first prophecy in the Old Testament is Genesis 3:15. After the fall of man, after the serpent had worked himself into man, God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent. This promise concerning the seed of the woman was the first prophecy in the Bible. This prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 1:22 and 23. In Galatians 4:4 Paul says that Christ was born under the law and was also born of a woman. Therefore, Christ came not only to fulfill the law, but also to fulfill the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.
In Isaiah 7:14 there is another prophecy concerning Christ: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son.” According to Matthew 1:23, the name of this Son was called Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” Therefore, the fulfillment of this promise brought God into man.
Luke 24:25-27 and 44-46 also indicate that the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Verses 25 through 27 say, “He said to them, O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” As verse 44 indicates, the Scriptures included the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.
Luke 24:44-46 go on to say, “He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that all the things must be fulfilled which have been written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me. Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures; and He said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise up from the dead on the third day.” The Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms are the three sections of the entire Old Testament, that is, “all the Scriptures” (v. 27). The Savior’s word here unveils that the entire Old Testament is a revelation of Him and that He is its center and content. The fact that the Lord opened the mind of His disciples to understand the Scriptures indicates that to understand the Scriptures requires our mind to be opened by the Lord Spirit through His enlightening (Eph. 1:18).
Romans 1:2 speaks of the gospel of God which “He promised before through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.” This gospel, which concerns His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 1:3), was promised by God through the prophets in the Scriptures. This indicates that the gospel of God was not an accident but was planned and prepared by God. Before the foundation of the world, God planned to have this gospel. Therefore, numerous times in the holy Scriptures, from Genesis through Malachi, God spoke in promise through the prophets regarding the gospel of God. Hence, Romans 1:2 is a further demonstration of the fact that the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
In 1 Corinthians 15:3 and 4 Paul says, “For I delivered to you, among the first things, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He has been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” Again, the Scriptures refer to the Old Testament. Christ’s death for our sins, His burial for our termination, and His resurrection for our germination with life took place according to the prophecies of the Old Testament (Isa. 53:5-8, 10-12; Psa. 22:14-18; Dan. 9:26; Isa. 53:9; Psa. 16:9-10; Hosea 6:2). These three matters are the basic matters among the first things of the gospel. The fact that Paul says that Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection were according to the Scriptures is a further proof that the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament.
Bible students often say that the prophecies concerning Christ in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the New Testament. For example, Micah 5:2 says, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” This prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 2:4-6 and Luke 2:4-7. Yes, here we have an instance of the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New Testament. However, we need to go on to see something deeper concerning the New Testament as the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
If we have a deeper understanding of the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the New Testament, we shall see that Christ came not only to fulfill the prophecies but also to fulfill God’s eternal dispensation, which is God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people for the producing of the church. God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people was promised, prophesied, typified, and shadowed in the Old Testament, and it was fulfilled by Christ’s coming in the New Testament. Therefore, Christ came not merely to fulfill the prophecies concerning His birth, death, and resurrection; He came, in particular, to fulfill the promises, prophecies, types, and shadows concerning God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people for the producing of the church.
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