"According to the Scriptures": Lord Jesus Christ and the Two Testaments

In what way should we understand the New Testament and the Church's proclamation of Lord Jesus Christ as a proclamation that takes place "according to the Scriptures"? This question focuses attention on how the Old Testament continues in Spiritual power to proclaim and commend the Son of God to the faith of his Church on its own terms. That is, the Church must not approach the Old Testament as a text that merely discloses Christ by pointing away from itself, away from its own temporal context, to what Jesus and the New Testament will bring. For the Church, it is not the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament which ultimately justifies and grounds the Old Testament’s witness to Jesus Christ, its Christology, and all that attends it—or that ultimately justifies and grounds our own understanding of the Old Testament’s relationship to Christ. Rather, the Old Testament bears theological witness to Christ on its own terms. How then should Christians regard the Old Testament as an abiding theological witness to Lord Jesus Christ? 

To discuss this and more, Dr. Mark A. Garcia, President and Fellow in Scripture and Theology at Greystone Theological Institute, sits down with Dr. Don C. Collett, Greystone's Fellow in Old Testament and associate professor of Old Testament at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA (USA). Dr. Collet has spent many years reflecting carefully on the questions we are exploring today, and he’s just recently published a book on this topic entitled Figural Reading and the Old Testament: Theology and Practice, released by Baker Academic in April of this year (2020). 

Dr. Collett’s Greystone course, Job as Christian Scripture, is available to all Greystone Members. Become a member today for unlimited access to the growing Greystone Connect library.