“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.”
(Matt 11:113, NKJV)
F.F Bruce’s book, which the previous teaching had referred to, then goes on to make this very important remark – “The Bringer of salvation, the Son of God, does not appear suddenly in the New Testament as a visitant on earth from another realm, having no connection with the course of prior events down here. As touching His eternal relationship with the Father, He is ‘without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life’; but touching His Manhood, He is indissolubly bound up with all previous history … The history is the chief concern of the books of the Old Covenant, God preparing this nation to be the vehicle of His purposes by revealing Himself to them … by the word of His spokesman the prophets … The books of the New Covenant tell how the divinely-implanted hopes and aspirations of these ancient men of God were realized in Christ.”
In this light there are four Scriptures that become very clear pointers to the new covenant and how it functions as a multifocal pair of spectacles we should use when reading the Bible.
Firstly, Matt 11:13 – “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” From the explanation given by Jesus we know that John the Baptist acts as representative of the last and most important person of the Old Covenant (Matt 11:11). It is for this reason that he had to lose his head (Matt 14:10), so that Jesus could prototypically become the true Head of the Body (Col 1:18). In other words, we can thus conclude that the law and the prophets HAD ONLY PROPHESIED UP UNTIL JOHN THE BAPTIST. Luke 16:16 makes it more explicit – “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached …” Sela.
The second Scripture which spells this out, are the events on the Mount of Transfiguration when Moses (=representative of the Law) and Elijah (=representative of the prophets) manifested as part of the cloud of witnesses. Peter quickly wanted to build three (denominations) huts where they could stay (thus erecting temporary tabernacles), but God, in the cloud, covered all three, Moses and Elijah ‘disappearing’ within it, and then says, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him!” Moses and Elijah are prototypically removed when Jesus appears!
The third Scripture is likewise very clear. The letter addressed to the Jewish Christians, Hebrews, states the following – “God, who gave to our forefathers many different glimpses of the truth in the words of the prophets, has now, at the end of the present age, given us the truth in the Son.” (Heb 1:1, Murdock translation). John 14:26 then makes this equalising statement – “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” At that point God spoke through the prophets; now He speaks through his Spirit within us.
Fourthly, as definite affirmation, there is Rev 19:9-10 (WNT) – “Testimony to Jesus is the spirit which underlies Prophecy.”
The entirety of Old Testament prophesies witness only of Jesus Christ. Many people misuse Old Testament prophecies to, for instance, predict the future of Israel, but it is clearly not how the Bible presents it. Physical Israel, as with many other things, was dissolved in the cloud. Listen to the Son.
- Sela: What are the implications of this teaching for you?
- Read: Deut 33 & 34; Song of Songs 8 (and those of you who have now read through the entire Bible, clink your glasses J)
- Memorize: Deut 33: 27a
- For a deeper understanding: Read F.F. Bruce’s The books and the parchments
