Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 146:584 (Oct 1989)
Article: The Pastor’s Use of the Old Testament Part 4: The Gospel in Old Testament Preaching
Author: R. K. Harrison

BSac 146:584 (Oct 89) p. 363

The Pastor’s Use of the Old Testament
Part 4:
The Gospel in Old Testament Preaching

R. K. Harrison

Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

[Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of four articles delivered by the author as the W. H. Griffith Thomas Lectures at Dallas Theological Seminary, November 1–4, 1988.]

In 1939, just before World War II began, this writer became an undergraduate at the University of London. Among the many books he acquired in those days was one that bore the title Christ in All the Scriptures.1 This work had the effect of unifying Holy Writ by the straightforward method of pointing out references and allusions in the Old Testament to what would now be called the “preincarnate Christ,” and showing how they were fulfilled in the New Testament. This method was found to be unexceptionable because the writer had always been taught to believe that the Old Testament was a necessary precursor to the New Testament, and that the Old Testament grounded God’s revelation of Himself and the personage of the Messiah firmly in human history. On such a basis the writer had no difficulty accepting the incarnate Lord Jesus as God, who had become human in order to redeem man and save him from his sins.

Over the years I have sought, merely as a matter of personal interest, to determine if there could have been any other credible way of doing soteriologically for humanity what mankind was simply unable to do for itself. Quite clearly a figure such as Buddha or Mohammed would be inadequate to achieve so grand an objective, if only because they were human, not divine, in nature, and thus no better than any other sinner. “Could there have been any other way

BSac 146:584 (Oct 89) p. 364

than what is incorrectly described as parthenogenesis?” After much pondering I am compelled to admit that there are simply no credible alternatives that would meet all the necessary criteria associated with God’s entering fully and completely into human life to redeem it from its sin and degradation, and make possible forgiveness and the gift of eternal life in Christ.

Jesus in the Old Testament

Because I am firmly convinced of the unique nature of Jesus Christ, and the absolute necessity for Him to submit to the way of the cross, I have no difficulty in seeing His presence, both in prefigurement and prophecy, in the Old Testament Scriptures. Therefore it is difficult to understand the positions of those who throughout the Christian era have regarded Jesus as somewhat less than God Himself, or who have failed to see the clear predictio...