Christ in All the Scriptures by A.M. Hodgkin

• Title Page
• Introduction
  • The Testimony of Christ to the Scriptures
  • The Testimony of the Scriptures to Christ
• Christ in the Pentateuch
• Christ in the Historical Books
• Christ in the Poetical Books
• Christ in the Prophets
• Christ in His Life on Earth
• Christ in Resurrection Power
• Christ in Future Glory

Introduction

The Testimony of Christ to the Scriptures

“Abraham rejoiced to see My day.” “Moses wrote of Me.” “David called [Me] Lord” (John 8:56, 5:46; Matthew 22:45). We have in these words of our Savior abundant authority for seeking Him in the Old Testament, and also a confirmation of the truth of the Scriptures themselves. To those of us who believe in Christ as truly God, as well as truly Man, His word on these matters is authoritative. He would not have said, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” if Abraham had been a mythological character; He would not have said, “Moses wrote of Me,” if the Books of Moses had been written hundreds of years later; nor would He have quoted from Psalm 110 to prove that David called Him Lord, if that Psalm had not been written till the time of the Maccabees.

With regard to our Lord’s reference to the Books of Moses, the testimony is peculiarly emphatic. It was no mere passing reference to them. The whole force of the argument again and again lies in the fact that He regarded Moses, not as a more title by which certain books were known, but as personally the actor in the history which they record and the author of the legislation which they contain. “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?” (John 7:19), “Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” (John 5:46-47). He condemned the traditions with which the Pharisees overlaid the laws and teaching of Moses as “making the word of God of none effect” (Mark 7:13). To the leper He said, “Go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded” (Matthew 8:4). That command of Moses is found in the very heart of the priestly code which some would have us believe was framed centuries after the days of Moses.*

*See Old Testament Criticism and the Rights of the Unlearned. J. Kennedy, M.A., D.D.