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Charles Hodge on Christ in the Old Testament

Our Lord commanded the Jews to search their Scriptures, because they testified of Him. He said that Moses and the prophets wrote of Him. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to the disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. The Apostles when they began to preach the gospel, not only everywhere proved from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ, but they referred to them continually in support of everything which they taught concerning his person and his work. It is from the Old Testament they prove his divinity; his incarnation; the sacrificial nature of his death; that he was truly a Priest to make reconciliation for the people, as well as a Prophet and a King; and that He was to die, to rise again on the third day, to ascend into heaven and to be invested with absolute authority over all the earth, and over all orders of created beings. There is not a doctrine concerning Christ, taught in the New Testament, which the Apostles do not affirm to have been revealed under former dispensations.

-Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 2, p. 370

Thanks to D.G. Hart’s helpful essay on Princeton and the Law in The Law is Not of Faith, I have begun again to dig into Charles Hodge. It’s been so long since I have dug into the book that I found that the old bookmark I had left in it was an old-school prepaid long-distance phone card. Anybody remember those? I was in my early 20s, and a new Christian, when I first stormed through Hodge’s Systematic Theology, barely understanding a word I read. Anyhow…

This summary by Hodge of Christ in the Old Testament is nearly as eloquent as Calvin’s. I spend a lot of time in the Old Testament. If you’re reading your Bible straight through (and I hope you are), you do as well. We need these sorts of reminders often.

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  1. Timothy says:

    It is a rich summary, and a message we need to drive home to the faithful over and over again, so they see the need for the OT. “All Scripture is God breathed…” not just the NT. 🙂

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