As we journey through the Bible, we recognize that Jesus did not arrive out of nowhere. From start to finish, the Bible is a book about Him. Indeed, even the Old Testament prophets, under the inspiration of the Spirit, wrote about Jesus. If we take our eyes off Christ, then, however well we know Scripture, we will have missed its center, its key, and its hero.

In the Gospels, Jesus pointed people to the Old Testament to help them understand who He was. Early in His ministry, He was once at the synagogue reading from the scroll of Isaiah. As He finished, Luke tells us, He “began to say” to His listeners, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Later, speaking to people who were especially interested and versed in the Old Testament Scriptures, Jesus warned them, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). After His death and resurrection, when He encountered some of His dejected followers on the road to Emmaus, Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets … interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).

In other words, Jesus clearly taught that every part of the Old Testament finds its focus and fulfillment in Him.

When you read the Scriptures, you meet Jesus, because this book testifies to Him. Even if our studies and understanding of Old Testament passages provide us with good, important ethical truths about life, there’s great danger of us missing the Truth, Jesus. The purpose of every page of your Bible is for you to meet Jesus, to come to know Him, and to proclaim His great name, all for His glory.

In every sermon you hear, every lesson you study, and every passage of God’s word that you read, be asking yourself, “Did it bring me to Christ? Did I discover Jesus in it?” And do not stop listening, studying, and reading until you can answer yes, for it is in Him that the treasures of salvation, truth, wisdom, and comfort are to be found.