Several year ago, I spent Good Friday tweeting out single verses from every book in the Old Testament that pointed forward to Jesus' atoning death on the cross. Some of these verses are direct prophecy--a specific promise of the Messiah coming to die for the sins of his people. Many others rely on typology to foreshadow Jesus' saving work. Typology is a way God built into history and Scripture pictures and patterns to anticipate the greater work of Christ. Paul and the author of Hebrews calls these types "shadows" of which Christ is the substance (Col 2:17; Heb 8:5).
Pastor Greg has been looking at the Old Testament's anticipation of Jesus' resurrection in Sunday School. As we anticipate Good Friday, it may be helpful to walk among these shadows to see the many ways God prepared for the coming of his Son, who would save us by his death on the cross. By meditating on these things, I hope it will help us treasure him more deeply and worship him more thoughtfully on Friday.
I will put enmity between…your offspring and her offspring; he shall crush your head and you shall bruise his heel (Gen 3:15).
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8; cf Heb 2:14-15).
The blood shall be a sign for you…It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover (Ex 12:13-27).
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed (1 Cor 5:7).
He shall make atonement for the Holy Place because of the uncleannesses of the people (Lev 16:16).
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:11-14).
The LORD said to Moses “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who… sees it shall live” (Num 21:8).
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14–15).
Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree (Deut 21:23).
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal 3:13).
Historical Books
Then the LORD turned from his burning anger (Josh 7:26).
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 1:1–2)
The LORD…saved them from the hand of their enemies…for the LORD was moved to pity (Jdg 2:18).
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21).
Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer! (Ruth 4:14).
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:4).
And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them" (1 Sam 8:7)
He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them (John 19:16–18).
He shall be to me a son…I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men (2 Sam 7:12-14).
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (1 Pet 2:24).
This house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will…say, ‘Why has the Lord done this?’ (1 Kgs 9:8)
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19; cf Luke 23:44–48).
They did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger (2 Kgs17:11).
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Rom 5:8–9).
You shall be shepherd of my people Israel and you shall be prince over my people Israel (1 Chrn 11:2).
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11)
The Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him (2 Chr 30:9).
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name (Phil 2:8–9).
Our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens (Ezra 9:6).
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:13–14).
Our God turned the curse into a blessing (Neh 13:2).
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (Gal 3:13-14).
For he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people (Esth 10:3).
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility (Eph 2:14–16).
Can mortal man be in the right before God? (Job 4:17).
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Ps 22:1).
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)
Rescue those who are being taken away to death (Prov 24:11).
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost (1 Tim 1:15).
God will bring every deed into judgment (Ecc 12:14).
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Rom 8:1–4).
His banner over me was love (Song 2:4).
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16a).
The Prophets
He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities (Isa 53:5).
It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom 4:24–25).
I will make a new covenant… For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more (Jer 31:31-34; Matt 26:28)
I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath (Lam 3:1).
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Rom 5:9).
And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes (Ezek 36:23).
Jesus Christ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom 3:25–26).
To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him (Dan 9:9).
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (Heb 2:17).
Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? (Hos 13:14).
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:3-4).
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2:32).
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:39–43; cf. John 3:14–15; Rom 10:13).
For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins (Amos 5:12).
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:6–8).
Do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune (Obad 12).
And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (Matt 27:33-44).
Salvation belongs to the LORD! (Jon 2:9).
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21).
And he shall be their peace (Mic 5:2-5).
but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 4:24—5:1).
Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? (Nah 1:6).
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins (Rom 3:25)
Why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? (Hab 1:13).
The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified (Matt 27:15–26).
The Lord has taken away the judgments against you (Zeph 3:15).
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2:13–14).
I am about to shake the heavens and the earth… I will take you…and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you (Hag 2:21-23).
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matt 27:45–54; cf. Col 2:9-10, 15).
I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day (Zech 3:9).
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Heb 10:11-14).
“I have loved you,” says the Lord (Mal 1:2).
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
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