We decided to do this series to address the idea by some Christians that the Old Testament (OT) is irrelevant. So far, we’ve looked at three of the four Gospels to see what Jesus thought of the OT. I think the conclusions we can draw are clear, so we’ll quickly look at Luke in this blog and then conclude the series by looking at all the data.
To put it simply, if our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, took what we call today the Old Testament seriously, so should we. The evidence says he did.
With this, you cannot fully understand Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection without understanding the Old Testament. This is the opinion of both Jesus and the writers of the New Testament.
Since the first three articles have proven this (and I don’t want to get too redundant!), I’ll share some brief observations on Luke, and then we’ll look at the total count of OT references in all four Gospels to conclude this series.
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
Like Matthew’s Gospel, Luke’s Gospel starts with a birth narrative of Jesus. In both Gospels, we find many references to the OT in these opening chapters by the authors to show that these events are in line with the Jewish Scripture and Jesus is the promised Messiah, a descendant of Abraham and David. Yet, with both Gospels, once Jesus’ public ministry begins, the majority of OT references are made by Jesus himself.
Something interesting that is unique to Luke is (Well, the wording is unique; the idea is found in all the Gospels):
16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John [the Baptist]; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. (Luke 16:16–17).
Here, Jesus is saying both that the time of the OT (“The Law and the Prophets,” “the Law”) is past, but at the same time it does not become void. This supports the idea that we saw in the other Gospels about Jesus NOT doing away with the OT but fulfilling it, and this naturally leads us into the new revelation of God, the New Testament (which is not “new” in the sense of something different, but a continuation and “fleshing out” of God’s Law) and a new covenant.
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:19–20)
Jesus brings the New Covenant, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy in Jeremiah 31:31–33 and Ezekiel 36:26–27. (Also see Hebrews 7:22 and 8:6, as well as my blog article "Must Christians Follow the Old Testament Law? (Part 4) Hebrews: Freedom from Dead Works.")
Another interesting thing to note is Jesus’ regular use of Isaiah. In Luke 4:17-21, Jesus reads from an Isaiah scroll, then states, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In 7:18-23, when John the Baptist sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is “the one who is to come,” Jesus quotes Isaiah, citing his miracles as evidence that he is the Messiah. In 22:37, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 53, saying that it will be fulfilled in him. Isaiah 53 is probably the most famous chapter in Isaiah among Christians because it so clearly speaks of Jesus' self-sacrifice as the “suffering servant,” who will take the punishment of the peoples’ sin upon himself.
Lastly, Luke closes his Gospel with the resurrected Jesus clearly speaking of his death and resurrection fulfilling the OT:
25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:24–27).
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44–47).
Imagine if only Luke recorded these conversations in whole!
THE RESULTS
Here are the numbers for Luke’s Gospel…
THE GOSPEL OF LUKE
24 Chapters
57 References to OT
38 References to OT made by Jesus
67% of OT references are made by Jesus
SERIES WRAP UP
Below are the final results for our study of the four Gospels of Jesus’ use of the Old Testament.
In hindsight, it would’ve been useful to separate the total of OT references by those used by the Gospels’ authors, those made by other people appearing in the Gospels’ narratives (such as the 12 Disciples, other Jews, etc.), and Jesus. But since this informal study was to really see how Jesus talked about the OT, this serves our purposes.
The chart below shows some obvious things. The number of chapters (which, admittedly, are not inspired and simply give us a rough idea of the length of each Gospel) compared to the OT references proves discussion of the OT was an important part of Jewish life and a regular thing throughout the Gospels. Moving to the right, we see clearly that Jesus spoke often about the OT and it was an important part of his ministry. Keep in mind, we skipped all of his references to himself as the Son of Man, which is an important reference to Daniel 7.
Also, keep in mind, where the chart below is interesting and helpful, the number of OT references by Jesus is not as important as what he actually says about it, which we looked at in each part of this series.
We also have to keep in mind that Jesus was under the Old Covenant, but his life and death changed things, bringing the New Covenant that Christians are under. To learn more about this, see my blog series Making Sense of Old Testament Law and Must Christian Follow Old Testament Law?
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