Typology of the Old Testament: The Prefigurements of the Christ

Typology is a method of Biblical interpretation that seeks to draw parallels between the Old Testament and the New Testament while still acknowledging historical and literal meaning. The events, characters, and ideas in the Old Testament are seen as types or shadows of what is mirrored or fulfilled in the New Testament, and the Christ is the fulfillment of this foreshadowing. Because so much of the Old Testament is confusing to modern readers either because it seems culturally foreign, ethically barbaric, or historically complicated, many Christians have at the very least placed minimal interest in studying the Old Testament, if not dropping it as altogether unnecessary in the light of the Gospel.

However, this tendency to overly-simplify theology is dangerous. Granted, all one needs to know in order to believe in Jesus is located within a single Gospel, but one's understanding of who Jesus is and the significance of what He did are more fully understood and appreciated when the Old Testament scriptures are brought back into the picture.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:17, "Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Jesus understood His place in scripture as the fulfillment of the Old Testament, not the nullification of it or even the updating of it. He did not come to change anything about what had already been said or to add anything to it, but He came to agree with the law and the prophets and to complete their requirements and prophecies in a perfect way. Jesus is the "yes, and" to the Old Testament, not the "no, but."

This concept is very clearly seen in the ritual sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin in the Old Testament. These were prescribed by God through Moses in order to make people righteous before God in order that they might commune together - a Holy God with a sinful man who was covered with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. Jesus does not nullify any of this; God is still a holy god who will not commune with sinful men unless their sins are atoned for.

Jesus gave Himself as the blameless sacrifice for all sin, a Holy God-man who willingly died on behalf of mankind in order to restore us to a right relationship to God. While acknowledging that man was in need of propitiation for sin, Jesus knew that the endless cycle of ritual sacrifice would never bring about a completely right relationship between God and man. These sacrifices, while good in and of themselves, were only shadows of the ultimate and perfect sacrifice that Jesus would make on man's behalf.