Jesus embodies Israel

Israel’s history makes no sense apart from Jesus, and Jesus makes no sense apart from Israel’s history, and God cannot be understood clearly apart from Jesus.

This is why He is called “the light”.

Without light, you cannot see, and it is this One who makes sense of everything.

Matthew[‘s Gospel] is full of all these text proofs, where he says, “and this was fulfilled, and this was fulfilled, and this was fulfilled,” but . . . most of those texts were not written as messianic prophecies. Matthew takes them, and he puts them in there, and he applies them to Jesus.

What’s the point?

Here’s the beautiful point. Jesus didn’t come and tick all the boxes off on the messiah checklist. “Alright, I’ve got 78 old testament prophecies here. I got to ride in on a donkey. Gonna cover that one. I got to go down to Egypt. I got to come back up. Alright.”

Those weren’t even written about messiah, not all of them. Here’s the point. He wasn’t checking off this checklist of messiah. Instead, He wasn’t just fulfilling; He was filling full the entire story of Israel.

He was recapitulating it.

In a concise, 33-year old life, He Himself was Israel, living all the righteousness and fulfilling all of their story.

· He is the new Adam—the prototype of new humanity.

· He is Noah—the ark of salvation

· He is Abraham—the inheritor of all the nations

· He is Moses—the bread of life come down, the one who goes into Egypt and comes back up. He is the one who gives the new Deuteronomy.

· He is Joshua—that is His name, Yeshua, to give the Promised Land.

· He is David—the king who will sit on the throne forever.

· He is the temple himself—He walks around and does what the temple does, “I’m the meeting place of Heaven and Earth, and you now be forgiven.” He’s upstaging the temple! He’s saying, “I’m the temple. I am all of your story wrapped in one embodiment.”

He’s not checking off fulfillment; He’s embodying, He’s incarnating, and fleshing out the entire story of the Bible and walking it out and fulfilling it, living the life we could not live and Israel could not live, dying the death all of them should have died, and raising from the dead to overcome all of the story that had plagued them with the imposter, sin, and death.

This is Jesus! This is what Matthew is saying. He is living the entire story of Israel. He is the Son, Israel.

(Transcribed from a sermon by Adam Cox)