Beholding Christ in All 66 Books of the Bible

Beholding Christ Through a Mirror Dimly

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

When I think about what I see in a mirror, I don’t particularly think of seeing “dimly.” I both love and hate my lighted make-up mirror on the counter in my bathroom for the clarity with which I see my reflection in it. But in the Greco-Roman world in which Paul wrote these words, mirrors were made of polished hammered metal like brass or copper, not clear glass like our modern mirrors. So while people did see their reflection when they looked into a mirror in Paul’s day, it was a dull or blurry reflection. It was true, but not anywhere near as clear as seeing a real person face to face. In this same way, for now, we don’t see Christ as clearly, as immediately as we one day will when we see him face to face. But while we don’t see him fully or exhaustively, we do see him genuinely. Where or how do we see him? As we open our Bibles. We behold him in shadows in the Old Testament and in substance in the New Testament.

From the very first pages of the Pentateuch, where we read in Genesis 1 that God spoke, saying “Let there be light,” we behold Christ, recognizing him as the Word speaking, and the Light piercing the darkness. In Exodus, we see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in the shadow of all of the lambs whose blood was painted on doorways on that first Passover night. We see him as the point of all of the sacrifices and feasts of Leviticus, in the provision of manna and water from a rock in Numbers, as the only person who has ever completely obeyed Deuteronomy’s command to love the Lord with heart, soul and strength.

Beholding Christ

Nancy Guthrie

Daily Bible reading introductions by Nancy Guthrie provide background, context, and perspective to guide readers into greater understanding of each day’s text as well as insight on how the passage uniquely reveals the person and work of Christ.

As we move into the historical books, we behold Christ as the true and better Joshua who is leading his people into a better rest in a greater promised land, as the king the people needed in the days of the Judges, and the kinsman-redeemer greater than Boaz in the book of Ruth. We meet David in 1&2 Samuel as the boy from Bethlehem who becomes king over Israel, and we begin to long for the son of David who will one day rule the nations. He will rule with the kind of justice and righteousness that all the other kings who descended from David that we read about in 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles never could.

We see through the shadows of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that Christ is at work bringing a people home to himself. He’s building his church, not with ruined stones in Jerusalem, but with living stones, the lives of those he has redeemed, the people with whom he intends to dwell in the New Jerusalem. He’s preserving his people for himself through the work of a greater mediator than Esther.

Can we behold Christ in the Wisdom books? He’s there as the more innocent sufferer than Job, as the Redeemer Job is confident he will one day stand before in resurrected flesh. We behold Christ as the Psalms’ blessed man, the Anointed one set on God’s holy hill, the shepherd who restores our souls, the king worthy of all our worship. In the sound but limited wisdom of Proverbs we are made to long for the one who will be Wisdom incarnate. He will infuse our lives with the meaning that eluded the preacher of Ecclesiastes. He will love his bride with a love that exceeds that of the bridegroom of Song of Songs.

Isaiah sets the pace for the prophetical books. Christ is set before us not only as the king high and lifted up in the heavenly temple; he’s the servant high and lifted up, pierced for our transgressions; he’s the divine warrior who will come to cleanse the world of its evil and usher in the new creation. Jeremiah’s promise of a new heart will be fulfilled by Christ, as will his Lamentations over Jerusalem for her refusal to come to him. Jesus will be the firstfruits of a resurrection that the raising of dry bones in Ezekiel pointed toward. We behold Christ in Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a stone cut by no human hand that will crush every kingdom of the earth so that his kingdom will fill the whole earth.

We behold Christ in Hosea as one who relentlessly loves an unfaithful bride, in Joel, as one who will bear the judgment his people deserve on a day of thick darkness, in Amos as the one who will in the end bring a fiery judgment, in Obadiah, as the one who will bring an end to all who set themselves against God and his people.

Jonah is the only Old Testament prophet Jesus directly compares himself to. He will say, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” When Micah writes that God passes over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance, we want to ask, “How can a just God do that?” And it leads us to behold Christ as the one who will bear the judgment our transgression deserves. While Nahum enables us to behold Christ going out as a divine warrior to carry out God’s wrath against his enemies, Habakkuk calls us to behold Christ going out for the salvation of his people.

In Zephaniah and Zechariah, we behold Christ coming in lowliness, while in Haggai we see him coming in glory, in the latter glory of a temple that is greater than the glory of Solomon’s temple.

Interestingly, when we come to the final words of the final chapter of the final book of the Old Testament, there is no resolution to the story it has been telling. At the close of Malachi, God warns that unless his people’s sin is dealt with, he will “come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” And we’re left wondering, “Is there any hope for his people’s sin to be cleansed, for his people to love him, for the curse to be dealt with once and for all so that they can one day behold him face to face?”

From the very first pages of the Pentateuch, where we read in Genesis 1 that God spoke, saying “Let there be light,” we behold Christ, recognizing him as the Word speaking, and the Light piercing the darkness.

And then we open up the New Testament where we no longer behold Christ in shadow, but in substance in the person of Jesus. Here we find the person who is the answer to all the unanswered questions of the Old Testament, the person who meets all the unmet needs of the Old Testament. In Matthew we behold Christ as the son of David, born as a baby into the world who is bringing in an upside-down kingdom, in Mark as a servant who has come to give his life as a ransom for many, in Luke as the Savior who has come seek and save the lost, and in John as the Word made flesh dwelling among us. In the book of Acts, we behold Christ ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, overseeing the spread of his Gospel beginning in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Then we come to the epistles, or the letters of the New Testament. In writing to the Romans, Paul helps us to behold Christ as the righteousness of God revealed apart from the law that is received by faith. In 1 & 2 Corinthians, he’s the wisdom and power of God that stands in stark contrast to worldly wisdom.

We rejoice when we read in Galatians that the crisis of the curse has finally been dealt with: Christ has redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us. Our limited perspectives are expanded when we read in Ephesians about God’s plan to unite all things in Christ— things in heaven and things on earth. We’re enabled to make sense of our own suffering when, in Philippians, we behold Christ’s humiliation followed by exaltation; his suffering giving way to glory. If we were wondering if it was a stretch to think that we could behold Christ in the first pages of Genesis, Paul states for us clearly in Colossians that Christ is the one by whom all things were created.

Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians assure us that we are not crazy to expect that the Christ who came will come again. The pastoral letters to Timothy and Titus remind us that Christ has made us part of a family, a household made up of fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers who love and serve each other. In Philemon, we behold him as mediator, reconciling us to God.

The book of Hebrews assures that we were right to behold Christ in the shadows of the tabernacle and sacrifices of the Old Testament and helps us to see all the ways that the substance of Christ and his work is far better than the shadows ever were. James shows us that through Christ mercy triumphs over judgment. Peter convinces us that we can endure suffering as we stand firm for Christ. John invites us to find forgiveness in Christ. Jude promises we’ll be kept by Christ. And finally, we hear Christ himself speaking in the last pages of Revelation, saying, “Behold, I am making all things new!”

How can we ever get bored with the Bible, think we’ve already mastered the Bible, ignore our Bibles, when the Bible sets before us the beauty, sufficiency, and necessity of Christ in so many fascinating, joy-inducing, and life-altering ways?! Yes, as we await the return of Christ, we see through a glass dimly. But as we gaze upon him in his Word, we do see him genuinely, and meaningfully, just not yet fully or completely. It makes us long for more. We want to say with Moses, “Show me your glory!” And one day he will! We pray along with David to gaze upon the beauty of his face. And one day we will!

Nancy Guthrie is the author of Beholding Christ: A Daily Guide to Seeing Jesus in All of Scripture.

Nancy Guthrie (MATS Reformed Theological Seminary) teaches the Bible at her home church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, as well as at conferences around the country and internationally, including her Biblical Theology Workshop for Women. She is the author of numerous books and the host of the Help Me Teach the Bible podcast with the Gospel Coalition. She and her husband founded Respite Retreats for couples who have faced the death of a child, and they are cohosts of the GriefShare video series.

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