Jesus in Every Book
There are various lists online which contain one-sentence summaries of where we see the Lord Jesus in every book of the Bible. Such lists run the risk of being written off as simplistic, but if ‘Christ and his redemption are the great subject of the whole Bible’ (Jonathan Edwards), the spirit behind them is surely a good one.[1]
In the words of the Puritan Thomas Adams, ‘The blessed Christ is…the sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line; the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddling bands of the child Jesus’.[2]
Edward Leigh could argue that as Jesus Christ is ‘the end of the law and the substance of the Gospel’, he is ‘the principal subject of the whole Bible’ and ‘the summe of all divine revealed truths’.[3]
As such, lists like the one below may be a means to help us follow Isaac Ambrose’s exhortation: ‘Keep still Jesus Christ in your eye, in the perusal of the Scriptures, as the end, scope and substance thereof’.[4]
The following list was, I believe, originally drawn up by Dr Rich Ganz, founding pastor of Ottawa RPC. It is offered here, not because it is necessarily better than any of the others, but simply because no-one else seems to have shared it online.
Undoubtedly no-one will agree with all of it (to take one example, I would see Job pointing us to Christ particularly in his role as an innocent sufferer), but it may at least prove a helpful starting point.
Genesis The seed of the woman who crushes the head of the serpent.
Exodus The I AM, who comes in the burning bush - “I am that which I am.”
Leviticus The final burnt offering of Leviticus
Numbers Pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night
Deuteronomy The Prophet of Ch. 18
Joshua The commander of the Lord’s hosts and the captain of our salvation
Judges The Angel of the Lord
Ruth The kinsman redeemer
Samuel The King whose line will never end
Kings & Chronicles The power and fire of God in Kings and Chronicles
Ezra The final temple of Ezra
Nehemiah The wall of safety
Esther The deliverer
Job The redeemer of Job
Psalms The good shepherd
Proverbs & Ecclesiasties Our wisdom
Song of Songs The Bridegroom
Isaiah The prince of peace
Jeremiah The righteous branch
Lamentations The weeping prophet
Ezekiel The spirit of obedience
Daniel The Son of God in the fiery furnace
Hosea The forsaken husband
Joel The Lord dwelling in the midst of His people
Amos The roaring lion
Obadiah The possessor of the Kingdom
Jonah The dead and risen one
Micah The preacher of righteousness
Nahum The avenger
Habakkuk The everlasting and holy one
Zephaniah The terrifying one
Haggai The Lord of Hosts
Zechariah The high priest of Zechariah
Malachi The Son of righteousness
Matthew The Son of Man
Mark The Son of God
Luke The Son of the most high
John The Word made flesh
Acts He is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit in Acts
Romans The sovereign predestining Lord of Romans
Corinthians The life giving spirit of Corinthians
Galatians The seed of Abraham in Galatians
Ephesians The forgiver of our sins
Philippians The bond servant
Colossians The Image of the invisible God, the fullness of the Godhead
Thessalonians The destroyer of the antichrist
Timothy The mediator between God and man
Titus He justifies by grace in Titus
Philemon He is the loving friend in Philemon
Hebrews The great High Priest
James He is the one who will not tempt us
Peter The chief shepherd
John Our Advocate
Jude He is the one who keeps us from stumbling and makes us stand glorious in Jude
Revelation The first and the last, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, King of kings and Lord of lords.
[1] Edwards, ‘A history of the work of Redemption’ in Works (Yale), ix, 289.
[2] Adams, ‘Sermon LXIII: Meditations upon some part of the Creed’ in Works, iii, 224.
[3] Cited in Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, ii, 219.
[4] Cited in J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, p. 103.
