Fulfilling the Scriptures

During one of several postresurrection appearances to the disciples, Jesus demonstrated that He was not a phantom or a ghost but rather that He had been raised in soul and body (Luke 24:36–43). He retained all the characteristics of true humanity, for He continues to possess a human nature, albeit one that has been perfected and glorified. Thus, Paul says that Jesus, after His resurrection, possesses a spiritual body—not that He is only a spirit but that His humanity, including His physical flesh, has been suffused with the glory and power of the Holy Spirit. In our resurrection, we will bear that very same image (1 Cor. 15:42–49).

Today’s passage reveals a further conversation that Jesus had with His disciples after His resurrection, though it does not tell us whether it occurred immediately after He showed His body to the disciples or sometime later. In any case, our Savior reminded them that during His ministry He had told them that it was necessary for Him to fulfill the things written “in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). Everything about His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection was no accident but had been predicted centuries beforehand. Jesus’ statement here indicates that the faith of those who had only the Old Testament and the faith of those who have the New Testament is one and the same, for He is the central theme of both testaments. The Venerable Bede comments that Jesus “fulfilled the mysteries which Moses, the prophets and the psalms proclaimed. It is perfectly evident that the church is one in all its saints and that the faith of all the chosen is the same, of those who preceded and who followed his coming in the flesh. We are saved through faith in his incarnation, passion and resurrection that have been accomplished.”

Importantly, today’s passage helps us recognize the limits of the Old Testament canon. Jesus uses the traditional threefold division of the canon affirmed by the Jews: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (sometimes called Psalms because Psalms is the first and longest book in that division). The Law is Genesis–Deuteronomy. The Prophets include many of the historical books that we receive as Protestants as well as all the prophetical books except Daniel. The Writings include the poetic books, the other historical books received by Protestants, and Daniel. In other words, the Old Testament that Jesus followed consisted of all thirty-nine Old Testament books that Protestants accept—no more and no less.