How does all Scripture point to Christ? The answer to this question is important because it also demonstrates how the entire Bible finds its unity, coherence, and center in Christ’s person and work. Despite Scripture being written by numerous authors over many centuries, it is centrally about one thing: what our triune God has planned in eternity, executed in time, in order to redeem a people for himself and to make everything new in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:9–10). To demonstrate how all Scripture points to Christ is to validate this crucial point, but how?

My initial answer is not in terms of hidden verses or codes, or multiple layers of meaning. Instead, all Scripture points to Christ as it traces out God’s redemptive plan, rooted in eternity, enacted in time, and unveiled over time by human authors. Christ is revealed in all Scripture by starting where the Bible begins—in creation, starting with who God is as Creator and Lord, humans as image-bearers created to know God in covenant relationship, the entrance of sin into the world, and God’s gracious promise and determination to redeem a people for himself by a greater Adam who is not merely human but also the divine Son.

In other words, all Scripture points to Christ by seeing him unveiled in the Bible’s story and discovering how in God’s eternal plan, all of God’s promises, along with various persons, events, and institutions, were intended by God to anticipate, foreshadow, and typify the eternal Son to come. Thus, by tracing out the Bible’s story, the identity of Christ as the divine Son who will assume our human nature to redeem us and why he, as God the Son, must do so, is unveiled step-by-step. In fact, all of Scripture is needed to fully grasp Jesus’s person and work. Jesus does not come to us de novo. Instead, he is revealed to us rooted in the teaching and categories of the Old Testament (OT).

To show how all Scripture points to Christ, I will sketch four truths, grounded in the Bible’s story that illustrates how Jesus’s identity as God the Son incarnate is gradually unveiled in the OT, which then comes to full light in the New Testament (NT) in the Son’s incarnation and work.

God as the Creator-Covenant Lord

To discover how all Scripture points to Christ, we must first start with who God is, since we cannot know who Jesus is, especially as the divine Son, apart from starting with theology proper. Much could be said on this point, but we begin with God as our Creator and covenant Lord.

From Genesis 1 on, God presents himself as the uncreated, independent, self-sufficient one who creates and rules all things by his Word (Gen 1–2; Ps 50:12–14; Acts 17:24–25; cf. John 1:1). This truth grounds the central distinction of Christian theology: The Creator-creature distinction, which establishes a specific view of the God-world relationship. God alone is God; all else is creation that depends totally on him for all things. God’s transcendent lordship (Ps 7:17; 9:2; 21:7; 97:9; 1 Kgs 8:27; Isa 6:1; Rev 4:3) also eliminates any notion of deism that rejects God’s agency in human history; God is transcendent and immanent with his creation. As Creator and Lord, God is fully present and related to his creatures: He freely, powerfully, and purposefully sustains and governs all things to his desired end (Ps 139:1–10; Acts 17:28; Eph 1:11), but he is not identified with the world.

As the Creator, God sovereignly rules over his creation. He rules with perfect power, knowledge, and righteousness (Ps 9:8; 33:5; 139:1–4, 16; Isa 46:9–11; Rom 11:33–36). As Lord, God acts in, with, and through his creatures to accomplish his plan and purposes (Eph 1:11). As personal, God commands, loves, comforts, and judges consistent with himself and according to the covenant relationships that he establishes with his creatures. In fact, as Scripture unfolds over time, God discloses himself as tri-personal, a unity of three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit (Matt 28:18–20; John 1:1–18; 5:16–30; 17:1–5; 1 Cor 8:5–6; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 1:3–14). In fact, the Trinity is revealed with the unveiling of Christ as the divine Son, along with the Holy Spirit as God.

God is also the Holy One (Gen 2:1–3; Exod 3:2–5; Lev 11:44; Isa 6:1–3; Rom 1:18–23). God’s holiness means more than “set apart.” God’s holiness is uniquely associated with his aseity (“life from himself”). As God, he is self-sufficient metaphysically (self-existent) and morally (self-justifying; he is the moral standard of the universe). God is categorically different in nature and existence than his creation; he shares his glory with no one (Isa 40–48). God’s holiness entails his personal moral perfection. He is “too pure to behold evil” and unable to tolerate wrong (Hab 1:12–13; cf. Isa 1:4–20; 35:8). As such, God must act with holy justice when his people rebel against him; yet he is the God who loves his people with a holy love (Hos 11:9). God’s holiness and love are never at odds (1 John 4:8; Rev 4:8). Yet, as sin enters the world in Adam, and God graciously promises to redeem us, a question arises as to how he will do so and remain true to himself—a question central to the Bible’s unveiling of Christ’s identity.

This summary of theology proper is the first truth that is crucial in how all Scripture points to Christ. Specifically, Jesus’s identity is tied to this God, and it is within this framework that Christ’s identity is unveiled. But why is this significant for understanding how all Scripture reveals Christ? Let me offer two important reasons.

First, as the Bible’s story unfolds, beginning in Genesis 3:15—the seed of the woman—and then, especially in the prophets, the Messiah-Son to come will be human but also identified with God. For it is he who will fulfill all of God’s promises, inaugurate God’s saving rule, and share God’s throne (Ps 110; cf. Ps 45)—something no mere human can do.

In fact, one of the ways the NT teaches Christ’s deity is by identifying Jesus with OT Yahweh texts and applying them directly to him, thus identifying Jesus with this God (Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 12:3; Phil 2:11). Also, in the NT, theos is applied to Christ seven times, but when set in the context of the OT, this identifies Jesus with God. In biblical thought, no creature can share the attributes of God (Col 2:9), carry out the works of God (Col 1:15–20; Heb 1:1–3), receive the worship of God (John 5:22–23; Phil 2:9–11, Heb 1:6; Rev 5:11–12), and bear the titles and name of God (John 1:1, 18; 8:58; 20:28; Rom 9:5; Phil 2:9–11; Heb 1:8–9) unless he is God equal with God, and thus one who shares the one, identical divine nature.

Second, given that God is the moral standard, then sin before God is a serious problem. As the holy one, God is “the Judge of all the earth” who always does what is right (Gen 18:25). But in promising to justify us before him (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:5), God cannot overlook our sin; he must remain true to his own righteous demand against sin. But how can God remain just and the justifier of the ungodly? In Scripture, this is the major question that drives the Bible’s story. Ultimately, as God’s plan unfolds, this question is answered in a specific person, namely, the Messiah, who is the Servant-Son, who alone can redeem us because he is more than a mere man. He is also the divine Son who becomes human to act as our representative and substitute (Rom 3:21–26). As the divine Son, he is able to satisfy his own righteous demand against us, and as human, he is able to satisfy the demands of covenant life for us as our new covenant head.

Adam/Humans as Image-Bearers and the Requirement of Covenant Obedience

To grasp how all Scripture reveals Christ, we must also identify humans rightly as God’s image-sons and covenant creatures. Specifically, we must go back to Adam and then trace the Bible’s link between the command to and the curse of the first Adam that is remedied only by the last Adam. Otherwise, we cannot make sense of why the divine Son became man to save us from our sins (Matt 1:21) and how the Bible’s story, starting with Adam, anticipates Christ.

Scripture divides all humans under two representative heads: Adam and Christ (Rom 5:12–21; 1 Cor 15:12–28). In God’s plan, Adam is a type of Christ, who anticipates the last Adam (Rom 5:14). Adam is not only the first man, but also humanity’s representative. Adam’s headship defines what it means to be human, and sadly, by his representative-legal act of disobedience, he plunges all people into sin (Gen 3; Rom 3:23; 5:12–21).

Central to God’s relationship with us is his demand of obedience. From Adam, and by extension all of us, God demands complete obedience. After all, what else would God demand as our Creator? Also, God enters into a covenant relationship with Adam. God gives him a command (Gen 2:15–17) and a promise that if he obeys, he will be confirmed in permanent covenant fellowship with God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil tests whether Adam will be an obedient covenant keeper. Tragically, Adam disobeys, and the consequence of his action is not private. Post-fall, all people are born “in Adam”—guilty and corrupt. Also, Adam’s sin impacts the entire creation; we now live in a fallen, abnormal world that requires God to remedy (Gen 3:15; Rom 8:18–25). The tree of life holds out an implied promise of life. Yet, because of sin, the Judge of all the earth expels Adam from Eden. Yet, there is a concealed message of hope in God’s promise to provide a Redeemer (Gen 3:15), which, over time, is unveiled with greater understanding through the biblical covenants.

Why is this important for how Christ is in all Scripture? Because of the truth of who Adam is, his disobedience that results in sin and death, and God’s gracious promise to redeem and to provide a coming Redeemer drive the Bible’s story. It gives the rationale for why the divine Son must become incarnate for us, and why he must be greater. Why? Because to undo and to pay for Adam’s sin, the “seed of the woman” must come. For redemption to occur, a human must do it. He must render our required covenantal obedience as a greater Adam. Yet, the reversal of Adam’s sin and all of its disastrous effects will require more than a mere man. It will also require the divine Son, the true image of God (Col 1:15; Heb 1:3), to do the work of God: to remove the curse, to pay for our sin, and to usher in a new creation. To underscore why the reversal of Adam’s sin will require more than a mere human, let’s turn to the third truth.

The Nature of the Human Problem

Central to the purpose of our creation and the covenant is that God has created us to know him and to be his image-sons to display his glory by expanding Eden’s borders to the entire creation. But what happens when we rebel against God and deface the image? Can the divine purpose still be accomplished? How will God forgive those who sin against him?

From Genesis 3 on, Scripture reveals that Adam’s disobedience brought sin into the world and all humans under God’s wrath. God expels Adam and Eve from his presence, and sin’s transmission is universal. By Genesis 6, human sin has so multiplied that it results in a global flood. Looking back on the course of human history, Paul confirms our universal fallenness: “There is no one righteous, not even one . . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:10, 23). Adam’s sin turned the created order upside down and brought on us the sentence of death (Rom 6:23). We were made to know, love, and serve God. But now we live under his righteous condemnation as his enemies and objects of his wrath (Eph 2:1–3).

What is God’s response to our sin? Judgment, yet given God’s promise to redeem, there is also grace and provision. But how can God do both: judge us yet also forgive us of our sin? God is holy and just, sin is against him, and sin must be punished. God cannot and will not overlook our sin since our sin is not against an impersonal law, but against him (Ps 51:4). For God to forgive us, it will demand nothing less than the full satisfaction of his moral demand. But who is able to satisfy God’s righteous demand other than God himself?

These three truths are foundational to the Bible’s story and necessary to grasp if we are to understand how all Scripture reveals Christ. First, because of who God is and his promise to save, he must provide his own solution to the forgiving of our sin. Second, because God has created humans to rule over creation, salvation must come through a man. Third, because of the universal nature of sin, this last Adam must be greater than the first, and ultimately, God himself. In other words, the Redeemer to come must identify with God in his nature and with us in ours—a point that is underscored in the unfolding of the covenants.

God Himself Saves through His Obedient Son

Who, then, is qualified to undo what Adam did, establish God’s kingdom on earth, and save us from our sins? Certainly, no one “in Adam” is able to do so, but there is one who can: God’s own provision of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which is unveiled through the covenants.

After Adam’s sin, God does not leave us to ourselves. God acts in grace and promises to reverse the manifold effects of sin through his provision of the “seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15)—a promise that is given greater clarity over time. We learn that this coming Redeemer will destroy the works of Satan and restore goodness to this world. This promise creates the hope that when it’s finally realized, sin and death will be destroyed, and the fullness of God’s saving reign will come. As God’s plan unfolds, we discover who this Redeemer is and how he will save us. Three points will develop this last point.

First, God’s promise of the coming of the “seed of the woman” is unfolded through the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Israel, and David, which develop and anticipate the promise. Gradually, God prepares his people to anticipate the coming of a person who will be human but also more. How? Scripture teaches that the fulfillment of God’s promises will be through a human, anticipated by various typological persons such as Adam, Noah, Moses, Israel, and David, along with the development of the priesthood, sacrificial system, and temple. But Scripture also identifies this Messiah with God. How? Because of what this Messiah-King does: he inaugurates God’s rule, shares God’s throne, and does what only God can do (e.g., Pss 2, 45, 110; Isa 9:6–7; Ezek 34).

Second, how does God’s kingdom come in its redemptive-new creation sense (Isa 65:17)? As the OT unfolds, God’s saving kingdom is revealed and comes to this world, at least in anticipatory form, through the covenants and their heads—Adam, Noah, Abraham and his seed, Israel, and most significantly through David and his sons. Yet, the OT repeatedly reminds us that these covenant heads disobey; they are not the promised “seed of the woman.” Specifically, this is evident in the Davidic covenant and kings.

The Davidic covenant is the epitome of the OT covenants; it brings the previous covenants to a climax in the king. There are two main parts to it: (1) God’s promises about the establishment of David’s house forever (2 Sam 7:12–16), and (2) the promises concerning the “Father-son” relationship between God and the Davidic king (2 Sam 7:14; cf. Ps 2; 89:26–27). The meaning of this “sonship” is twofold. First, it inextricably ties the Davidic covenant to the previous covenants, and second, it anticipates in type the greater Sonship of Christ.

Regarding the former, the sonship applied to corporate Israel (Exod 4:22–23; cf. Hos 11:1) is now applied to the individual Davidic king, who, in himself, is “true Israel.” He becomes the administrator of the covenant, thus representing God’s rule to the people and representing the people as a whole (2 Sam 7:22–24). This also entails that the Davidic king fulfills the role of Adam; it is through him that God’s rule is effected in the world (2 Sam 7:19b). This makes sense if one links the covenants together, building toward climactic fulfillment. At the center of God’s redemptive plan is the restoration of humanity’s vice-regent role in creation via the seed. By the time we reach David, we now know that it is through the Davidic king that creation will be restored. In the OT, this truth is borne out in many places, especially the Psalter, which envisions the Davidic son as executing a universal rule (e.g., Ps 2, 8, 45, 72, cf. Isa 9:6–7, 11, 53).

But in OT history, there is a major problem. As previous covenant mediators disobeyed, so also the Davidic kings. Yet the hope of salvation depends on them. God continues in his unilateral determination to keep his promise to bring forth the promised king who will rule the world, yet there is no faithful son-king who effects God’s saving reign. This leads to the message of the Prophets and the anticipation of a new covenant.

When thinking of the OT writing prophets, it is crucial to note that all of them wrote post-David. Why is this important? Their prophecies build on what God has already revealed through the covenants in promises and typological patterns. The prophets not only speak of God’s judgment on the nation for their violation of the covenant, but they also proclaim an overall pattern of renewal by recapitulating the past history of redemption and projecting it into the future. The prophets announce that God will unilaterally keep his promise to redeem and he will do so through a faithful Davidic king (Isa 7:14; 9:6–7; 11:1–10; 42:1–9; 49:1–7; 52:13–53:12; 55:3; 61:1–3; Jer 23:5–6; 33:14–26; Ezek 34:23–24; 37:24–28). In this king, identified as the “servant of Yahweh,” a new/everlasting covenant will come, and with it the pouring of the Spirit (Ezek 36–37; Joel 2:28–32), God’s saving reign among the nations, the forgiveness of sin (Jer 31:34) and a new creation (Isa 65:17). The hope of the Prophets is found in the new covenant, which at its heart promises the full forgiveness of our sins (Jer 31:34).

Third, we can now see how the Bible’s covenantal story identifies and anticipates Christ. If we step back and ask—Who is able to fulfill all of God’s promises, inaugurate God’s saving rule in this world, and achieve the full forgiveness of sin? Answer: God alone. And this is precisely what the OT teaches (Isa 43:11; 45:21).

As Israel’s history unfolds, it becomes evident that God alone must act to accomplish his promises; he must initiate in order to save; he must unilaterally act if there is going to be redemption at all. After all, who can achieve the forgiveness of sin other than God alone? Who can usher in the new creation, final judgment, and salvation? If there is to be salvation, God himself must come and usher it in and execute judgment (Isa 51:9; 52:10; 53:1; 59:16–17; cf. Ezek 34). Just as God once led Israel through the desert, so he must come again, bringing a new exodus to bring salvation to his people (Isa 11:10–16; 40:3–5; 43:1–7; cf. Hos 11:1–12).

However, as the covenants establish, alongside the emphasis that God himself must come to redeem, the OT also stresses that God will do so through another David, a human “son,” but a “son” who is also closely identified with Yahweh. Isaiah pictures this well. This king to come will sit on David’s throne (Isa 9:7) but he will also bear the very titles/names of God (Isa 9:6). This King, though another David (Isa 11:1), is also David’s Lord who shares the divine rule (Ps 110:1). He will be the mediator of a new covenant; he will perfectly act like Yahweh (Isa 11:1–5), yet he will suffer for our sin to justify many (Isa 53:11). In him, OT hope and expectation is joined: God must save but through his King-Son—who is truly human yet one who bears the divine name.

So how does all Scripture reveal Christ? It does so by the unveiling of this covenantal story, which step-by-step reveals what is concealed. In fact, as the NT opens, and Jesus arrives on the scene, this is precisely how the NT presents him. Jesus is the human son (Matt 1:1—“son of David and Abraham), yet he is also the eternal, divine Son of the Father, identified with God who has come to save his people from their sins (see Matt 1:21; 11:1–15; 12:41–42; 13:16–17; Luke 7:18–22; 10:23–24; cf. John 1:1–3; 17:3). As the human son, he perfectly fulfills all the typological patterns and roles of the previous sons for our salvation (e.g., Adam [Luke 3:38], Israel [Exod 4:22–23; Hos 11:1], David [2 Sam 7:14; Pss 2, 16, 72, 110]). By his incarnation and work, he becomes David’s greater Son, the last Adam, who inaugurates God’s kingdom, and is now seated as the Davidic king, leading history to its consummation at his return (Matt 1:1; 28:18–20; Luke 1:31–33; Rom 1:3–4; 5:12–21; 1 Cor 15:22–22; Eph 1:9–10, 18–23; Phil 2:9–11; Col 1:15–20; Heb 1–2). Yet, Jesus can only do all of this because he is the divine Son of the Father (Matt 11:25–30; John 5:16–30) who assumed our humanity and lives, obeys, dies, and is raised for our justification. For it is only as the divine Son assuming our human nature that he can fulfill all of the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17–20; 7:12) and take on himself our sin, guilt, and make this world right by the ratification of a new covenant in his blood (Rom 3:21–26; 5:1–8:39; 1 Cor 15:1–34; Eph 1:7–10; Heb 8:1–13).

In this way, from beginning to end, Scripture reveals Christ.