The ideal of true life found in the OT was fellow- ship Av^ith God. The necessary condition of such a life was perfect obedience to the law of love. Jesus found these principles in the literature of the OT, and their authority came from the Spirit, who moulded the life of which the OT was a growth.
3. Jesus and prophecy. — The recorded utterances of .Jesus seem to indicate that He laid as real stress on the fulfilment of the prophecies of the OT as He did upon the fulfilment of the Law. This Mas a necessary consequence of the conviction that the ideal was to be realized. In Law and Prophets alike Je.sus found declarations of the Divine pur- po.ses in human historj', and intimations of the programme of the accomplishment of this purpose. In respect to the latter He expressed a firm con- fidence tliat the will of God as declared in the Law should be accomplished. In the Law and the Prophets He found intimations of Himself, of His experiences, and of the relation of these ex- periences to the establishment of the Kingdom. ' Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life' (Jn o-^"). Were the intimations which Jesus found in the Prophets detailed and exact predictions which He was to fulfil ? How did He look at the OT in relation to His own life? Did the Messianic conceptions of .Jesus come chiefly ivonx predictions which He found in the OT? Early in His ministry (Lk 42^), after reading from Is QV- ^ He said, ' To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears.' He continued, and the contents of His .speech are de- scribed (v.-^), ' And all bare him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth.' What these words of grace may have Ijeen is left to our conjecture. They may have Ijeen like the answer sent to John the Baptist at another time, which seems to show that Jesus regarded the work He was doing in preaching good news to the poor, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, as the fulfilment of the utterance of the prophet in this passage. But also the fact that He Himself was doing this work was seen by Jesus as a fulfilment of that prophecy. It is only reasonable to interpret the words of Jesus as affirming that He regarded Himself personally as included within the scope of the passage. Again, ' For I say unto you, that this which is written must be fulfilled in me. And he was reckoned ^ith transgressors : for that which concerneth me hath fulfilment ' (Lk 22^7). ' That which concerneth me ' probably means that Avhich in the Divine counsel concerned Him, whether written or unwritten. The words quoted by Him from Is 53'- were a part of the Divine counsel, according to the thought of Jesus. He saj's in effect : This utterance includes me within its scope and finds its culmination and perfect realization in my experience. The same may be said of the following, ' But that the scrip- ture may lie fulfilled, He that eateth my bread lifted up his heel against me ' ( Jn 13'*) ; ' But this Cometh to pass that the word may be fulfilled that is -w-ritten in their law, They hated me without a cause' (15-^), i.e. 'the words of the OT find their completion in my experience.'
All the most important utterances of Jesus con-
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cerning fiillihiieut of OT prophecy found in His work or experience were attached to no specific Scripture passage, and furthermore we are unable to find a specific OT utterance as the basis. This is a very significant fact, and deserves more careful attention than was needed in the case of the passages just mentioned ; cf. ilt 26^ ' How then should the scri^jtures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?' ; y.^ 'But all Ihis is come to pass, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled ' ; less fully in Mk U*^ ' But this is done that the scriptures might be fulfilled ' ; Lk 18^^ ' And he took unto him twelve, and said unto them. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written bj- the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man.' ^lost im- portant of all are Lk 2-l:-'^- '^- **■*' • Behoved it not the Christ to sutler these things, and to enter into his glory ? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. . . . And he said unto them. These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, how that all things must needs be fulfilled, Avhich are written in the law of INIoses, and the prophets, and the ijsalms, concerning me. Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the 5.criptures, and he said unto them. Thus it is written, that the Christ should sufier, and rise again fi-om the dead the third day ; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.' In these passages Jesus taught jjlainly that the OT testified that His death and resurrection were necessarj- antecedents to the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. In other words, according to Jesus, the OT clearly showed that His death and resurrection Avere a necessity in the Divine economy. The exact nature of this necessity' has not been preserved in the record of the teachings of Jesus. We may say that in harmony ^\ith Scrii^ture we should regard this necessity as not due to any arbitrariness on God's part, or to any necessity' of a mechanical conformity to the utterances in the OT. Rather, in the nature of things, it was due to the hardness of the human heart, which necessitated such experiences on the part of a Saviour in order to overcome its hardness.