ryleWe are told that our Lord began with Moses and all the Prophets as He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24.27).

How do we explain these words? In what way did our Lord explain things concerning Himself in every part of the Old Testament? The answer is simple. Christ was the substance of every Old Testament sacrifice ordained in the Law of Moses. Christ was the true Deliverer and King of whom all the judges and deliverers in Jewish history were types. Christ was the coming Prophet greater than Moses, whose glorious coming filled the pages of the prophets. Christ was the true Seed of the woman who was to bruise the serpent’s head, the true Shiloh to whom the people were to be gathered, the true Scapegoat, the true bronze Serpent, the true Lamb to which every daily offering pointed, the true High Priest of whom every descendant of Aaron was a figure. These things, or something like them, we need not doubt, were some of the things which our Lord expounded on the way to Emmaus.

Let it be a settled principle in our minds when reading the Bible that Christ is the central sun of all its books. So long as we keep Him in view, we will never greatly err in our search for spiritual knowledge. Once we lose sight of Christ, we will find the whole Bible dark and full of difficulty. The key to understanding the Bible is Jesus Christ.

–J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. Excerpt courtesy of Calvary Baptist Church.