The whole Bible contains the Gospel of Christ; not just the New Testament. The Gospel is more pronounced in the New Testament and certainly central to the Apostle’s preaching in the letters, nonetheless, the Old Testament contains the Gospel as well. Before there was Gospel fulfillment in the New Testament, there was Gospel promise in the Old Testament. Jesus confirms this when he explained to the two men on the road to Emmaus that the Old Testament Scriptures spoke about Himself (Luke 24:27, 44). Where then do we find the Gospel in the Old Testament? Where do we find the promise of birth, death, resurrection, and the reign of God’s saving Messiah? We find it saturated throughout the whole story beginning in the first book of Genesis.

A Savior Born of Woman¹

After Adam and Eve ate from the tree, Yahweh pronounced judgment on the man, the woman, and the serpent. In Genesis 3:15, He declares judgment upon the serpent saying, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” The judgment spoken upon the serpent is the first sign of the Gospel (known as the protoevangelium or first-gospel). Yahweh has drawn a line between the woman and her children (seed) and the serpent and his children (seed). The children here are not necessarily physical descendants, but those who would follow in the ways of the serpent and rebel against God (his seed), and those who would embrace God by faith (her seed).

Although sin has entered the world and humanity will now taste death, there is hope. God declares victory of the woman’s seed over the serpents with a superior strike to his head. Seed refers to a group here, but it can additionally refer to an individual. Bruce Waltke points out that seed “can refer to an immediate descendent (Gen. 4:25; 15:3), a distant offspring, or a large group of descendants. Here and throughout the Scripture, all three senses are developed and merged.”² Unpacking the use of “seed” in Genesis 3:15, Waltke concludes, “we can infer both the singular and collective sense. But since only the head of the serpent is represented as crushed, we can expect an individual to deliver the fatal blow and to be struck uniquely on his heel.”³

Therefore, “seed” pictures those who will embrace Yahweh by faith in a collective sense, but it also incorporates Christ in a singular sense. And Christ will come and give a fatal blow to the serpent through His work. Though seed is too vague at this point to specify the Savior Jesus Christ; it is too clear to deny that He is its fulfillment. Although seed refers to many, it will eventually be represented by Christ for the whole world (see Paul’s discussion of “Seed” in Galatians 3, specifically 3:16).

What remains significant is that this victory for humanity over the serpent and his followers will come through the woman’s seed. Therefore, there will be a human individual who will bruise the serpent’s head as a descendent of woman. One of the first things the Old Testament promises and foreshadows about the Gospel is that its Savior will be human, born of a woman, and represent humanity.⁴ This is in accord with the New Testament’s genealogies (Matthew 1:1–17 and Luke 3:23–38) and its teaching about the birth of Jesus Christ.

A Dying Savior

As the Old Testament Scriptures now wait for a human Savior to come and strike the serpent, remember it also predicts He will be struck on the heel. Yes, victory is certain in Yahweh’s plan, but it will come at a great cost. That cost will be typified in Exodus (the Passover) and Leviticus (the sacrificial system), and explicit in the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah states (53:12), “Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” This Servant spoken of by Isaiah was given a portion and spoil by Yahweh, because He gave up His own life to bear the sins of others and to make intercession for them. We do not know who this Servant is at this point, and neither does Isaiah. He and the people of his time are left trusting that God will make known who this person is.

The New Testament illuminates Isaiah 53:12 remarkably. Isaiah’s “He poured out His soul unto death” is fulfilled in Jesus yielding up His Spirit (Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46). Isaiah’s “He was numbered with the transgressors” is fulfilled in Jesus being numbered with the transgressors on the cross (Luke 22:37, 23:32–33). And Isaiah’s he “made intercession for the transgressors” is fulfilled in the veil being torn and the people resurrecting from the dead after His death (Matt. 27:51–53). Jesus is assuredly the Servant in Isaiah 53:12.

Jesus will victoriously strike the serpent, and the cost of death is not the result of His fight but the means to bring about victory. A dying Savior was always the plan, for that is where the victorious strike happens; that is where the serpent will be rendered powerless and where humans will find justification from their sin. Victory through death, although a hard concept to grasp (see the disciples in Mark 9:31–32), is a Gospel concept, one prophesied in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New. We should not be surprised of a dying Savior (Isaiah 53:12; Genesis 3:15), who forgives the sins of His people (like the Passover and the sacrificial system).

A Resurrected Savior

To bring victory over sin for humanity, the dying human Savior must also rise from the dead and conquer death. Does the Old Testament teach a resurrected Savior/Messiah? It does!

When the Holy Spirit descended in Acts 2, He caused many to speak in different languages. Some onlookers were amazed and perplexed while others mocked the speakers as having had too much wine. Peter—the same Peter who denied Jesus publicly three times—stood up and addressed the crowd. He explained this phenomenon as the pouring out of God’s Spirit prophesied about in Joel 2:28–32. Then Peter spoke about the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. He did not quote what Jesus said about His resurrection, even though he had many instances in which he could pull from. Rather, Peter went further back in time and quoted David from Psalm 16.

Psalm 16:8–11 says, “8I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Verse 10 explains why David is glad, rejoicing, and resting in hope secure. The reason is because the Lord will not leave his soul in Sheol, “the place where the dead are gathered for judgment.”⁵ And then he says, “Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption [or more literally the “pit”].” “Both ‘my soul’ and ‘Holy One’” seem, at first glance, to be talking about David. “My soul” is clearly David, and “Holy One” seems to be a poetic parallelism describing himself in synonymous terms.

Yet Peter sees the Messiah in the phrase “Holy One;” an instance of David speaking about the Messiah’s resurrection. According to David, the Holy One will not see corruption, or “the pit,” which may be defined as “the state or action of decomposition.”⁶ Thus, we understand David to be saying in the second line of v. 10 that the Lord will not allow His Holy One to decay in his body and rot in the ground. However, David did die as Peter says in Acts 2:28. And his body has remained in the ground and has in fact rotted. Since David’s body did rot, his words in v. 10 did not come true—at least for him they did not. Peter reasons in Acts 2:30 that David was a prophet and knew that in his line of descendants Yahweh had promised one of his descendants would sit on his throne.

Therefore, David was speaking concerning someone else who would not see the corruption in the grave. Who was David speaking about? It was the Messiah, his future son. Thus, David was ultimately prophesying the resurrection of the Messiah from the dead and freed from decay. Paul reasons the same thing in Acts 13:36. He says David died, was buried, and saw corruption (bodily decay in the ground). But the one whom God raised the from the dead—the Messiah—saw no corruption.

Glancing back at Isaiah 53:12 (under a “Dying Savior”), we see that Yahweh exalted His Servant for His sacrificial death. Yahweh says, “Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong.” If the Servant dies a sacrificial death and then is given a portion with the great and divides the spoil with the strong, He must be raised back to life in order to do that. Therefore, resurrection is implied in the exaltation of God’s Servant in Isaiah 53:12, which we clearly saw is Jesus. Thus, the Gospel truth of a resurrected Savior is prophesied in Psalm 16 and is implicitly taught in Isaiah 52.

A Reigning Savior

In 2 Samuel 7:1–17 Yahweh graciously promises to establish His rule forever through the house and kingdom of David. We have the blessing of getting to look back and see how Yahweh’s promise played out to David and his house. After David comes Solomon; he is wise, builds up the kingdom of Israel like never before and then falls into idolatry with the result that the kingdom is divided. Many kings follow Solomon: Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Azariah, Jothem, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Johoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah, and then exile under the Babylonians (1 Chronicles 3:10–16).

Where is the Davidic king now? Israel is in exile, kingless under the slavery of another nation. Has Yahweh’s promise to David failed? Has Yahweh’s hesed (covenant love) proved unfaithful? Not a chance! Yahweh confirmed His promise to Israel of a Davidic root to arise (Isaiah 11:1–5), a prince of peace to come on whose shoulders the government will be (Isaiah 9:6–7)—even before the exile happened. And during the exile Yahweh gives Daniel a vision of one like a son of man who was given an everlasting rule (Daniel 7:13–14). The promise of a Davidic ruler continues to be confirmed despite exile and judgment.

Centuries later, Yahweh declares who the eternal Davidic King is. He sends His angel to a young Israelite woman named Mary and reveals that she will give birth to a son. His name will be Jesus; He will have the throne of his father David, and He will rule forever over Jacob’s descendants (Luke 1:31–33). What good news! And after so many years! The King is finally here!

But 33 years later this same Jesus died. What happened? The eternal King is supposed to reign, not die. Remember Isaiah 53:12. A sacrificial death was necessary in order to make intercession Yahweh’s people. Nevertheless, Yahweh raised Jesus—the son of David—from the dead, crowned Him with glory and honor (Hebrews 2:9), and exalted Him to His right hand (Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2). Therefore, God has indeed kept His promise and established His rule forever through the son of David—Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ—His birth, death, resurrection, and exalted reign—permeate the entire Bible. This is the central message, theme, and goal of the Scriptures. As such, we may be and ought to be confident of the unity of Scripture and its message. Yahweh has promised the Gospel, fulfilled the Gospel, and gives salvation and rest to those who repent and believe the Gospel.