Scriptures selfattesting authority question doctrine truthfulness Scriptures

112 What Do the Christian Scriptures Claim for Themselves?
Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written,
‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’”
(Mark 14:27)
• Jesus saw his arrest as a criminal as fulfillment of Isaiah 53:12:
I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: “And he
was numbered with the transgressors.” For what is written
about me has its fulfillment. (Luke 22:37)
Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will
at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how
then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?
(Matt. 26:53–54)
• Jesus taught that we should be quick to believe all that the Old
Testament prophets have spoken and that all the Scriptures
pointed to him:
He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary
that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his
glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he
interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself. (Luke 24:25–27)
His Estimate Is Supreme
In chapter 2 we saw that the Bible Jesus knew and loved was the same
Hebrew Bible that stands behind our Old Testament. So his estimate of
his Bible is essentially his estimate of our Old Testament.
In this chapter we have seen that his estimate of this Old Testament
is supreme. Jesus had an unparalleled position in history for making
such an estimate. His relationship with the Old Testament was unique.
He was there at its composition, guiding the prophets (1 Pet. 1:11),
and then he came into history and looked at the very book he guided
into being. No one else took stock of the Old Testament in this way. He
alone, in all of history, was active as an author, a theme, a fulfillment,
and an assessor of the Old Testament. Therefore, his assessment carries
extraordinary force.