Christ in All the Scriptures

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. LUKE 24:27

Simpson’s largest literary undertaking was a commentary on the whole Bible, and its title states his method: Christ in the Bible. He worked through book after book asking one question of each — where is Christ here?

The Lord’s own method

He took his warrant from the road to Emmaus. Two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem in complete confusion, and the risen Christ, unrecognised, gives them a Bible study. He does not begin with the resurrection appearances. He begins at Moses, works through the prophets, and shows them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you …that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. LUKE 24:44

Simpson pointed out that this covers the entire Hebrew canon in its three divisions. The claim is not that the Old Testament contains a few messianic predictions. It is that the whole thing is about Him.

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. JOHN 5:39

Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me. HEBREWS 10:7

Types and shadows

Simpson’s practice was to look for Christ in three ways. In prophecy — the direct predictions, from the seed of the woman in Genesis 3 to the messenger of the covenant at the close of Malachi. In type — persons, institutions and events that prefigure Him. The New Testament does this itself and thereby licenses the method: Adam is called a figure of Him that was to come; Melchizedek is expounded at length in Hebrews; the passover lamb, the brazen serpent, the rock in the wilderness, the sacrifices and the tabernacle are all applied to Christ by New Testament writers.

For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. 1 CORINTHIANS 5:7

And in the names and titles — a study Simpson loved. He wrote a whole book on the names of Jesus, holding that each reveals a distinct relation in which He meets a distinct need.

Why this matters practically

Three consequences, and Simpson pressed all of them. It unifies the Bible. Many believers experience Scripture as two disconnected books, and quietly abandon most of the first. If Christ is the subject throughout, the whole becomes coherent. It keeps the Old Testament from moralism. Read without Christ, the narratives become a gallery of examples: be brave like David, be pure like Joseph, be patient like Job. Simpson regarded that as a subtle return to salvation by imitation. The stories are not primarily about how to behave; they point to One who did what none of the characters could. And it feeds devotion. A believer who has learned to look for Christ in every passage will not run dry, because the subject is inexhaustible.

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. PHILIPPIANS 3:10

The necessary caution

Honesty requires a warning, because this method has a well-known failure mode and Simpson does not always avoid it. Typology can be pressed until every detail becomes a symbol and the interpreter is no longer reading the text but decorating it. Once the discipline goes, a man can find whatever he brought with him, and the Bible ceases to be able to correct him — which is precisely the opposite of what Scripture is for. The safeguards are straightforward. Follow the New Testament’s own examples rather than inventing new ones. Establish what a passage meant in its own setting before asking what it foreshadows; the two are not rivals, but the order matters. Hold typological readings as illumination rather than doctrine, and never build a teaching on a shadow that is not stated plainly somewhere in the light. Applied with those, the method is one of the great gifts of the older expositors, and it has largely been lost.

Try it once and the appeal becomes obvious. Take a passage you find dull — Leviticus, a genealogy, a chapter of Kings — and ask the Emmaus question: where is Christ here? You will not always find a clean answer. You will not read that chapter the same way again.

The names of God

One of Simpson’s favourite exercises was tracing the compound names of God through the Old Testament, and reading each as a disclosure of what Christ would prove to be. Where Abraham found a ram caught in a thicket, the place was named for the God who provides.

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. GENESIS 22:14

The bitter water at Marah was healed, and God revealed Himself there as the One who heals (Exodus 15:26). After the victory over Amalek, Moses built an altar and called it the Lord my banner (Exodus 17:15). Gideon, terrified, was met by the Lord send peace (Judges 6:24). The shepherd psalm opens with the Lord is my shepherd, and Ezekiel closes with a city whose name means the Lord is there. Simpson’s method was to place each beside a corresponding claim of Christ. The God who provides; and my God shall supply all your need (Philippians 4:19). The God who heals; and the One who went about healing. The banner; and thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). The peace; and he is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). The shepherd; and I am the good shepherd (John 10:11). The Lord who is there; and lo, I am with you alway. The value of the exercise is not scholarly but devotional. It supplies a vocabulary for bringing a specific need to a specific aspect of Christ, and it demonstrates the continuity Simpson was always insisting upon: that the God who met His people at Marah and Peniel and Bethlehem is the same, and has not changed His character between the Testaments.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Read Luke 24:13–32 and notice what the risen Christ chose to do with two confused disciples. 2. Take one Old Testament passage this week and ask where Christ is in it. Write down what you find. 3. Check your Old Testament reading for moralism. Are you mostly extracting examples to imitate?

4. Study one name or title of Christ — Shepherd, Advocate, Bread, Rock — and trace it across both Testaments. 5. Keep the guard-rails: follow the New Testament’s own typology, and never build doctrine on a shadow alone.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You walked with two disconsolate men and opened the Scriptures until their hearts burned, and the subject was Yourself.

I have read large parts of Your Word as history, or as a set of examples to copy, and missed You in them.

Open the Scriptures to me. Let me find You in the law and the prophets and the psalms, in the sacrifices and the shadows and the names.

And keep me sober. Let me not find what I brought with me; let me find You. Amen.