15 Verses Outside of the Gospels That Point to Christ

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Bethany Verrett
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15 Verses Outside of the Gospels That Point to Christ

The Bible contains many narratives, histories, poems, and parables that inform humanity about God’s will. It also tells an over-arching story about creation, man’s role in history, and how God plans to heal everything broken by sin.

Part of that plan from the very beginning included the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before those events, recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the foundation was laid in Scripture to let people know of the coming Messiah as well as to give people insight into who He would be. After He ascended back to the Father, the Apostles and some of the disciples wrote to confirm the man crucified by Rome was the Messiah.

There are many verses in the Bible that point to Jesus and affirm who He is. Studying the Bible while looking for verses about Jesus that are outside the Gospels can help enrich someone’s understanding of God’s word. The Lord becomes more real, more powerful, and more personal.

Old Testament Prophecy

From the moment Adam and Eve sinned, God began to implement His plan to redeem humanity from the consequences of the evil they unleashed into the world. When speaking to Satan, who possessed a snake to tempt Eve, God spoke a prophecy that began to outline the plan.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

God informed Satan, and the world, that someone would come into the world who would ultimately defeat him. Over time, more clues would be sprinkled into prophecy, giving people insights into who this person who would bruise the head of the serpent would be. In many ways, it became clear he would be the perfected version of key roles in Israel’s culture. To the people of Israel during the days of Moses, God said he would raise up a prophet greater than Moses.

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen – just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him’” (Deuteronomy 18:15-18).

Over time, the nation of Israel didn’t want just a prophet, they also wanted a king. Their first one, Saul, fell out of favor with God. The second, David, was a man after God’s own heart, but he wasn’t perfect. God clarified to David that one of his descendants would sit on the throne of Jerusalem forever. This future king would be a perfect king, whose reign would not end.

“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Samuel 7:12-13).

This promise was reiterated over and over again, including prophecies with greater detail, such as the one predicting his birth in Bethlehem.

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Micah 5:2).

Isaiah

The Old Testament book with the greatest number of prophecies about Jesus – and some of the most specific – is by the prophet Isaiah. Despite ministering and prophesying in the 8th century BC, Isaiah spoke about many things that were to come, including the rise and fall of nations. Some of the prophecies he made about Jesus may not have made sense in the moment, but would be clarified over time.

Some of these prophecies include, but are not limited to:

In many respects, God gave the most insight into who the Messiah would be in the Book of Isaiah. Estimates range that between 75 and over 100 prophecies about Jesus are in that particular book.

Related article: How Isaiah Conveys the Beauty of the Gospel Message

New Testament Affirmation

Biblical scholars believe that Jesus fulfilled between 300 to 350 prophecies during his lifetime, and there are more that He will fulfill. The apostles and disciples who wrote the letters and books that became the New Testament spent a lot of their word count explaining who Jesus is, meaning there were times they touched on how He fulfilled many of those prophecies.

Not long after Jesus ascended back to Heaven, the Holy Spirit filled the believers and Peter received power to give a sermon that he opened with how Jesus fulfilled prophecy.

“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus” (Acts 1:16).

He and John reiterated this powerful truth, later preaching in the Temple.

“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18).

Steven was martyred for a sermon he gave which outlined how God worked through the Scriptures. He concluded it with condemnation that their ancestors had killed the prophets, but they spurred on the crucifixion of the one the prophets foretold.

“Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,  you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it” (Acts 7:52-53).

In his letters to the Galatians, Paul reinforced that Jesus’ fulfilled prophecy by reaching the Gentiles.

“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’” (Galatians 3:8).

Despite the sin that each person commits, God’s perfect will is that everyone would repent of their sins and turn to Him for an eternal relationship. In order to make sure this could happen through grace and mercy rather than sacrifice and the yoke of the law, God the Son came down to be one perfect sacrifice.

So everyone would know Him when He arrived, prophecy became one of the crucial tools for communicating. God orchestrated everything in His timing, and under the covenant created by Jesus’ sacrifice, anyone who calls on His name can be redeemed to eternal life. 

Sources
Lockyer, Herbert. All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988.
Walvoord, John F. and Roy B. Zuck. The Bible Knowledge Commentary An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Old Testament and New Testament. United States of America: Victor Books, 1987.
Wilmington, H.L. Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1981. 

Photo credit: Unsplash/priscilladupreez

Bethany Verrett is a freelance writer who uses her passion for God, reading, and writing to glorify God. She and her husband have lived all over the country serving their Lord and Savior in ministry. She has a blog on graceandgrowing.com.