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crucified Christ Himself (John 13: 18; 17: 12; 19: 24, 28, 36, 37) are "that the
scriptures might be fulfilled". So vividly does Psalm 22: portray the crucifixion of the
Saviour, that it is considered by many that this Psalm was quoted in full by the dying
Christ. We know the opening words were uttered by Him, "My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me?" We know that He was "despised of the people." We know they did
"laugh Him to scorn", and say in effect, "He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver
Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighteth in Him". How vividly the awful
condition of crucifixion is brought before us in the words:--
"I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint. . . . My tongue
cleaveth to My jaws. . . . they pierced My hands and My feet. I may tell all My bones,
they look and stare upon Me."
And then, at the very end of the Psalm, the words, "He hath done", are equivalent to
those blessed words, "It is finished". Whatever these Psalms may have meant to those
who first penned them, and whatever they may mean to us who read them still, one thing
is clear, their first and grandest testimony is to Christ.
The exact place of His birth is given in Scripture, for Micah 5: 2 says:--
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Hebrew, Olam).
The very words the Son of God uttered as He left the glory to take upon Himself flesh
and blood, are recorded in Scripture:--
"Wherefore when He cometh into the world He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou
wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is
written of Me), to do Thy will, O God" (Heb. 10: 5-7).
Thus we find that not only in life and in death is the Lord Himself in all the Scriptures,
but before His birth at Bethlehem, and after His resurrection, He gave His testimony to
the fulness and the truth of the Word of God. Let the reader take a concordance and trace
the recurring words, "that it might be fulfilled", and he will but add to the evidence that
Christ is in all the Scriptures.
The Spirit's record of the preaching of Philip in Acts 8: shows that Christ was the
All in that man's evangel.
"Then Philip went down and preached CHRIST unto them" (verse 5).
This is the burden of his message to the Samaritans. He next speaks to a man of
Ethiopia who is reading the 53rd chapter of Isaiah:--
"Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto
him JESUS" (verse 35).