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"Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of
perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled" (John 17: 12).
"I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled: He that eateth
bread with Me, hath lifted up his heel against Me" (John 13: 18).
His crucifixion between the thieves was in harmony with the word of prophecy: "And
the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, And He was numbered with the transgressors"
(Mark 15: 27, 28).
The giving of the wine mingled with gall, the parting of His vesture and the casting of
lots, the very words, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27: 34,
35, 46) all set their seal to the truth of the Word of God.
Perhaps the Lord's most striking testimony to the supreme place the Scriptures held in
His sight is found in John 19: 28-30:--
"After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture
might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst . . . . . When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He
said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost."
As by faith we gaze at that cross, as we see indissolubly linked together the finished
work of Calvary and the finished Word of God, there we take our stand, and with heart
and life declare that our Saviour's Bible is our Bible, that His deep reverence for the
written Scriptures shall be our example, and that we shall look upon all adverse criticism
or denial in the light of that cross, and see behind the pen of the critic the hand of the
wicked one.
Fulfillment of Scripture did not end with the Lord's death. The Roman soldiers did
not break His bones--they could not, for Scripture had declared otherwise. They pierced
His side--they could not refrain, for Scripture had declared that they should look upon
Him Whom they had pierced. Joseph of Arimathea comes out of obscurity and buries the
Lord in his sepulchre, for Scripture had associated the Lord's death not only with the
wicked, but also with the rich.
The crowning testimony is yet to be considered. He Who died with the Word of God
in His heart rose again. Did He rise from the dead to teach His disciples that He had now
revised His opinions of the Jewish Scriptures? The testimony of the risen Christ is more
complete and definite than before:--
"O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not
Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Himself" (Luke 24: 25-27).
Christ, risen from the dead, believed all that the prophets had spoken. He did not
speak words of wisdom and power independently, but "expounded" the Scriptures.
Beginning at Moses, and pursuing His study through all the prophets, He found in them
all "things concerning Himself". Here is our example.