We cannot know Jesus without knowing his story.Today the debate over who Jesus is rages on. Has the Bible bound Christians to a narrow and mistaken notion of Jesus? Should we listen to other gospels, other sayings of Jesus, that enlarge and correct a mistaken story? Is the real Jesus entangled in a web of the church's Scripture, awaiting liberation from our childhood faith so he might speak to our contemporary pluralistic world?To answer these questions we need to know what story Jesus claimed for himself. Christopher Wright is convinced that Jesus' own story is rooted in the story of Israel. In this book he traces the life of Christ as it is illuminated by the Old Testament. And he describes God's design for Israel as it is fulfilled inthe story of Jesus.



Christopher J. H. Wright (PhD, Cambridge) is international ministries director of the Langham Partnership, providing literature, scholarships, and preaching training for pastors in Majority World churches and seminaries. He has written many books including commentaries on Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel; The Mission of God; Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit; Old Testament Ethics for the People of God; and the three volumes of Knowing God Throughthe Old Testament. An ordained priest in the Church of England, Chris spent five years teaching the Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary in India and thirteen years as academic dean and then principal of All Nations Christian College, an international training center for crosscultural mission in England. He was chair of the Lausanne Theology Working Group from 2005 to 2011 and the chief architect of The Cape Town Commitment from the Third Lausanne Congress, 2010.



Preface



Chapter One: Jesus and the Old Testament Story

Jesus: A man with a story

Jesus was a real Jew

Jesus was a real man

Jesus was the Son of David

Jesus is the end of the time of preparation

Jesus is also a new beginning

The story so far

From Abraham to David

From David to the exile

From the exile to the Messiah

Light on the story

Light on the Old

Light on the New

A unique story

A universal goal

A unique experience

Israel and other stories

God in control of all history

The nations share in Israel's history

The nations share in Israel's future



Chapter Two: Jesus and the Old Testament Promise . . . .

'And so was fulfilled'

Five scenes from Jesus's childhood

Geography and history

The promise declared

Promise involves commitment to a relationship

Promise requires a response of acceptance

Promise involves ongoing levels of fulfillment

The promise guarenteed

The features of biblical covenants

The covenant with Noah

The covenant with Abraham

The Sinai covenant

The covenant with David

The new covenant

Conclusion





Chapter Three: Jesus and his Old Testament Identity . . . .

'This is my Son'

Old Testament pictures and patterns

'That's just typical'

Jesus as the Son of God

God as Father: Israel as Son

Fathers and sons in Israelite society

Israel's sonship and the covenant

Sonship as the foundations for hope

Israel's sonship and God's universal purpose



Chapter Four: Jesus and his Old Testament Mission . . . .

Jewish expectations at the time of Jesus

John the Baptist

The Messiah

The Son of Man

The Servant of the Lord

The mission of the Servant in the Old Testament

The Servantand mission to the Gentiles

Our mission in the light of Christ's

The unity and continuity of mission

'To the Jew first'

Mission in servanthood

Mission in its wholeness



Chapter Five: Jesus and his Old Testament Values . . . .

Jesus tested in the wilderness

The basic orientation of life before God

Simple obedience

Jesus and the law

The law as response to redemption

Motivations for obedience

The law'sscale of values

The authority of Jesus

Jesus and the prophets

Spiritual loyalty to God

Economic issues

Political conflict

Jesus, the Psalms and the reign of God

The universal dimension

The redemptive, theocratic dimension

The eschatological dimension



Bibliography