We decided to do this series to address the idea by some Christians that the Old Testament (OT) is irrelevant. So far, we’ve looked at three of the four Gospels to see what Jesus thought of the OT. I think the conclusions we can draw are clear, so we’ll quickly look at Luke in this blog and then conclude the series by looking at all the data.

To put it simply, if our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, took what we call today the Old Testament seriously, so should we. The evidence says he did.

With this, you cannot fully understand Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection without understanding the Old Testament. This is the opinion of both Jesus and the writers of the New Testament.

Since the first three articles have proven this (and I don’t want to get too redundant!), I’ll share some brief observations on Luke, and then we’ll look at the total count of OT references in all four Gospels to conclude this series.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

Like Matthew’s Gospel, Luke’s Gospel starts with a birth narrative of Jesus. In both Gospels, we find many references to the OT in these opening chapters by the authors to show that these events are in line with the Jewish Scripture and Jesus is the promised Messiah, a descendant of Abraham and David. Yet, with both Gospels, once Jesus’ public ministry begins, the majority of OT references are made by Jesus himself.

Something interesting that is unique to Luke (Well, the wording is unique; the idea is found in all the Gospels) is:

¹⁶ “The Law and the Prophets were until John [the Baptist]; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. ¹⁷ But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. (Luke 16:16–17).

Here, Jesus is saying both that the time of the OT (“The Law and the Prophets,” “the Law”) is past, but at the same time it does not become void. This supports the idea we saw in the other Gospels about Jesus NOT doing away with the OT but fulfilling it, and this naturally leads us into the new revelation of God, the New Testament (which is not “new” in the sense of something different, but a continuation and “fleshing out” of God’s Law).

Another interesting thing to note is Jesus’ regular use of Isaiah, which Jesus finds significance in quoting in relation to his ministry. In Luke 4:17-21, Jesus reads from an Isaiah scroll, then states, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In 7:18-23, when John the Baptist sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is “the one who is to come,” Jesus quotes Isaiah, citing his miracles as evidence that he is the Messiah. In 22:37, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 53, saying that it will be fulfilled in him. Isaiah 53 is probably the most famous chapter in Isaiah among Christians because it speaks of the “suffering servant,” who will take the punishment of the peoples’ sin upon himself.

Lastly, Luke closes his Gospel with the resurrected Jesus clearly speaking of his death and resurrection fulfilling the OT:

²⁵ And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:24–27). 

⁴⁴ Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:44–47).

Imagine if only Luke recorded these conversations in whole!

THE RESULTS

Here are the numbers for Luke’s Gospel…

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

• 24 Chapters

• 57 References to OT

• 38 References to OT made by Jesus

• 67% of OT references are made by Jesus

SERIES WRAP UP

Below are the final results for our 4-Gospel study of Jesus’ use of the Old Testament.

In hindsight, it would’ve been useful to separate the total of OT references by those used by the Gospels’ authors, those made by other people appearing in the Gospels’ narratives (such as the 12 Disciples, other Jews, etc.), and Jesus. But since this informal study was to really see how Jesus talked about the OT, this serves our purposes.

The chart below shows some obvious things. The number of chapters (which, admittedly, are not inspired and simply give us a rough idea of the length of each Gospel) compared to the OT references shows discussion of the OT was an important part of Jewish life and a regular thing throughout the Gospels.  Moving to the right, we see clearly that Jesus spoke often about the OT and it was an important part of his ministry.

Keep in mind, where the chart below is interesting and helpful, the number of OT references by Jesus is not as important as what he actually says about it, which we looked at in each part of this series.

I’d like to hear any thoughts, insights, etc. below in the comments.

• Part 1 – Gospel of Mark
• Part 2 – Gospel of Matthew
• Part 3 – Gospel of John
• Making Sense of Old Testament Laws (Part 1 of 2) Are OT laws arbitrary, offensive & silly?
• Making Sense of Old Testament Laws (Part 2 of 2) Why do Christians follow some OT laws & not others?

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