The New Testament does not explicitly identify each individual Old Testament prophetic passage as fulfilled with the advent of Christ Jesus. If it did, the New Testament would be significantly larger, especially each of the Gospels. Instead, just as God’s revelation throughout the Old Testament entails concealing in the very act of revealing, so Jesus discloses himself through his spoken parables and his dramatized signs, whether miraculous, as his turning water into wine, or non-miraculous, as his riding on a donkey into Jerusalem during his final week. God’s act of concealing even while revealing, through both the Old and New Testament prophets, especially Jesus, is replicated as God reveals himself to us by opening our eyes and ears, which have been dimmed and dulled by sin. Just as God revealed himself and his redemption not in one fell swoop but over thousands of years of history, the Lord discloses himself to us incrementally as we read and hear his Word preached and taught.
Thus, we should not be surprised that Jesus Christ has fulfilled numerous Old Testament prophecies and foreshadowings that the New Testament does not specifically declare fulfilled. This is because countless foreshadowings—types, parables, and allegories—scattered across the Old Testament landscape call for attentive readers to recognize them for what they are and that they all find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus. Many of these foreshadowings are subtle, remaining veiled from our recognition until the light bursts upon us unexpectedly after repeatedly reading a portion of Scripture. Throughout my Christian life, I have had numerous face-palming moments when, much to my amazement, I have expressed out loud, “How many times have I read that passage and failed to see its fulfillment in Jesus?” The frequency of such moments increases in proportion to our reading of the Scriptures. God’s word does not insult our intelligence but illumines our dulled minds to discern, by way of inference, foreshadowings embedded in the Old Testament, including its narrative portions, that find their corresponding climactic fulfillment, especially in the four Gospels’ telling of Jesus’s life and ministry. For example, the writers of the Synoptic Gospels require readers to infer that Jesus fulfills his dual roles as the Last Adam and the True Israelite when he is tested in the Judean wilderness for 40 days (Mark 1:12-13; Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Likewise, it is no accident that, as with Adam, it was in a garden that Jesus faced his greatest temptation, but, unlike Adam, he submitted to his Father’s will, praying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Just as the Apostle Paul had to infer that “Adam was a type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:14), so we do the same from God’s Word in Genesis and see Adam’s role climactically fulfilled in Jesus, the Last Adam.
Here, then, is another such prophetic foreshadowing that we can reasonably infer from Genesis with confidence. John’s Gospel explicitly states that David’s foreshadowing prophecy of Psalm 22 reaches its fulfillment “ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots” (John 19:23-24).
The Gospel writers provide sufficient information to familiarize us with the typical articles of clothing worn by Jews in Jesus’s day, including his undergarments. Likewise, the Gospel writers provide step-by-step procedures the Roman soldiers followed during a crucifixion so that readers realize that all alleged criminals were stripped naked and hung on the cross, exposed to ridicule and shame. Thus, John does not shy away from portraying the graphic scene realistically. He explicitly explains that the soldiers, who had ridiculed Jesus by dressing him as a mock king with a crown of thorns and a royal-colored robe, then stripped him naked and proceeded to hang him upon the cross, exposed before everyone observing the crucifixion as well as passersby (See also Matthew 27:28 and Mark 15:20).
Whereas John explicitly identifies Psalm 22 as fulfilled in the soldiers’ act to inflict ultimate humiliation and shame upon Jesus by stripping him of his clothing and dignity, they had no knowledge that their actions were fulfilling David’s prophetic psalm. Likewise, as descendants of Adam, made in the likeness of God, the pagan Roman soldiers knew the significance of clothing for both concealing one’s nakedness and preserving one’s dignity. Nevertheless, those soldiers who turned crucifixion into sport did not realize that their stripping Jesus of his clothing to be crucified naked was fulfilling another subtle scriptural foreshadowing cast all the way back at the beginning.
We, who know both the Old and New Testament Scriptures, understand what the Roman soldiers did not know. When we realize that Jesus hung on the tree naked and unashamed, how can we read John’s account of the crucifixion and not hear echoes from Genesis? After all, there on Golgatha, the Last Adam, crucified naked and unashamed in a public place, foreshadowed by the First Adam in the privacy of the Garden with his wife, Eve, who stood before God, naked and unashamed (Genesis 2:24). Clearly, by stating, “they were naked and unashamed,” the text indicates the indivisible union of their whole beings, body and soul, in harmony with their Creator.
Yet, their “naked and unashamed” status was short-lived, for as soon as they ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, “the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths” (Genesis 3:7). Again, clearly, the text indicates the intrusion of the curse of death, the inevitable division of body and soul. They were now at enmity with their Creator, and they knew it. Now their naked bodies, by the Creator’s design, screamed shame and the need for covering.
And again, consider God’s Son being crucified naked and morally unashamed, whose hands affixed to the cross with nails could not veil his exposed body from the sight of his mockers. Instead, the Heavenly Father covered the crucified Jesus with heavy darkness while he afflicted his own Son with wrath on behalf of others, even among those who took part in the crime of the ages. There, the righteous Son of God hung on that tree bearing the moral nakedness and shame to which the first Adam and his wife were not only awakened when they ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but also into which they plunged all their earthly progeny. Yes, on the cross, the Son of God hung and fulfilled another prophetic foreshadowing, like the creature that gave its life to clothe naked and ashamed Adam and Eve with its own skin (Genesis 3:21). Thus, the Tree of Death for God’s Son became the Tree of Life for everyone who believes in him who defeated Death. The drama in the beginning, when the Creator slaughtered an animal to clothe Adam and Eve with its skin, found its fulfillment when the Father made his own Son “to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become God’s righteousness” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Glory to the Father, to his Son, and to the Holy Spirit now and forever more.