Fulfilled prophecies are some of the greatest proofs for the divine inspiration of the Bible. It is also one of the greatest proofs that Jesus was just who He claimed to be - God’s Messiah, the Savior of the world.
In my book, How To Study The Bible (*), I introduce the importance of fulfilled prophecy this way:
“Simply put, no other religion in the world has such a wealth of fulfilled prophecy as does Christianity. No other world religious leader’s coming was foretold hundreds of years in advance in such minute detail as was Christ’s! The Old Testament was written over an approximate 1,500 years and contains several hundred prophecies and references to the coming of Christ the Messiah. These prophecies can be conveniently divided into two types: Prophecies of a Kingly Messiah and prophecies of a Suffering Messiah. Jesus Christ fulfilled both. The accurate fulfillment of those hundreds of prophecies is explicable only in terms of the fact that Jesus was indeed the Messiah of God – and the Bible is indeed His revelation of those prophecies and their fulfillment” (p. 62).
After that introduction, I give 3 pages of charts listing very specific prophetic references, and their detailed fulfillment by Christ. Around 30 of those prophecies specifically related to the circumstances surrounding His crucifixion. Was this just coincidence? Did Jesus cunningly manipulate circumstances so as to try and prove He was the Messiah? Was He just a religious con artist and false prophet – like many others in His day (Matthew 7:15; 24:24; Acts 5:33-37; I John 4:1)?
That might sound like a plausible argument initially – but it will not stand up under close examination. Why? Simply because of this fact: Many of the prophecies that were fulfilled by Christ were completely outside of His control. They were totally outside the realm of human manipulation – especially events related to His birth and death. Here are just a few of the very specific events that Jesus could not have in any way manipulated:
• The place of His birth (Micah 5:2)
• The time of His birth (Daniel 9:25)
• The manner of His birth (Isaiah 7:14)
• The details of His betrayal (Psalm 41:9)
• The way He would be put to death (Psalm 22:1)
• The circumstances of His burial (Isaiah 53:9)
With those basic facts in mind, let me specifically outline for you the major prophecies about His passion. Space will only permit me to cite the prophecy with its Old Testament reference and New Testament fulfillment. And I will only cite one reference for each, when most of these prophecies have multiple references. I hope you will take the time to look up each one of these references for further study.
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(*) You can order a copy of How To Study The Bible by writing or emailing NDI.
PROPHECY— O.T. REFERENCE; N.T. FULFILLMENT
• He would triumphantly enter Jerusalem— Zecharaiah 9:9; Luke 19:28-44
• He would be a “stumbling stone” to Jews— Psalm 118:22; Romans 9:32-33
• He would be rejected by His own people— Psalm 69:8; Matthew 21:42-43
• He would be hated without cause— Isa 49:7; John 15:25
• He would be betrayed by a close friend— Psalm 41:9; John 13:21
• He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver— Zecharaiah 11:12; Matthew 26:15
• The money would thrown into the temple— Zecharaiah 11:13; Matthew 27:5
• Money used to buy the Potter’s Field— Zecharaiah 11:13; Matthew 27:7
• He would be forsaken by His disciples— Zecharaiah 13:7; Matthew 26:31-32
• He would be accused by false witnesses— Psalm 35:11; Matthew 26:59-61
• He would be silent before His accusers— Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 27:12-19
• He would be wounded and bruised— Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 27:26
• He would be smitten and spit upon— Isa 50:6; Matthew 26:67
• He would be mocked— Psalm 22:7-8; Matthew 27:31
• He would fall beneath the cross— Psalm 109:24-25; Luke 23:26
• His hands and feet would be pierced— Psalm 22:16; Luke 23:33
• He would be crucified between thieves— Isaiah 53:12; Mk. 15:27-28
• He would pray for His persecutors— Isaiah 53:12; Luke 23:34
• His friends would stand afar off— Psalm 38:11; Luke 23:49
• He would be stared at on the cross— Psalm 22:17; Luke 23:35
• His garments would be gambled for— Psalm 22:18; John 19:23-24
• He would suffer thirst on the cross— Psalm 22:15; John 19:28
• Gall and vinegar would be offered Him— Psalm 69:21; Matthew 27:34
• He would cry out a forsaken cry— Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46
• He would commit Himself to God— Psalm 31:5; Luke 23:46
• None of His bones would be broken— Psalm 34:20; John 19:34
• His side would be pierced— Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34
• Darkness would cover the land— Amos 8:9; Matthew 27:49
• He would buried in a rich man’s tomb— Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57-60
• He would be resurrected from the dead— Psalm 16:10; Matthew 28:6
Just a cursory examination of these many prophecies is overwhelming to our human perspective! The specificity of these many prophecies and fulfillments is mind-boggling to say the very least. There can be no other logical conclusions from any objective study of them other than the fact that Jesus was Who He claimed to be – and the Bible is what it claims to be!
After Jesus’ resurrection, ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter boldly confronted the same Jews who had previously helped condemn Christ to death. In his sermon to them, he clearly relates the events of The Passion of the Christ – and their role in them, to the fulfillment of ancient prophecies.
“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what He had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer…Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers” (Acts 3:17-25).
Peter clearly asserted that “…all the prophets…have foretold these days.” And he reminds them that since they were Jews just like him, they too were “…heirs of the prophets.” These prophecies and fulfillments were their spiritual inheritance as well – but only if they believed in Christ as their Messiah. And we today are also “…heirs of the prophets” if we place our faith in The Passion of the Christ as revealed in God’s Word.
But before moving to the next point, I want to look at several very specific and significant prophecies about the death of Christ.
The very first Old Testament prophecy about The Passion of the Christ is found in the very first book in the Bible – Genesis, the Book of Beginnings. This prophecy was given by no less authority than God Himself. And it was given as a part His judgment against that ancient serpent the devil, who had enticed Adam and Eve to sin.
“The Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, ‘Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring (demons and wicked people; John 8:44) and hers (the human race and Jesus); he will crush your head and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:14-15).
Through this primal sin, the serpent injected his lethal spiritual poison into the blood stream of Adam and Eve – which spread to all of their ancestry, including you and me. As Paul would later summarize: “…sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” As a result “…death reigned from the time of Adam…” (Romans 5:12).
However, the prophets foretold of One who would be born into the human race who would be without sin because He would be conceived by God in the womb of a virgin. As a result, He would be the only One who could defeat that ancient serpent.
In this most ancient of all Messianic prophecies, there are two crucial nouns: “head” and “heel.” But in the Hebrew language, the verbs tend to be more important than the nouns. It is a language of action and the two key verbs here are: “crush” and “strike.” Specifically we are told that one of the “offspring of the woman” would “crush the head” of the serpent but in the process that serpent would “strike his heel.” Jews and Christians through the centuries have interpreted this verse both in a general and specific way.
First, there is the wider truth with general application that every member of Adam’s race has been bitten and infected with the spiritually lethal poison of that ancient serpent, the devil. That’s why we previously saw that “…death reigned from the time of Adam” in the lives of all of the “…offspring of the woman.”
But there is a more specific and exclusive fulfillment of this verse in the coming of the Messiah. “In the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4), a totally unique Person would be born as the “offspring” or “seed of the woman.” The prophet Daniel would call Him “…a son of Man” who was uniquely sent and anointed by “the Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:13).
Interestingly, this title “Son of man” was the description that Jesus used most about Himself. This is especially highlighted in Matthew – the Gospel written by a Jew and for the Jews. Therefore, all of his Jewish readers would have clearly understood the Messianic significance of that title Jesus used of Himself (Matt. 8:20; 12:3, 32, 40; 16:13, 27-28; 17:9; 19:28; Revelation 1:13; 14:14). Much later the Apostle Paul would rightly call Him the “last Adam” who would perfectly fulfill what the “first Adam” failed at (I Corinthians 15:45) – living a life of perfect obedience to God.
So clearly, Genesis 3:15 is the very first Messianic prophecy in the Bible. It is the first prediction of The Passion of the Christ.
Before we leave this seminal little verse, it is instructive to note that crucifixion is the only known means of execution whereby the heel is usually pierced. So through the crucifixion, Satan would “…strike his heel” – but Jesus would “…crush his head.”
Coincidence? Hardly! Viewed through the cross, there can be no doubt that this refers to The Passion of the Christ!
Another very revealing prophecy about the crucifixion of Christ comes out of the Exodus Story of the Jewish people. It is the story of the Bronze Snake. Remember the story?
The Children of Israel in the wilderness had once again become discontent with how God was running things. They murmured and complained against God and Moses. They didn’t like their daily diet of “bread, water and manna” that God was providing. As a result of their discontent and disobedience, God sent a judgment upon them – in the form of deadly serpents (Better not complain about your next meal!). Note this account…
“Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole, anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked (faith!) at the bronze snake, he lived” (Num. 21:4-9).
You might be thinking: “That’s an interesting story Williams, but what does it have to do with The Passion of the Christ? Everything! Do you remember Jesus’ late evening conversation with Nicodemus? As you will recall, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, or the highest Ruling Council of the Jews. It was to this very respected religious leader that Jesus said those now famous words: “You must be born again” (John 3:3) – words that have echoed down through the centuries bringing radical spiritual transformation to hundreds of millions of people from every class, creed and culture!
But this was a spiritual concept Nicodemus was struggling to understand. It required a radical spiritual paradigm shift in his thinking. To Nicodemus, this concept was as revolutionary as “…being born a second time” (John 3:4). All of his life he had been putting his confidence in “works righteousness” that he believed came by obedience to the Law. Now he would have to shift his focus from faith in his good works to faith in the perfect work of Christ. It would only be by putting his faith in Jesus as God’s Messiah that he would be “…born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Only this faith in Jesus would allow him to see and experience “…the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
In the face of Nicodemus’ struggle to understand, Jesus reminded him of a very familiar story. As a good Jewish Rabbi, Jesus reached way back to the Exodus story to illustrate this matter of faith. He very specifically relates Himself to a story Nicodemus well understood – the story of the bronze serpent. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert,” Jesus said to Nicodemus, “so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). What is the very next verse that follows this? Perhaps the most familiar verse in the entire Bible – John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
And the following verse is just as crucial: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).
Jesus later made this very same prediction about the nature of His death to His disciples that he earlier had said to Nicodemus: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself” (John 12:32).
So how would Jesus be “lifted up” so that He could “…save the world?” By being crucified on a cross! It was only when He would be “lifted up” on the cross – suspended between heaven and earth, that He would be like the bronze serpent that Moses “…put on a pole” an “lifted up” in the wilderness. Then all who had been bitten by the poisonous snakes could “…look…and live.”
Using similar words, Jesus later taught the same principle: “For My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39-40).
That’s what The Passion of the Christ is all about. Nothing more and nothing less. It is solely about the “lifting up” of Jesus on the cross so that anyone who “…looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life.”
Finally, a very significant – but often overlooked verse about the cross, is Galatians 3:13 - 14:
“Christ redeemed us (literally means: ‘to buy out of slavery’) from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’ (Note the OT background of this in Deuteronomy 21:22-23). He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus…”
There are two crucial questions here that we need to ask – and then seek Biblical answers for. First, “Why do we need to be redeemed?” Answer? Because we have all broken God’s law, and as a result are under the curse of death. As Jesus said: “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 834). So because “…all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and because “…the wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23; 6:23) – we are all under the “curse of the law.” That’s the bad news!
But the good news is that God provided a substitutionary redemption through Jesus Christ. Remember the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah that we looked at earlier? God did the same thing there – on the same mountain Jesus was crucified on. There on Mt. Moriah God provided Abraham a substitutionary atonement for his son, Isaac, through the “…ram caught by its horns” in the bushes nearby. As a result of this perfectly timed miracle of provision, Abraham accepted God’s substitution for his son, Isaac. Therefore we read:
“Abraham went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place ‘The Lord will Provide.’ (In the Hebrew, “Jehovah-Jireh”). And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided’” (Genesis 22:13-14).
So the true and living God is indeed “Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider!” Hallelujah!
That brings us to our second question: “How did Jesus redeem us from the curse of the law?” Answer? He did it “…by becoming a curse for us.” But when did Jesus pay the penalty for the “…curse of the law?” Answer? When He died on the cross for us. It was there on that cross that the “…curse of the law” was transferred from us hopeless condemned sinners to the sinless Christ (We will look at this more in a later chapter). The Apostle Peter echoed this incredible truth when he wrote: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you have been healed” (I Peter 2:24).
So if Jesus Christ would have died by any other form of execution other than crucifixion, these prophetic Scriptures would have not been fulfilled. Only death by crucifixion could have fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). Therefore, The Passion of the Christ was perfectly demonstrated when “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the TREE!”
What then do all of these “prophecies of the cross” unequivocally prove? First, that Jesus was indeed God’s promised Messiah who fulfilled every ancient prophecy in minute detail. Secondly, they prove to any logical objective mind that the Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God. It is not just “another religious book.” No single human, or group of people, could ever concoct so many diverse prophecies over several thousands of years – only to see them perfectly fulfilled by another Man centuries later, unless these men were supernaturally inspired! That’s why Peter wrote:
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (I Peter 1:19-21).
Therefore, The Passion of Christ is a dramatic presentation of the fulfillment of the prophecies of the cross.
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