Christians spend a lot of time immersed in the New Testament. In our personal study time, we read the epistles of Paul, drawing hope from his encouragements to the early Christian Church as well as implementing necessary changes in our lives from his admonitions and warnings. We celebrate Easter and Christmas, two major holidays based on seismic events taking place in the New Testament, and we reflect on their meaning. We go to any given church service on any given Sunday morning, and chances are, the sermon will be on a New Testament book.
This makes sense. We are comfortable with the New Testament. Within its pages we find the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the central message of the entire Bible and the culmination of God’s mission to restore the brokenness of creation. However, the Old Testament is also vitally important because all of it leads to Jesus. I’ll say it again: it is not just the New that is about Jesus—the Old Testament is too. God’s plan to restore the brokenness of creation has been the same from the very beginning. This is made abundantly clear through biblical types and antitypes, also referred to as typology.
What are Types?
A type can refer to an event, person, or object in the Old Testament that points to the life, death, Person, and work of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. For example, Jonah is a type of Christ in that he spent three days submerged within the darkness of the great fish that swallowed him, only for him to emerge from his watery prison three days later through the deliverance of God. See how this symbolizes Christ? Jesus Christ spent three days dead from his crucifixion, only for him to emerge from the darkness of his tomb three days later. This fulfillment, so to speak, of the Old Testament type we see in Jonah, is called the antitype. Jesus Christ emerging from the tomb is the antitype of Jonah emerging from the fish.
It is worth noting that types and antitypes do not have to specifically relate to Christ. They can pertain to other aspects of God as well, but this article is focused on types of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, let’s dive into some profound examples of types and antitypes and explore their beautiful implications.
Examples of Types
Melchizedek
“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God most high, Creator of heaven and earth, and praise be to God most high, who delivered your enemies into your hand.‘”
Genesis 14:18-20
Not much is known about the mysterious man named Melchizedek. He has only a handful of sentences dedicated to him within Genesis 14, and later authors of scripture will discuss his significance. Despite his unknown backstory and lineage, however, he is a powerful type of Christ.
He shows up after Abram rescues Lot from hostile foreign forces, introduced as the king of Salem, which would one day be Jerusalem. He is described as a “priest of God most high,” as you just read, and his name translates to “king of righteousness,” or “my king is righteousness.” This title is given to him even though he is not a Levite, who under Mosaic Law were the only ones eligible for priesthood (the Mosaic Law did not exist at the time of this passage).
All these attributes point to Christ, the antitype of Melchizedek. Consider how Melchizedek was the king of what would one day become Jerusalem; Jesus is the definitive and eternal king of Jerusalem. Melchizedek was a righteous high priest of God who was not in the line of the Levites, and Jesus is the perfect high priest of God, also not a Levite, who mediates for mankind before God, gifting us mercy, grace, and hope. Consider what the writer of Hebrews has to say about this comparison.
“If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people stablished that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come [Jesus], one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron [a Levite]?”
Hebrews 7:11
“And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears [Jesus], one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.”
Hebrews 7:15-16
Abraham, Isaac, the Mountain, and the Ram
Our next example of biblical typology comes only a handful of chapters later in Genesis 22:1-14. The story of God’s test of Abraham by commanding him to travel to a mountain and sacrifice Isaac offers multiple types of Christ; in fact, so many elements of this passage point to Christ that one might say the story itself is one big type of Jesus.
The story is too long for a direct quote, but the basic premise is this: On the way up the mountain, Isaac asks Abraham what animal they will use to sacrifice, to which Abraham simply states that the Lord will provide. Abraham later binds Isaac up, sets him on the altar, and prepares to slay his son. At the last moment, however, the angel of the Lord stops Abraham from doing so, instead directing him to sacrifice a ram caught in a nearby thicket. Grateful that he doesn’t have to sacrifice his son, Abraham names the site “The Lord will provide.”
There’s a bit to unpack here. Firstly, consider Isaac: he is a type of Christ because he is Abraham’s son, and he must be offered as a sacrifice, whereas sonship is also an integral part of Jesus’ identity, and He is the ultimate sacrifice. The ram caught in the thickets is a type of Christ in that it is slaughtered in place of Isaac, just as Jesus suffered in place of us all. This sequence of events occurs on an elevated area above the ground, a mountain, and Jesus’ crucifixion occurs on an elevated area above the ground on a hill. Finally, in this passage, Abraham states that “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering,” and later names the sacrificial site “The Lord Will Provide.” Verse fourteen even declares that “to this day it is said ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.’” Well, what happened about two thousand years after the events taking place here? The Lord did provide the lamb: he sent Jesus Christ to die for us.
The Passover Lamb
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ‘This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.'”
Exodus 12:1-7
This is perhaps one of the more sobering types of Christ, but it is nonetheless beautiful and effective. In order to save their firstborn children from the coming Angel of Death, who was on its way to kill the oldest child in each Egyptian household, the Israelites needed to slaughter a lamb and cover their doorway with its blood so death would “pass over” them.
The parallels to Jesus here are unmistakable. Think about it—the animal the Israelites had to sacrifice was a lamb. Jesus is referred to as the Lamb in scripture on numerous occasions (John 1:29, Isaiah 53:7, 1 Peter 1:19). In order to save their firstborns from death, the Israelites needed to cover their doorway with the blood of the lamb, and in order for us to be saved from eternal death, the blood of Christ must cover us. The Israelites had to eat the lamb; Christ has us partake in communion, in which the elements of bread and wine symbolize his flesh and blood respectively, to remember his body which was broken for all mankind (Luke 22:14-20).
So Why Does This Matter?
These are just three of many, many types that fill the pages of the Old Testament. They are certainly fascinating, but one may wonder why they matter. What’s the purpose of pointing these out? For one, they demonstrate centrality of Christ to the Bible. Make no mistake: the Bible, in its entirety, is about Jesus Christ the Messiah. Both testaments are built around him. The Old Testament demonstrates to us the need for Christ. It tells us of how humanity fell into sin and brokenness, the staggering weight of the Law, humanity’s need for redemption and a savior, and God’s plan to establish Israel as a nation that will offer hope and deliverance to the broken world.
The New Testament tells us about the fulfillment of God’s plan through Jesus Christ, the freedom from sin and death bestowed by his gift of salvation, the mission of the Church now that this has happened, and how we are to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.
It’s all about Jesus. Types and antitypes of Christ also show us that God has had this plan to rescue us from the very beginning. There was never a time when he wasn’t on a mission to pull his creation out from the mire of suffering, pain, and eternal death. It was his mission when Abraham met Melchizedek. It was his mission when he provided a ram for Abraham and Isaac. It was his mission when he instructed the Israelites to cover their doorway with the blood of the Passover lamb. It was his mission when he sent his son to die for us. It has always, always been the mission of God to redeem his creation through Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, it continues to be his mission today. That is where you and I come in. It is our job today to pass on an obedient relationship with Jesus to our communities, so that we may make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. We must bring the abundance, hope, and redemption of Jesus Christ to as many as will accept it.
That is our mission.
“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.‘”
Matthew 28:16-20
Story of Grace 