Recently, a friend lent me a book entitled The Jesus Pictures by Cameron Fultz.  In the book, Cameron outlines a Christ-saturated approach to the scriptures that is taught by the scriptures themselves (Luke 24:45-47; John 5:39-40).  I feel this is deeply important.  What follows here is material I’ve excerpted from chapter one of Cameron’s book (with his permission).

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“For centuries, the Jews read, heard, and memorized the Scriptures.  There was teaching at the temple, weekly meetings at the local synagogues; yet Jesus says they missed him in the Bible!  How is it possible that they missed the parts regarding the Christ’s suffering, death, and glory?  The answer is quite startling.  But when you understand it, you may never read the Bible the same way again!

The answer is in how the Holy Spirit speaks, which is not in seen words or audible tones.  Hidden within these everyday stories of the Bible are clear pictures of the Redeemer’s suffering, death, and Resurrection.  The OT (Old Testament) does not come out and say that the Messiah has to suffer, die, and rise again.  Rather the OT shows pictures of it.

Wait a minute!  Am I saying that many of the Bible stories are really about Jesus?  Absolutely!  God created the entire universe with redemption by his Son in mind and this is illustrated by showing us Jesus’ suffering, death, and Resurrection in the OT stories.  The stories were always about Jesus first and then about the people recorded in the story.  The Jesus pictures will open the entire Bible to us revealing it as one continuous communication rather than a collection of various compartments.

God knows what we need even if we don’t.  So it was already decided way back before anything that Jesus would redeem.  The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:19-20).  The pictures of Jesus in the Bible are like pictures of a loved one sent to us in the mail with writing on the back.  Until Jesus arrived on earth as a man, most people had never turned the writing around to see the picture.  Even then, many people still refused to see the One who was written of.  Many who claim his love still don’t see his pictures even though it was the first teaching of Jesus after the resurrection.

God always had Jesus in mind when Noah entered the ark or when Daniel suffered in the lion’s den.  The pictures we will see of Jesus will open the eyes of your heart to a new way of understanding God’s word.  The truth is so simple and freeing when we see Jesus from the very beginning.  My hope is that the Jesus pictures will bring about revival in the soul.”

—Excerpted from The Jesus Pictures by Cameron Fultz

Find it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Jesus-Pictures-Cameron-Fultz/dp/1479217190

Available in print and Kindle formats