Here’s the plot.

A nurse, Lily Kate, leaves the hospital where she works after a late-night shift. As she is driving home on the large city freeway, she notices she is running out of gas. She goes to her usual full-service gas station. The attendant, Manuel, fills the tank, cleans the windows, and returns her receipt. As she is about to leave, he asks her to come in the station office to see his birthday gift. She reluctantly consents but follows him. Once inside, he locks the door and grabs a gun from a drawer. She is going into shock as he pushes her to the floor.

What do you think about that scenario? Our minds have captured the scene, and we anticipate what the outcome will be. We suspect the worst. Now, read the end of the story…

Manuel told Lily Kate, “…Sorry I had to scare you like that—I was scared myself when I saw that masked guy on the floor in the back of your car.”

Ah! Surprise! We didn’t know the real story until the whole story was revealed! The Old Testament is like a Lily Kate story. We do not know the true story until we hear the whole story. Our minds have to flip-flop. The Old Testament is mystery until the full revelation of God is revealed:

The mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but now has been manifested to His saints,

To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

—Colossians 1:26,27

Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself.

—Luke 24:27

The New is in the Old latent; the Old is in the New patent. All God’s revelation is a mystery until The Surprise appears: Jesus Christ. The Old Testament makes sense in retrospect. When you read the Old Testament from the perspective of the New Testament, then you realize what you never realized before. Your brain rearranged the information. The Old Testament revelation may be described as Organic Progressive Revelation (OPR). It is like an acorn (Gen. 3:15) is to the oak tree (New Testament). Inherent in the acorn is the full-grown tree, but if you have never seen a full-grown oak tree, you would never conclude that the little acorn contains the oak; hence, revelation is Organic.

Everything is related to the acorn. It’s all there. But the Old Testament doesn’t reveal the whole of God’s truth (i.e., the New Testament) all at one time; rather, revelation is Progressive: we see aspect of mystery—like salvation by faith alone, the nature of the covenant of grace, the Person of Christ, the reality of God living in us through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, the fulfillment of the Law by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. It is all there in the Old Testament but only as twigs and leaves and bark and roots. They are in the Old Testament as undeveloped but particular pieces of the Tree. It isn’t until the oak comes together, until the mystery is revealed in Jesus Christ that we finally figure out the true story (God in Christ) by hearing the whole story (the mystery of God explained in the New Testament). That is Revelation. OPR!

The key that unlocks the mystery of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ revealed in the New Testament. You will read the Old Testament with a new perspective, fresh eyes, and surprising insight when you discover what Jesus explained to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself.”