[The] identification of the suffering Servant with the promised messianic King was never conceived as a possibility in Judaism. How can the glorious Messiah at one and the same time be one who judges the earth, slays the wicked with the breath of His lips, and also be one who passively suffers death by His enemies? Here we come face to face with the revolutionary new understanding of Jesus of Nazareth concerning the mission of the promised Messiah. He united three different concepts of Israel’s prophecy – the coming Davidic King; the Son of Man (in Daniel 7); the suffering Servant (in Isaiah 42-53) – all in one Person: Himself.
The Israel of God in Prophecy – Principles of Prophetic Interpretation, Andrews University Press, 1983, p. 95.
Through the Spirit of Christ, the believer becomes excited in the joy of discovery to discern new veins of truth in Scripture which confirm the spiritual unity of the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament becomes to him a Christian book just as much as the New Testament; because “the entirety of the Old Testament points as one great arrow to the fulfillment which the New Testament records.”
Correct biblical principles of interpretation are ultimately far more crucial than the exegesis of isolated texts and words, not only because such principles affect and guide all exegesis, but also because they determine how false exegesis and misinterpretation can be corrected.
The Israel of God in Prophecy – Principles of Prophetic Interpretation, Andrews University Press, 1983, p. 1.
We maintain the validity of the grammatical-historical and the theological principles of exegesis for all Scripture interpretation. Recognizing the principles of progressive revelation, specifically between the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament witness of Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-2; Jn. 1:7-18), we accept the essential unity of both Testaments which allows the meaning of any part of Scripture – including the prophetic parts – to be ultimately determined by the totality of Scripture. This classical Protestant hermeneutic, known as the sola Scriptura principle, seems to be accepted as an axiom of faith by all conservative evangelical Christians.
The Israel of God in Prophecy – Principles of Prophetic Interpretation, Andrews University Press, 1983, p. 32.