Bullinger viewing the Saints of the Old Testament as Looking unto Christ

The following citation from The Decades 3.viii illustrates that Bullinger’s understanding of the Old Testament is not so much Christocentric but, rather, as looking unto Christ. This quote shows Bullinger’s emphasis on the unity of the old and new testaments, on the unity of the covenant and on the same faith in both the OT and the NT. Salvation, both in the OT and the NT, is by faith through grace. There is no synergism.

“And out of that which I have hitherto said we may also learn, that the ancient saints, which lived under the old testament, did not seek for righteousness and salvation in the works of the law, but in him who is the perfectness and end of the law, even Jesus Christ; and therefore that they used the law and the ceremonies as a guide and schoolmistress to lead them by the hand to Christ their Saviour. For so often as they heard that the law required perfect righteousness at their hands, they did by faith through grace understand, that in the law Christ was set forth to be the most absolute righteousness, to whom all men ought to fly for the obtaining of righteousness. So often as they met together in the holy congregation, to behold the holy ceremonies which God hath ordained, they did not look upon the bare figures only, nor think that they did please God, and were purged from their sins, by that external kind of worship; but they did cast the eyes of their minds and of faith upon the Messiah to come, who was prefigured in all the ceremonies and ordinances of the law.” (Parker Edition p242)

Illud quoque discimus ex praedisputatis veteres sanctos, qui sub veteri testamento vixerunt homines, salutem et iustitiam quaesivisse non in operibus legis, sed in eo, qui est perfectio et finis legis, nempe in Christo, ergo lege edt caeremoniis usos esse tanquam manuductione et paedagogia ad Christum. Nam quoties audierunt perfectam a se legis iustitiam requiri, fide donate ex gratia intellexerunt Christum perfectissimam iustitiam proponi, ad quem pro iustitia consequenda omnes confugere debeant homines. Quoties in loco sacro convenerunt ad contemplanda sacra illa divinitus instituta, non nudas inspexerunt figuras neque putaverunt se propter cultum illum placere deo purgarique a peccatis, sed oculos animi et fidei intenderunt in ipsum futurm Messiam, qui in omnibus caeremoniis et legalibus praefigurabatur. (Peter Opitz, Sermonum Decades, p387)

Aus dem zuvor Erörterten lernen wir auch, dass die einstigen Gläubigen, die Menschen, die unter dem Alten Testament gelebt haben, das Heil und die Gerechtigkeit nicht in den Werken des Gestzes gesucht haben, sondern in dem, der di Vollkomenheit und die Vollendung des Gesetzes ist, nämlich in Christus, dass sie also das Gesetz und die Zeremonien als Hinführung und als Vorschule zu Christus gebrauchten. Denn sooft sie hörten, dass von ihnen vollkommene Gerechtigkeit nach dem Gesetz verlangt wurde, verstanden sie durch den Glauben, der ihnen aus Gnade geschenkt worden ist, dass ihnen Christus als die vollkommene Gerechtigkeit vor Augen gestellt wurde, zu dem alle Menschen hineilen sollen, um Gerechtigkeit zu erlangen. (Heinrich Bullinger Schriften, TVZ 2006, p78)