This article was originally written by Rhyne Putman and published to LifewayResearch.com. Click here for original article.

The opening chapters of Matthew and Luke introduce us to Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. While the rest of the New Testament says little about His entry into the world, the nativity stories in these Gospels profoundly shape how we understand everything the Bible says about Him. Like a tsunami following an earthquake, the story of Jesus’s birth reverberates throughout all of Scripture.

The Christmas story bridges the Old and New Testaments. We cannot fully grasp what Matthew and Luke write about the baby in the manger without first understanding the overall plot of the Old Testament. We also need the Christmas story to make sense of what the rest of the New Testament says about Christ—the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

But how exactly are we to understand Jesus in the Old Testament? Skeptics and critics say Old Testament texts can’t possibly speak about Jesus because they were written hundreds of years or more before Jesus was born. But if we take Jesus at His word, we must recognize that all of the Old Testament points to Jesus.

Scripture and Jesus

In Luke 24:13-35, on the day He rose from the dead, Jesus taught two disciples on the road to Emmaus how to read Scripture. These disciples didn’t realize it at first, but they were learning from the One whom Scripture is all about. Starting with Moses and the prophets, Jesus explained how the entire Bible pointed to Him. What He taught them is sound advice for how we should approach the Christmas story that fulfills Old Testament promises.

Jesus began his lesson with a challenge: “How foolish you are” (Luke 24:25, CSB). He scolded the disciples for not paying attention to the Bible and His teachings. Like others at that time, they expected a Messiah to defeat the Romans and bring earthly freedom. But Jesus’s mission was to bring the good news of God’s kingdom, not to set up an earthly kingdom.

Even before His resurrection, Jesus told people to take the Bible seriously. He asked, “Have you never read in the Scriptures…” (Matthew 21:42, CSB) and said, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29, CSB). He reminded His disciples the Bible’s message was being fulfilled through Him. Before He was crucified, He told the religious leaders who rejected Him, “You pore over the Scriptures…  and yet they testify about me” (John 5:39, CSB).

From Jesus’s teaching on the road to Emmaus, we learn four important lessons for reading the Christmas story.

1 – Understand the Bible’s worldview

We don’t read these texts simply to understand what ancient people believed about God, as if we were simply studying museum relics from a bygone era. We read these texts to know the God of whom they spoke. This means listening carefully to what the Spirit-inspired writers of Scripture say.

In the case of the nativity stories, we listen carefully to the evangelists and ask what they want us to take away from these stories about Jesus’s birth. We aren’t attempting to discredit them or disregard what they present as gospel truth. Instead, we are asking questions like these: What were the evangelists trying to do with their words? What do these stories teach us about who God is? How do these texts invite us to know Christ more? We read the nativity stories in submission to the God who inspired them, wanting to hear His voice and obey.

2 – Recognize the work of the triune God

Every part of the Bible, including the Christmas story, is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible reveals God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This truth unfolds over time in Scripture, but God’s nature never changes. The same triune God who spoke to Abraham, Moses, and David is the One who caused a virgin to give birth to the Savior. Even when people in the Old Testament didn’t fully know God as Father, Son, and Spirit, the three persons were always working together.

3 – See the Bible as one big story

The Bible tells one amazing, true story about God’s plan to save the world through Jesus. Like today’s entertainment with shared universes (think Marvel or Star Wars films), the details in one part of Scripture connect to others. The Bible, written over 1,500 years by many authors, is a unified story about the triune God.

The Old Testament prophets looked forward to the Messiah’s suffering and glory (1 Peter 1:10-12). With their versions of the Christmas story, Matthew and Luke show an important part of how Jesus fulfills these promises.

Matthew focuses on showing Jewish readers that Jesus is the Messiah by quoting the Old Testament.

—Matthew tells us Mary’s miraculous pregnancy fulfills the promise in Isaiah 7:14: “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel” (Matthew 1:22–23, CSB).

—The prophet Micah foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), and Matthew connects this to Jesus’s birth (Matthew 2:5–6).

—King Herod’s cruel plan to kill the baby boys in Bethlehem was anticipated by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:17–18).

—Matthew also explains that the holy family’s escape to Egypt fulfills Hosea’s words: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2:15; Hosea 11:1, CSB).

Luke’s version of the Christmas story doesn’t directly quote the Old Testament, but he relies heavily on it. He uses the style of the Old Testament to connect Jesus’s story to Israel’s history. Luke’s nativity story feels like an Old Testament event because he wants readers to see that the same God is at work in Jesus.

4 – Focus on knowing Christ

Jesus taught the Emmaus disciples that the main goal of reading the Bible is to know him. John Calvin explained this important concept this way:

“This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father. If one were to sift thoroughly the Law and the Prophets, he would not find a single word which would not draw and bring us to him.”

When the disciples on the road to Emmaus realized they had been talking with Jesus, their sadness turned to joy. “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32, CSB). This is the kind of “heartburn” followers of Jesus gladly welcome. This excitement is what we hope to feel when we read the Bible. We study the nativity stories because we want to meet and know Jesus, the Lord of all.