The interest of the student of the Gospels, and of the life of Jesus which forms their substance, in the topic of this article, is twofold. Jesus is represented in the Gospels as at once the object and the subject of the most detailed foresight. The work which He came to do was a work ordained in the counsels of eternity, and in all its items prepared for beforehand with the most perfect prevision. In addressing Himself to the accomplishment of this work Jesus proceeded from the beginning in the fullest knowledge of the end, and with the most absolute adjustment of every step to its attainment. It is from this double view-point that each of the Evangelists depicts the course of our Lord’s life on earth. They consentiently represent Him as having come to perform a specific task, all the elements of which were not only determined beforehand in the plan of God, but adumbrated, if somewhat sporadically, yet with sufficient fulness for the end in view, in the prophecies of the OT. And they represent Him as coming to perform this task with a clear consciousness of its nature and a competent control of all the means for its discharge, so that His whole life was a conscientious fulfilment of a programme, and moved straight to its mark. The conception of foresight thus dominates the whole Evangelical narrative.
It is not necessary to dwell at length upon the Evangelists’ conception of our Lord’s life and work as the fulfilment of a plan Divinely predetermined for Him. It lies on the face of their narratives that the authors of the Gospels had no reservation with respect to the all-embracing predestination of God (cf. Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible iv. 54–56); and least of all could they exclude from it this life and work which was to them the hinge upon which all history turns. To them accordingly our Lord is by way of eminence ‘the man of destiny,’ and His whole life (Luke 2:49; Luke 4:43) was governed by ‘the δεῖ of the Divine counsel.’ Every step of His pathway was a ‘necessity’ to Him, in the fulfilment of the mission for which He had ‘come forth’ (Mark 1:38, cf. Swete), or as St. Luke (Luke 4:43) in quite Johannine wise (Luke 5:23-24; Luke 5:30; Luke 5:36; Luke 5:38, Luke 6:29; Luke 6:38-40 et passim) expresses it, ‘was sent’ (cf. Matthew 10:40, Mark 9:37, Luke 9:48; Luke 10:16; Matthew 15:24; Matthew 21:37, Mark 12:6, Luke 20:13, cf. Swete on Mark 9:37). Especially was all that concerned His departure, the accomplishment of which (Luke 9:31, cf. Luke 9:51) was His particular task, under the government of this ‘Divine necessity’ (Matthew 16:21; Matthew 26:54, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22; Luke 17:25; Luke 22:22; Luke 22:37; Luke 24:7; Luke 24:44, John 3:14; John 20:9, cf. Acts 2:23; Acts 3:18; Acts 4:28, and Westcott on John 20:9). His final journey to Jerusalem (Matthew 16:21), His rejection by the rulers (Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22; Luke 17:25), His betrayal (Luke 24:7), arrest (Matthew 26:54), sufferings (Matthew 26:54, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22; Luke 17:25), and death (Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22) by crucifixion (Luke 24:7, John 3:14), His rising again (John 20:9) on the third day (Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22; Luke 24:7; Luke 24:44) - each item alike is declared to have been ‘a matter of necessity in pursuance of the Divine purpose’ (Meyer, Matthew 24:6), ‘a necessary part of the destiny assigned our Lord’ (Meyer, Matthew 26:56). ‘The death of our Lord’ thus appears ‘not as the accidental work of hostile caprice, but (cf. Acts 2:23; Acts 3:18) the necessary result of the Divine predestination (Luke 22:22), to which Divine δεῖ (Luke 24:26) the personal free action of man had to serve as an instrument’ (Meyer, Acts 4:28).
How far the several events which entered into this life had been prophetically announced is obviously, in this view of it, a mere matter of detail. All of them lay open before the eyes of God; and the only limit to pre-announcement was the extent to which God had chosen to reveal what was to come to pass, through His servants the prophets. In some instances, however, the prophetic announcement is particularly adduced as the ground on which recognition of the necessity of occurrence rests. The fulfilment of Scripture thus becomes regulative for the life of Jesus. Whatever stood written of Him in the Law or the Prophets or the Psalms (Luke 24:44) must needs (δεῖ) be accomplished (Matthew 26:54, Luke 22:37; Luke 24:26, John 20:9). Or, in another form of statement, particularly frequent in Mt. (Matthew 1:22; Matthew 2:15; Matthew 2:23; Matthew 4:14; Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17; Matthew 13:35; Matthew 21:4; Matthew 26:56) and Jn. (John 12:38; John 13:18; John 15:25; John 17:12; John 19:24; John 19:36), but found also in the other Evangelists (Mark 14:49, Luke 4:21), the several occurrences of His life fell out as they did, ‘in order that what was spoken by the Lord’ through the prophets or in Scripture, ‘might be fulfilled’ (cf. Matthew 2:17; Matthew 26:54; Matthew 27:9, Luke 24:44; in John 18:9; John 18:32, Luke 24:44 declarations of Jesus are treated precisely similarly). That is to say, ‘what was done stood … in the connexion of the Divine necessity, as an actual fact, by which prophecy was destined to be fulfilled. The Divine decree expressed in the latter must be accomplished, and to that end this … came to pass, and that, according to the whole of its contents ’ (Meyer, Matthew 1:22). The meaning is, not that there lies in the OT Scriptures a complete predictive account of all the details of the life of Jesus, which those skilled in the interpretation of Scripture might read off from its pages at will. This programme in its detailed completeness lies only in the Divine purpose; and in Scripture only so far forth as God has chosen to place it there for the guidance or the assurance of His people. The meaning is rather that all that stands written of Jesus in the OT Scriptures has its certain fulfilment in Him; and that enough stands written of Him there to assure His followers that in the course of His life, and in its, to them, strange and unexpected ending, He was not the prey of chance or the victim of the hatred of men, to the marring of His work or perhaps even the defeat of His mission, but was following step by step, straight to its goal, the predestined pathway marked out for Him in the counsels of eternity, and sufficiently revealed from of old in the Scriptures to enable all who were not ‘foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken,’ to perceive that the Christ must needs have lived just this life and fulfilled just this destiny.