- So we, we're considering the question,
how were people saved in the Old Testament?
And Christians have wondered about this because
we're saved by putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ
in his finished work on the cross.
Obviously in the Old Testament Jesus hadn't come
and many of them would not have even known him
by name, so how were they saved?
What did they believe in?
And the answer is quite simply from Genesis
to Revelation everyone is saved by faith,
through the grace of God. And in the Old Testament
they were saved by faith in a coming deliverer,
a coming savior you could say they were saved
by faith in Jesus Christ dimly perceived.
We could go right back to the beginning.
Where we have the first man and the first woman
rebel against God and God comes and brings judgment
upon them but in the midst of that judgment, there is grace
and God talks about the seed of the serpent
and the seed of the woman being hostile towards
one another but that eventually the seed of the woman
will conquer fatally, will deal the fatal blow
to the seed of the serpent.
It says there that the man named his wife Eve
because she was the mother of all the living.
Well I don't think that means that she was the first
woman so that all descendants would come from her.
I think it means something more than that,
that she would, he was actually exercising faith
in the promise that there would be a descendant
of the woman who would eventually bring
the death blow to evil in the world.
That promise is developed in various ways
as the narrative unfolds.
Things become really bad and God brings in a judgment
on the entire world and then he rescues Noah
and his family and so God makes a brand new start,
and then that seems to go down the tubes pretty quickly
and God makes a brand new start with Abraham,
and in the story of Abraham we read that
Abraham believed in Yahweh and his faith was credited
to him for righteousness.
So because Abraham believed in what God said
was true, they were able to have a covenant relationship.
So Abraham was saved by faith in the Lord,
and then as Abraham's family grow into the nation of Israel,
God makes a covenant with them and creates a priesthood
and a system of worship and tells them how they are
to relate to him and how they're to treat each other.
The sacrificial system was basically
a grand audiovisual communication that when you disbelieve
the word of God when you disobey the will of God
there has to be punishment.
There has to be death.
But it should be obvious from the sacrificial system
itself that this was not successful in removing guilt
because they had to keep doing it over
and over again and so this is the point made by the author
of Hebrews that the priests never sat down because
they never finished their job.
They had to offer sacrifices over and over again,
and so the continuity of offering sacrifices was a message
in itself to the ancient Israelites, that this is not
the answer itself it's pointing forward
to a sacrifice that will come that will finally satisfy
the wrath of God and satisfy the indignation that God has
because the covenant relationship has been broken,
and ultimately this is based on whether or not
you're a believer in Yahweh a believer in the Lord
or are you not a believer in the lord?
And so this is developed right throughout the Old Testament,
when you come to for example the wisdom literature
like the Book of Proverbs he says that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, well the fear of the Lord
is a way of talking about covenant allegiance,
faithfulness and loyalty within the covenant relationship
with Yahweh. You look at Proverbs he says in Proverbs
chapter three, don't trust in yourself,
trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and don't lean to your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him he will direct your paths,
and then he says fear the Lord, and then he says love
the Lord, don't despise his discipline.
This is all dealing with faith in who God is
and in what he says and in his promises
and in his instructions,
and along with that we have the promise
of a coming deliverer being developed.
So in Genesis 49 it talks about a scepter
coming from the tribe of Judah, there's a king
coming from Judah and in the messages
of the false prophet Balem he says there's a coming king.
The shout of the king is among them, a star will come
from the tribe of Judah, and so there are promises
of a coming king, these are being developed
throughout the Old Testament.
When we get to the New Testament and we see Paul explaining
the good news that has come in Jesus Christ for example,
in Romans chapter three it says that God overlooked,
the rebellion, the sin, the transgression
in the past because he was looking forward to the coming
of Jesus Christ whose death on the cross would pay
the penalty for our rebellion and sin.
So in the Old Testament basically you have people
looking forward to Jesus Christ dimly perceived
you have a person like Job his friends think that
he's experiencing all these problems because
he sinned, he knows that he has a good relationship
with God that he's a believer in the Lord.
So he doesn't understand why he's going through
this difficulty, he wants an audience with God,
where God will vindicate him and prove him right
in court and he argues that somewhere
out there, there has to be a kinsman redeemer.
The nearest relative who will take his part,
plead his case in court and defend him,
and I would argue that it's Jesus Christ
very dimly perceived, that he's looking forward
to a coming deliverer a coming savior
who will deal with the problem,
and then now that we have the coming of Jesus Christ,
we have the Gospels, we have the life of Christ,
we have his death, we has his resurrection
and we have the good news preached by his qualified agents
the apostles, we instead of looking forward,
we're looking back on the event that brings
salvation to the world.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Thanks for watching Honest Answers
don't forget to subscribe.
(upbeat music)