Salvation In The OT
How Does It Work?
One of the biggest concepts that is seen in a different light between the OT and the NT is the concept of salvation. If Jesus Christ was not made flesh until the NT, how were people in the OT saved? This is one of the most asked questions about the OT and unfortunately, there are a plethora of answers that go along with it as well. Ideas on this are extreme and range from no one being saved before Christ came and even Christ just not being necessary for those that died before Christ’s sacrifice. So what is the truth? How should we view salvation in the OT as opposed to the NT? Was salvation simply not on God’s mind at the time? Certainly not! Look at what Paul says in his letter to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:8-9 “8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,” Salvation was the plan of our Lord’s from all eternity! Even before time began, God knew He was going to save His people and by what means He was going to do so. So how does this differ between the testaments? As Dr. Steve Lawson says best, “We are saved by looking back to the first coming of Christ, who died on the cross bearing our sins. In the Old Testament, they simply looked ahead to the coming of Christ. We all meet at the foot of the cross. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone that anyone is saved. We must be crystal clear about this.” No matter what timeframe in history we find ourselves in, we know that salvation is achieved in Christ alone. But how? Let’s dive in.
No Substitute
For starters, as we’ve discussed in previous posts, there are no successful alternatives mentioned in the NT. We’ve discussed the law multiple times these past few weeks and how it revealed the standard we were to meet if we wanted to inherit salvation on our own terms. However, the Bible is clear that no one has ever been able to fulfill this law. Paul is clear in Romans 3:20 “20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” No one is justified by the law because no one besides Christ has ever been able to fulfill the law. If this were the case, one could make the argument that only those who passed before Christ came and fulfilled all 613 laws would be able to enter heaven. Not only would that change the message of the gospel entirely, but there would be two separate pathways to salvation. Not to mention, heaven would be pretty empty until Jesus showed up anyway. The Bible makes it unmistakably clear, that Christ is indeed the only way to inherit salvation, despite when you walked this earth. I know it's hard to comprehend that one can be saved by Christ before He was physically born and came as a sacrifice for us, but just as Dr. Lawson put it, we look back to the cross of Christ, and those in the OT looked forward to the cross of Christ. Regardless of when He was born, God’s plan for salvation has always been Christ.
Grace & Faith
Furthermore, we know that we are saved by grace through faith, and that was still active in the OT as well. I know we went over this concept in an earlier post, but the very act of animal sacrifices in the OT just goes to show how gracious our Lord was to His people. Just as God gave His Son to pay for the penalty of sin once and for all, He gave animal sacrifices to pay for the sins of those in the OT. This of course did not achieve salvation for them, but it was a beautiful picture of how God’s grace is seen in every aspect of His salvation plan. Without God’s grace, our goal of inheriting salvation would be lost. This is what God shows us through animal sacrifice in Leviticus 4:35 “35 Then he shall remove all its fat, just as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offerings, and the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar, on the offerings by fire to the Lord. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin which he has committed, and he will be forgiven.” The grace of God is a necessity in salvation and we are sure to see that whether we are reading the OT or the NT. Without His grace, the OT practice of animal sacrifice to forgive sin would have never been introduced and the sacrifice of Christ would certainly not have taken place. The grace of God is what gave us these means in the first place, and it is evident all throughout scripture.
Even when we look at the idea of faith, this concept is not just necessary when viewing the gospel, but faith in God is found from the front of the Bible to the back. In Genesis 15:6, we see it mentioned of Abraham, “6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Faith in God and His plan for salvation has always been a part of the salvation process. It’s why Jesus not only mentions Abraham in the gospels but uses this exact story to show that even he is saved by grace through faith in Christ. John 8:56 says, “56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” Jesus Himself tells us that Abraham, a man who was not alive when Jesus was, rejoiced at the plan that God had for salvation, even though it had not yet taken place. Make no mistake about it friends, whether it’s the OT or the NT, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. What matters is not whether you look back to the cross or forward to the cross for salvation, but rather, that you simply look to the cross. Because this was God’s plan all along.
Sources
[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.
[2] How were people saved in the Old Testament? (n.d.). Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/qas/how-were-people-saved-in-the-old-testament
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