How Were People of the Old Testament Saved?

Different Dispensation, Same Age

There are dispensations, eras, seasons and times; A time appointed for everything, as Ecclesiastes 3 rightly says. There is a set time of favour and mercy (Psalm 102:13), and a set time of judgement (Psalm 75:2), amongst others. A season can last as short as a month and as long as a year. Eras define seasons. Since a lot happens in times and different seasons can run concurrently, eras give a summary and pattern to the outworking of the seasons and times. Dispensations are characterised by a life-altering, destiny-defining moment for the rest of the age. For instance, when Adam sinned, all our original destinies were altered.

There was a dispensation of innocence where righteousness was not fully established in the life of Adam. God could come to Adam in the cool of the day, but Adam hadn’t found how to approach God yet. Then there was a dispensation before the Law was given. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job and Judah, etc., did not have the law, but God was with them. It was a dispensation of conscience. The Law brought a new dispensation where the entire justice system of God was revealed to man objectively. Jesus brought about the new dispensation of Grace when He died and rose again.

However, there hasn’t been a change in this age. We are still in the same age, whether you were born at the time of the New Testament or the Old. The dispensation has changed, but the age has not. To say nothing has changed will be a fallacy that does not acknowledge the work of Jesus on the Cross. To treat it as though it’s an entire new age is the other extreme of the error. It is the same age. Therefore, the standards and requirements for everyone in this age remain the same.

Avoiding Both Extremes

Jesus’ death and resurrection did not bring us into a new age. Sin is not dead. We are dead to sin, but sin is not dead. Jesus has all authority, but the devil still has powers. We are not living in the time of the Millennial rule. The world is still evil and corrupt. God’s judgment still exists, just like in the Old Testament. He hasn’t changed, although Jesus’ sacrifice did change us. To now paint God as only a Loving Father who has no power to kill or judge evil because of Christ’s example is making a mockery of God, who has never changed throughout all ages. Jesus’ first coming is Grace and Truth. His second coming is Righteousness and Justice.

Avoid the other extreme, where we act as though Jesus’ death on the Cross changed nothing. “God forgave before Jesus died”. Yes, it’s just like credit and debit. Those before Christ were debited and those after Christ were credited. Thus, forgiveness, for both those before and after Christ, was only possible because of Jesus’ death that satisfied God’s justice. “If death is conquered, why do we still die?” To leave this corruptible realm and overcome death by resurrection, just like Christ did. Let’s not act as though Jesus’ death changed nothing.

The Gospel was Preached in the Old Testament

The Bible says, “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you in Psalm 22, which is a Psalm about the Messiah. All nations, including the Gentiles. Isaiah 11:10 says, “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to him shall the Gentiles seek.” Thus, the idea of Gentiles being part of God’s people was a mystery that had always been part of the plan. Remember Genesis 12:3? All families of the earth are blessed through Abraham. In Galatians 3:16, Jesus is referred to as the Seed of Abraham.

Isaiah 49:6: Salvation reaches the ends of the earth. Psalm 86:9: All nations will come and worship God. Isaiah 56:6-7: Foreigners join themselves to the LORD. Isaiah 60:3: Gentiles come to the light. Malachi 1:11: God’s name becomes great among the Gentiles. Isaiah 11:10: The Gentiles seek the Messiah. Grace is not a New Testament concept. Several times in the Old Testament, the grace of God was spoken about. I listed all these verses in the post on God’s Mercy;

Mercy: How to Obtain Mercy at the Throne of Grace

Being born an Israelite in the Old Testament is like being born into the church by Christian parents today; it didn’t automatically make you a believer and follower of God. We see this clearly when certain generations in Israel’s history completely forsook God and followed after other gods, leaving only a remnant. The Gospel was preached severally in the Old Testament. In Romans 9:17, God chose Pharaoh to use his stubbornness as a tool to evangelise His greatness to the entire ancient world. There are over 350 prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament.

You can preach the entire Gospel from the Old Testament. Jesus’ gruesome suffering was captured more by Isaiah in Isaiah 53 than the disciples themselves who witnessed it. The entire Bible is the Gospel. The Old Testament captures the promise. The New Testament captures the reality. Jesus Himself, in Luke 24:44, used the Old Testament to preach the Gospel. In fact, whenever you see the Gospel being preached in the book of Acts, you should know they were using the Old Testament, as at the time, because the New Testament was still in the process of writing.

Why is it necessary to understand this? Because just as we are saved by believing the Gospel, the people in the Old Testament had the same opportunity given to them all to hear the Gospel and believe. Noah preached the Gospel to his generation, and so did Jeremiah. Hebrews 1:1-2 says “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son“. God has been speaking the Gospel since time immemorial.

Same Righteousness

Since we are all of the same age, the same standard of Righteousness is required of us all. In fact, the same standard of Righteousness will be required in all ages to come. My righteousness is no different from the righteousness of Abraham. If it were, why would God choose a man in an old dispensation to be the father of all who believe?

Abraham is the template God chose to bring redemption to man. The promise was given to him, and the manifestation was fulfilled in Christ. Although men before him, like Noah, were declared righteous – and Enoch – walked with God – it was by Abraham that God established a covenant to save all nations. Abraham was given the promise in Genesis 15, and He believed. That was how righteousness was imputed/accounted/credited unto him.

In Romans 4:5-8, Paul explained that salvation and justification have always been by faith. God did not change the plan halfway. “It is of faith that it might be according to grace“. The purpose of the law was never about salvation. Through Abraham, God established for all men that you become righteous by responding in faith to the grace He shows. It is the same God, same faith in God, and the same righteousness God imputes.

So then, if Old Testament saints have the same righteousness as we have, at what point exactly do they become saved, you might ask? After all, Jesus’ death on the Cross was in their future. Exactly! For them, it was a promise and was in their future, while for us, it is a manifestation and is in our past. Just as we are saved by believing in what was done for us in the past, they were saved by believing in what will be done for them in the future. Whoever believed in the promise had Righteousness accounted to them also.

If you believe Jesus’ death and resurrection are still relevant, although it is in the past, you should not be confused that it was equally as relevant while the manifestation was in the future for those in the Old Testament. Moses’ rich relationship with God was because of the access Jesus paved. God forgave the sins David confessed because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. In Psalm 65:3, David prophesied that God would be the one to atone for our sins. They saw the shadow, believed and confessed. Their confessions became prophecy for those in their day to also hear and believe.

Let us explore some examples: Rahab the prostitute became saved by her confession in Joshua 2:10-11. What is the Gospel? One definition of the Gospel is in Romans 1:16; it is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. Rahab was told about the power God displayed in Egypt; she believed and confessed that the Lord God is indeed God. That was how she was saved and inculcated into the lineage of Jesus. Same with Ruth. Her confession is in Ruth 1:16. I used people originally not in the nation of Israel to show you that, even in the Old Testament, God’s plan of salvation included everyone. In fact, in Isaiah 56:3, God commanded the foreigners who had joined His people not to think of themselves as a different breed. Of course, the full manifestation of this was seen in Christ, as written in Ephesians 3:6.

The Conclusion of the Matter

The easiest way to understand all of this is to remember three things: the same God, the same age, and the same righteousness, but different dispensations. God has always had one plan for humanity. The dispensations changed, but God’s character, His standard of righteousness, and His ultimate plan of redemption did not. What changed with Christ was not God’s nature or the standard by which He judges righteousness, but the fulfilment and manifestation of the promise that had been spoken about from the beginning. What about those living in remote places who have never heard the Gospel? How will God judge them? Read the Mystery of Witnesses to understand.

Judgement Day: The Mystery of Witnesses

The people before Christ looked forward to the promise. We look back at its fulfilment. They believed in what God said He would do. We believe in what God has done through Christ. But in both cases, salvation is by faith in God’s grace. This is why we must avoid both extremes. We cannot say that the Cross changed nothing, because it changed everything about how God’s redemptive plan was manifested and gave us access to what the Old Testament saints only saw in promise and shadow. At the same time, we cannot say that Christ introduced an entirely different God, a different standard of righteousness, or an age where judgment no longer exists.

Therefore, Abraham was not saved by a different method from us. Rahab was not saved by a different God. Ruth was not accepted because she was an Israelite. They believed God, responded to His grace, and righteousness was accounted to them by faith. Different dispensation. Same age. Same God. Same righteousness. Same Gospel. The difference is that they were looking forward to Christ, while we look back at Christ. And that is why the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is ultimately telling one story: God’s plan to redeem humanity through Jesus Christ.