How were the people who lived before Christ saved?

Recently, via text, a member of our staff received a short question that prompted some deep theological thinking. Here's the question: "What happened to ALL the people BEFORE Jesus came and died for us?"

Perhaps another way of asking the question is this: "If forgiveness of sins and salvation come through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the how were people in the Old Testament saved before Jesus came?"

The assumption that is usually made is that the way of salvation in the Old Testament must have been different than the way in the New Testament. That is, in my view, a wrong assumption. I think it may originate in part from the dispensational theology that many radio preachers made popular in the latter half of the 20th Century.

These posts from David Murray's blog are really good. Murray is a Scot and an Old Testament professor at Puritan Reformed Seminary and wrote, "Jesus On Every Page" and "The Happy Christian."

The first blog post is about how John Calvin viewed the Old Testament. The second is how John Owen and John Newton viewed salvation in the Old Testament. Michael DeWalt answers the question: Was salvation through Jesus in the OT?

Bottom line? It seems clear to me that the saints in the Old Testament were saved by grace through faith in the Messiah who was coming. What God did was apply the work that He would do in the future on the cross to the Old Testament saint. It's was faith that saved Abraham (Genesis 15:6). It's faith that makes all the Old Testament saints sons and daughters of Abraham. The Old Testament saint believed God and it was counted for him and for her as righteous. They are saved by grace through faith. The Old Testament saint didn't have to do anything. It would be finished.

They, obviously, could not see in the Messiah's work all that we can now see on this side of the cross. But if full understanding of the benefits of Christ's sacrifice is necessary for salvation, then who among us would be saved? No. We respond in faith to the true God according to the light we've been given. And God graciously grants us double imputation - Jesus takes our sin and we get His righteousness.

I once said in a message from Luke 19:1-10 on Zacchaeus, "Jesus took His future work on the cross when He would die in the place of Zacchaeus to pay for Zacchaeus' sin and applied that work to Zacchaeus' life that day. Jesus said, 'Salvation has come to your house today because you are a son of Abraham' – you've been made righteous in My sight by faith in Me. No wonder Zacchaeus was happy. It was finished. It was done. All done. There was nothing in Zacchaeus' spiritual inbox left to do. There were no 'to do' lists to tackle. 'It is finished!'"

Now, for those Old Testament characters who did not receive the gift of faith and, therefore, did not exercise the gift of faith, they are not saved... just like those who do not exercise faith today are not saved.

We must never fail to underestimate the importance of Genesis 15:6,"And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness." This passage is certainly a big, big deal to Paul.

About Genesis 15:6, Matthew Henry says, "Some think that his [Abraham's] believing in the Lord respected, not only the Lord promising, but the Lord promised, the Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant. He believed in him, that is, received and embraced the divine revelation concerning him, and rejoiced to see his day, though at so great a distance, Jn. 8:56 . God counted it to him for righteousness; that is, upon the score of this he was accepted of God, and, as the rest of the patriarchs, by faith he obtained witness that he was righteous, Heb. 11:4 . This is urged in the New Testament to prove that we are justified by faith without the works of the law (Rom. 4:3 ; Gal. 3:6 ); for Abram was so justified while he was yet uncircumcised."

About Genesis 15:6, John Gill says, "He [Abraham] believed in the promise of God, that he should have a seed, and a very numerous one; he believed that the Messiah would spring from his seed; he believed in him as his Saviour and Redeemer; he believed in him for righteousness, and he believed in his righteousness as justifying him before God: and he counted it to him for righteousness; not the act of his faith, but the object of it; and not the promise he believed, but what was promised, and his faith received, even Christ and his righteousness this was imputed to him without works, and while he was an uncircumcised person, for the proof of which the apostle produces this passage, (Romans 4:3 Romans 4:10 Romans 4:23 Romans 4:24 ); wherefore this is not to be understood of any action of his being esteemed and accounted a righteous one, and he pronounced and acknowledged a righteous person on account of it; for Abram was not justified before God by his own works, but by the righteousness of faith, as all that believe are, that is, by the righteousness of Christ revealed to faith, and received by it."