How Did People Find Salvation In The Old Testament?

Would you rather listen than read? Listen here.

Romans

I have read Romans several times through, but had never really jumped in and studied this incredible book. When I read books straight through, I miss so much. When I read it and listen to others’ thoughts, read commentaries, and look into the original language, the scriptures come alive off the page. Each time I do this, I am amazed at how much Paul packed into every verse. Every chapter of Romans has life-changing information in it.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones taught on Romans once a week for twelve years and when he finished, he said, “Well, we have just scratched the surface.” There is so much depth to this book and I have loved digging beneath the surface to teach each week and to share all the new things I have learned.

Romans provides so many answers to most of the questions we have asked, and the questions many ask us when we share our faith with them. This book is like an instructional guide that equips you to respond to the questions others will throw your way. Paul even writes part of Romans in a question-and-answer format because of all the questions the church in Rome had.

How Did People of the Old Testament Get Saved?

One question I hear often is how did people of the Old Testament get saved? For those of us that live after Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and accession, if we put our faith in Him, we are saved. But for those who lived prior to Jesus, how were they saved?

Guess what? You can find that answer in Romans. In Romans 4:3, you will find where it says “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

If you read my post on righteousness, you will find that when we accept Jesus by faith as our Savior, we are seen as righteous because of what Jesus did. As humans, we can never come close to the perfection of God’s holiness. So He sent His only Son to come to Earth to live as we live and die for us. He then resurrected from the dead and ascended into Heaven. When we put our faith in Him, God sees us as righteous and He restores us to the beautiful relationship God originally intended for us to have.

Abraham Believed

From Romans 4, we read Abraham believed, and God credited it to him as righteousness. So when Abraham believed, or had faith in God, he was saved. If you read all of chapter 4, you will notice Paul says God did not save Abraham for his works. Plus, Abraham was not yet circumcised, and the law was not yet in existence. Nothing Abraham did, and nothing we can do, will ever save us. It is only through faith that we will find ourselves in the security of salvation.

Paul restates this in Ephesians 2:8-9 when he says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Once again, Paul says we can achieve none of this on our own merit. It’s a gift from God and by His grace that we are saved.

We cannot rely on our own good works. There is nothing in the Bible that says our works will be enough. We must have faith in God and His grace for us to be saved.

Salvation

Twenty years ago, we had a woman in our church and she had attended for a while and asked many questions about salvation. She was in her eighties and found herself in the hospital. My husband went to visit her, and he asked if she was ready to give her life to Jesus. As a true southern woman, she said, “I should do that when I am out of the hospital and with my hair fixed and have on my makeup.”

My husband held her hand and reminded her Jesus loves us exactly as we are. There is nothing we can do to make Him love us more. With tears in her eyes, she said she was ready. They prayed together and celebrated with Heaven over her decision.

Faith

If you get nothing else from this post, I hope you get that no matter who you are or what your past, or your hair, looks like, salvation is available if you have faith. Just as God saved Abraham by his faith, so, too, can you be saved by faith. Our good works will not get us into heaven—only God’s grace through Jesus can do that. We must trust in His power and believe that He is the only way to eternal life in Heaven.

I encourage anyone who has not read and studied the book of Romans to take time and do so. If you want to go deeper, you can join the community and study Romans with us. It’s truly life-changing, soul-enriching, and faith-building.

I pray that each of you has accepted Jesus into your life as your Savior. If you have any questions, you can always message me here and ask me. If you would like to join us in our study on Romans, you can do that here.