Was Salvation Through Jesus Christ in the Old Testament?
Posted: January 27, 2011 Filed under: Christ, Christ in the Old Testament, Christ in the OT 8 Comments1 Corinthians 10:1 For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
1 Peter 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Revelation 13:7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
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Salvation is always through Jesus Christ, but does this have to mean that he was the object of Old Testament faith?
Ben, I would argue yes, the object of the Old Testament Faith was Jesus Christ.
According to Jesus, Abraham’s object was Jesus: John 8:56 – Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
David’s object, Jesus: Acts 2:29-31- 29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,[e] 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
Moses’ reproach of Christ greater: Hebrews 11:24-26 – By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
Job 19:25, who is the Redeemer here? For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
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Michael,
If Jesus was the object of Abraham’s faith, how do you reconcile this portion:
Romans 3:
18In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
19He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
20No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
21fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
22That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
23But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,
24but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
To me in this portion it does seem like his faith was in God’s promise of issac being born even though it was physically impossible. It goes on further to say he believed on Him who raised Jesus from the dead.
Please if you can help me understand and reconcile these pverses to the belief that Jesus was the object of faith, it would be very helpful. I must admit that could prove there are other scriptures that prove that Jesus was the object of faith to Abraham. But this scripture creates a lot of problem for me.
I am not even fully sure what you are saying or asking… but if you are referring that there was to ways in which mankind has been saved throughout history, that is scary. Is not The Gospel of Moses = The Gospel of Abraham = The Gospel of Christ? Your saying what faith saved Abraham was different from which God saves men today? The point of Paul’s reference of Abraham is to show his essence of faith, and relationship with God. None of this takes away from the fact that both had walked by the righteousness of faith, it only underscores that both sinned and only Christ could restore their relationship to God after their sin and bring them to righteousness again.
Look at Galatians 3, that would help you more than me. There Paul interprets this scripture as the gospel of how the Gentiles would be justified through belief in Christ or through faith in Christ, the seed of Abraham. Paul’s point in both cases is that our right standing before God is entirely based on the grace that is given us through faith in Christ. Paul emphases that whether Jew or Gentile no matter, our right standing before God is purely attainable only through faith in Christ. When Abraham believed on the Lord, in Gen.15:6 he found grace through Christ’s sacrifice and forgiveness of sin, likewise David and all who are saved. Paul’s whole emphasis is to show the Jew that no matter how righteous Abraham was he still only able to be found in the grace, through the gospel of Christ. And David also, who loved God’s law under the old covenant, a man after God’s own heart, still spoke of the blessedness that would come through the forgiveness of sin, through Christ the promised seed. The points are so salient to the Jewish Christian among the churches. If Abraham and David found grace only through Christ so should all the others.
I’d read the following:
According to Jesus, Abraham’s object was Jesus: John 8:56 – Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
Gal. 3, namely Gal 3:14, “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
http://www.bible-sermons.org.uk/text-sermon/1923-abrahams-faith-in-christ/
http://headhearthand.posterous.com/the-gospel-of-moses-the-gospel-of-abraham-the
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