Could OT Saints be "saved"?

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Permalink Reply by Amanda on February 16, 2014 at 10:46am

It appears a lot of people are under the impression that people under the old covenant were saved through keeping the law and through making animal sacrifices for forgiveness for the times when they failed to keep the law and sinned. Yet, in Hebrews 11, it mentions the faith of the saints who lived before the New Covenant. Their faith propelled them to do the things they did, for what they did, they did 'by faith." They had faith in the Messiah that was prophesied to come. As you said.

Here is a link to some of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled http://christianity.about.com/od/biblefactsandlists/a/Prophecies-Je...

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Permalink Reply by Seek on February 16, 2014 at 11:29am

Thanks. Sitting in car ready to go into Walmart typing on my phone but I emailed myself the link cause its something I'd be very interested in checking out. Just questions like these can come to me when reading Scripture and if commentary doesn't give me answers I start asking for input.

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Permalink Reply by Seek on February 17, 2014 at 1:25pm

I use KJV, NIV and sometimes NLT.  And I often will check John Gill's commentary.  Lacking any insight there, I will search online to see if there are any other references I'm unaware of and view other commentary.  I just like Gill's explanations better because they're more in-depth than the others.  And since some in the OT were accredited righteousness, and the OT scripture spoke of the coming Messiah, in which Abraham, Moses, David, etc. believed, were they saved because of their faith in God and His Word (including a Messiah) or because of their righteous acts?

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on February 20, 2014 at 2:11pm

One would have to define what is meant by saved, but the basic answer is yes. Salvation has always been by grace through faith and not by works. They trust God. Psalm 32 is a great read when we read it in the light of salvation.

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Permalink Reply by Seek on February 21, 2014 at 7:34am

I wondered on it.  I've heard that pre-Jesus, no one could be saved unless God showed mercy on them.  But since the Word says salvation comes to those who believe and talks about Scripture pointing to Jesus before He was in the world, and also that we're not saved by works, that maybe they were made righteous because of their belief and not because of anything they did.  Not even because they obeyed what God told them to do so much as just because they believed in Scripture and of the coming of Christ.  Not an important distinction, but just something I had a curiosity about.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen King on February 22, 2014 at 7:25am

The saints of the old days one point of entry. And we have another point of entry . It says in Romans 10:5  Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." 

But the righteousness that is by faith says: ..........."The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,........... ours is to believe so as to be justified.   It is God who saves.

For the Old Testament saints, they were only required to do according to the law to attain the threshold of justification. In Romans 6 the sequence of stages from obedience to justification to holiness to eternal life revealed.

We find that when Our Lord rose from the dead other 500 rose and were seen.

The purpose for justification is that we may receive eternal life. If they were not saved, they could not have risen with Him.

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