How Did People Receive Salvation Before
The Time Of Christ?
Prior to Jesus dying on the cross, how did people receive
salvation?
At the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, after mankind sinned,
God set His plan of salvation in motion.
Firstly, He promised a Coming Messiah and Deliverer.
Genesis 3:14-15
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
Secondly, He killed an animal, probably a lamb, and clothed Adam
and Eve.
Genesis 3:21
Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin,
and clothed them.
By putting their faith on this promise of the Lord, Adam and Eve
believed what God said. They allowed God to clothe them, removing
their shames and also their sins! The skins of the animal was
probably wool, and the precious blood of a lamb was shed! They
believed in the Coming Messiah! And Jesus was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world.
Revelation 13:8
All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not
been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.
Then, John the Baptist came. When he saw Jesus, he proclaimed in
John 1:29, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!" He knew that Jesus was the Messiah promised long ago to take
away the sins of the whole world, and not just Israel alone.
Thus, anyone who lived after the disobedience of Adam and Eve and before Jesus
came, if they had trusted in the promise of God, and believed in the
Coming Messiah, they were saved. While they were alive, they did not get the things that
God promised. But they saw them coming far in the future, and were
glad. They said that they were like visitors and strangers on earth.
And all of them had a heavenly hope.
Hebrews 11:13-16
13 These all died in faith, not having received the
promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them,
embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a
homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they
had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has
prepared a city for them.
In Hebrews 11, some of the men of faith since the beginning of
time were listed. They believed in God and His promise, and were
saved. They were righteous in the sight of the Lord. All of these
great and faithful men died in faith.
Hebrews 11:1-3
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God, so that the things which are seen were
not made of things which are visible.
These men of faith knew what faith was. They had true faith as
they were sure of the things they hoped for, and they were certain
of the things they could not see. It was by faith that these
people in ancient times won God's approval. It was by faith that
they understood that the universe was created by God's Word, so that
what could be seen was made out of what could not be seen.
Romans 4:3
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and
it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Like Abraham, these men of faith believed God. And their faith
made them to be righteous before God.
Galatians 4:4-5
4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth
His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons.
The right time had finally come, and God had sent His own
Begotten Son. He was born of a human mother, and He was fully
righteous in the sight of God! He came to save and redeem us so that
we too can become the children of God!
Thus, in the past, people looked forward to His Coming but now we
are looking back at His finished work on Mount Calvary, and are looking
forward for His Second Coming! They believed in the Coming Messiah,
but we believe in the Messiah Who has come and is coming again!
Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,”
says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come,
the Almighty.”
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Lord is and
was and is coming.
If those in the past have a heavenly hope, we too should have it,
and even more so!
Written on 9 December 2021