Showing posts with label salvation-OT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salvation-OT. Show all posts

Saturday, April 27, 2019

Salvation, 33

~ Old Testament Salvation ~

Salvation is not a Reward for the Righteous.
It is an available Gift for those who understand their Guilt!

Question  ~  How were the people of the Old Testament saved? 

Short Answer  ~  It was NOT by keeping The Law—an impossible task.  By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20a).  They were saved by God’s grace activated by their FAITH in the coming Messiah.  “If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.  For what does the Scripture say?  Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’  Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt” (Romans 4:2-4).  In other words their salvation was based upon the Cross of Calvary just as those of us who live after the time of Jesus Christ. 

Summary  ~  Jesus Christ is the center point of human history—even our time is dated as Before Christ or After Christ.  Today, we look back to the substitutionary work of Christ on our behalf at the Cross of Calvary.  Old Testament saints looked forward to the coming Savior—The Messiah and His sacrifice for them. 

The “Hall of Faith”  ~  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.    By faith Abel  By faith Enoch  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  By faith Noah  By faith Abraham  By faith Sarah  These all died in faith  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.    By faith Abraham  By faith Isaac  By faith Jacob  By faith Joseph  By faith Moses  By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry…  By faith the walls of Jericho fell down…  By faith the harlot Rahab  And what more shall I say?  For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.  Women received their dead raised to life again.  Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.  Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.  They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy.  They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.  And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 11:1—12:2).

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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