Old Testament Saints and Faith
QUESTION
What did the Old Testament (OT) saints have faith and/or believe in? If it is God, does that not include Christ (the Word)? How does your answer reconcile with the testimony of John 1:1, 5:7, 5:39, 8:56-59, Luke 24:25, and Hebrews 4:2?
ANSWER
Hello and thank you for taking a moment to ask some thought provoking questions. My thoughts follow…
What did the OT saints have faith and/or believe in?
The OT saints had faith in God - the belief that the true and living God exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6). This belief in God was augmented for some by the testimony of the OT. The degree to which OT saints had additional things revealed to them ranges from gospel types and shadows (Genesis 12:3) down to literally nothing at all (I Kings 14:13). All of the OT saints possessed the God-given capacity of faith, but they did not all receive the same degree of revelation or opportunity to embrace such truths during their lives.
If it is God, does that not include Christ (the Word)?
Yes. Of course Jesus Christ is the Word and is God (John 1:1, 5:7). It follows that they believed things about Jesus. But they did not know Jesus by name, understand his saving work at Calvary, know that he would rise from the dead, etc. While they had numerous types and shadows that prefigured Christ’s work, these things did not explicitly reveal the person and work of Christ as we find taught in the New Testament (I Corinthians 15:3-4, II Corinthians 5:21). So I think it’s important to resist the urge to project NT gospel knowledge back onto the OT saints because the degree of detail and explicitness that we have with respect to gospel mechanics in the NT did not exist for the OT saints.
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by”. (John 8:56-59)
Abraham saw the day of Christ in a form, most likely at Mount Moriah when the ram was substituted for his son. He also had “gospel” truth imparted to him in the form of “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3) But again it is important to avoid the crass error that Abraham’s knowledge of the “gospel” was equivalent to what we have in the New Testament. That is simply not the case, though many people believe it.
“Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27)
There is no doubt that the OT was speaking of gospel events in types and shadows. It is also evident from Christ’s discourse that his Jewish audience DID NOT understand what these types and shadows represented. I believe you will search in vain to find a Jew in the time of Christ who believed that the OT taught that Jesus Christ would die on a Roman cross for the sins of His people, that he would be buried, and that he would rise again the third day according to those scriptures. The New Testament proves beyond any doubt that even the disciples to whom Jesus Christ was preaching such things did not believe they were the teaching of the Old Testament at all (Matthew 16:21-23, Mark 16:11-14).
“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them (Jews in the wilderness): but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.“ (Hebrews 4:2)
This text DOES NOT teach that the Israelites in the wilderness heard the explicit New Testament gospel of I Corinthians 15:3-4 or II Corinthians 5:21. The term “gospel” simply means “good news” and while the “good news” they heard, in types, shadows, and promises most certainly had reference to Christ’s saving work, it was not given to them in the explicit New Testament sense. Indeed the New Testament repeatedly affirms that such things were hidden to them. Consider…
“Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:5)
“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:” (Colossians 1:26)
“Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.” (I Peter 1:11-12)
I think it is very important to understand what is meant by the “gospel” when that term is invoked in different contexts. All refer to “good news” but all do not refer to an explicit description of gospel mechanics per I Corinthians 15:3-4 and II Corinthians 5:21. Paul’s letter to the churches at Galatia clarifies this point,
“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Galatians 3:8)
That verse affirms that the “gospel” was preached unto Abraham, but we should be careful to notice that it also explicitly defines that “gospel” – “in thee shall all nations be blessed.” That is “good news” and it undoubtedly has reference to Christ’s future work, but it wrong to insist that this “gospel” message contained the explicit content of “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures.” It did not. Neither would anyone regard preaching “in Abraham shall all nations be blessed” as a thorough declaration of the NT Christian gospel.
May God bless our studies and understanding of his word.
- Elder Daniel Samons