OT Saints and Faith
QUESTION
What did the OT saints have faith and/or believe in? If it is God, does that not include Christ (the Word)? Please give attention to John 1:1, 5:7, 8:56, Luke 24:25, and Hebrews 4:2 in your response.
ANSWER
Hello and thank you for taking a moment to leave a thoughtful comment and questions. My thoughts follow…
What did the OT saints have faith and/or believe in?
They 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). So they believed in God along with a wide variety of things that were revealed to them throughout the OT. These revealed things range from gospel types and shadows (Genesis 12:3) to literally nothing at all (I Kings 14:13). All of them possessed the God-given capacity of faith but they did not all receive the same degree of revelation or opportunity to embrace those truths during their lives.
If it is God, does that not include Christ (the Word)?
Yes. Of course Jesus Christ is the Word, and the Word is God (John 1:1). It follows that they believed things about Jesus. However, this does NOT mean that they knew Jesus by name, understood his saving work at Calvary, or knew 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). It is important to resist the tendency 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 was not revealed to the OT saints.
Now let’s look at the passages you referenced:
“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 Mt. 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 in keeping with what we have in the NT (I Corinthians 15:3-4). That is simply not the case.
“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 the OT to teach that a Messiah named Jesus 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. The NT proves beyond any doubt that even those to whom Jesus Christ was preaching (i.e., the disciples) did not believe these things were the teaching of the OT (Matthew 16:21-23, Mark 16:11-14).
“For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them [Jews in the wilderness, ds]: 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 NT 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 NT sense. Indeed the NT affirms that such things were hidden to them (Ephesians 3:5, Colossians 1:26, etc.).
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 in the I Corinthians 15:3-4 and II Corinthians 5:21 sense. Paul’s letter to the churches at Galatia makes this point clearly, “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 the content of 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 is an interpretive error to insist that this “gospel” 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” (I Corinthians 15:3-4). That is simply not the case. Neither would anyone regard “in Abraham shall all nations be blessed” as a thorough presentation of the Christian gospel in our time.
May God bless our studies and understanding of his word.
FOLLOW UP QUESTION
One other scripture for you is Galatians 3:8: 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."
What scriptures do you think Paul was referring to?
Also what about 1 Corinthians 15:3: For fI delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Examples: Psalm 16:10, Isaiah 53:10, Acts 26:22-23.
ANSWER
I anticipated that Galatians 3:8 would be referenced in my previous response and I believe I’ve addressed some of your question already. Let’s look at your subsequent questions to make sure they are properly answered.
What scriptures do you think Paul was referring to [in the following texts]?
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
He is making reference to the allusions of in the OT scriptures found in various types, shadows, and prophecies and teaching how the explicit Gospel of Jesus Christ (v3-4) is the fulfillment of all those OT teachings. Again, the point is that the explicit NT gospel of I Corinthians 15:3-4 WAS NOT TAUGHT OR UNDERSTOOD in the OT scriptures. It was hidden in types and shadows. Only NT gospel instruction is able to explain those allusions, because apart from that explanation people lack a clear NT understanding of gospel mechanics.
Now let’s look at the scriptures you mentioned:
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalm 16:10)
This is clearly an allusion to the resurrection. It’s fair to say that this would also be a veiled and esoteric reference to an audience with no access to the NT. Stated plainly, if you heard this scripture as a 1st Century Jew. you would never conclude “This is speaking of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who will come and die for our sins, be buried, and then raised again the third day.”
“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:10)
Again, the fact that people did not understand OT gospel allusions such as this is clearly evident by the Ethiopian Eunuch’s admission that he did not understand what Isaiah was saying, “And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.” (Acts 8:30-31) I believe those who think that if they had been handed the book of Isaiah that they would have understood this to be a direct reference to the crucifixion of the Messiah are guilty of projecting their NT understanding into the past, or having an unsustainably optimistic view of their own interpretive prowess.
“Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.” (Acts 26:22-23)
Clearly these events are referenced in the Old Testament writings of the prophets. But establishing that the prophets wrote of such things in types, shadows, and prophecies does not in any way establish that those things were understood in the form of gospel mechanics given to us in the New Testament. Indeed the gospel is the explanation of all those types and shadows. If these things were understood from the Old Testament writings alone, then there would be no need for an explicit New Testament gospel, nor for New Testament gospel instruction in the Lord’s church. One must distinguish between the veiled Old Testament allusions to yet-future, gospel events and the explicit gospel of the New Testament that explains precisely how those allusions were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Elder Daniel Samons