The OT People

[Benjamin]

I see there was another tread started on predestination with all the proof texting flying and again the question wasn’t answered there about the OT people being called either, but I’d rather focus on the other aspect of how the OT people were saved so I’ll let the other question just hang for now.

See this is what I don't understand. You ask folks how were people in the OT saved. And most will agree with you that it was their faith in what God had told them about the sacrificial system.

But something somehow magically changed in the NT. Why was their a change in the NT?

I don't think there was. These people were still slaying the pascal lamb, which pointed to The Pascal Lamb that was going to be slain and God was still looking at them through the blood just as He had always done.

Yes, their faith is what saved them and they were obedient in what God told them to do because of faith. But do you think they were told to believe that the blood of animals would save them because that would have been a lie, it was only the blood of the Lamb Jesus that could wash away their sins.

Something did have to mysteriously happen for them to actually be saved. So was God looking at them through the blood of animals as sinless?, no, Jesus is the only way. Their faith was accounted to them for righteousness and they are perfected, sanctified because of that .

You can’t see from the OT that they were told to believe in the coming of their Messiah to be the sacrificial Lamb that would pay for their sins nor could they have been told that so they would have been saved by faith and obedience in what they were told to believe in. So I’m getting at how they (the OT people) were justified, was it by faith alone or was their works involved?

 

[Marcia]

Benjamin, they were justified by their faith in God. That is what God had revealed to them and that is what they were given to believe.

Abraham being justified by his faith in God is in the NT in at least 3 places (Romans, Galatians, and James). This tells us how the OT saints were saved. This was the model Paul used to explain justification is by faith, not works.

 

[Benjamin]

Benjamin, they were justified by their faith in God. That is what God had revealed to them and that is what they were given to believe.

Abraham being justified by his faith in God is in the NT in at least 3 places (Romans, Galatians, and James). This tells us how the OT saints were saved. This was the model Paul used to explain justification is by faith, not works.

Marcia,

I agree if your saying justication is by faith alone, I didn't word my second to last sentence well in the last post. The reason this came up was from hearing about a second necessary aspect of justification by Wayne Grudem and then again after startig this tread by John Owen. They both seem to be adding works in, or am I missing something here?

 

[Joseph_Botwinick]

Marcia,

I agree if your saying justication is by faith alone, I didn't word my second to last sentence well in the last post. The reason this came up was from hearing about a second necessary aspect of justification by Wayne Grudem and then again after startig this tread by John Owen. They both seem to be adding works in, or am I missing something here?

Ben,

I don't know much about Grudem, but I think you might have confused what was mentioned about John Owens and the doctrine of mortification with the sanctification of the believers. This is, to the best of my knowledge, different from the issue of Justification, and quite honestly, coming from a Church that didn't really use those terms and teach much about them when growing up, I am honestly just now learning the difference between them. I am wondering if you know the difference between the two terms justification and sanctification. We are Justified by faith through grace alone. We are sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The best I can understand it, sanctification is an outcome of justification, but it is not an immediate one time event.

Joseph Botwinick