Grace In The Old Testament (Transcript)

I love to point out the Grace of God in the Old Testament. And I want to do that today. But first a couple of comments about the New Covenant.

I write and speak a lot about the New Covenant. The New Covenant is that great covenant that current believers are under, in which our sins have been paid for and washed away by the blood of Christ through His death on the Cross, and we have been born again and declared righteous as a gift of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

It’s all by grace, and not of our works. So we can’t boast in it. God did it all through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Distinguishing Between Covenants

One of the most important things that a Christian should learn is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Now there are several covenants throughout the Scripture.

Some examples are the Noahic Covenant, where God promised Noah that He would never destroy the earth again with water;

the Abrahamic Covenant, which first introduced the concept of being given the righteousness of God through believing Him (The Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was credited to Abraham for righteousness. We read this in Rom. 4:3 and James 2:23, but those New Testament writers are actually referring to Genesis 15:6);

and there’s the Davidic Covenant, in which it is promised that the Messiah, a descendent of David humanly speaking, would one day sit on David’s throne, so to speak.

The Old Covenant

But the dominant covenant in the Old Testament was what is called the Mosaic Covenant, or just the Old Covenant. This was the covenant that God gave to the nation Israel under Moses, and lasted all the way through until the very time that Jesus walked the earth as a man.

This Old Covenant is sometimes just referred to as The Law, or the Law of Moses, since it was a covenant that promised blessings to the Israelite who obeyed it, and curses to the Israelite who disobeyed it.

The "Constitution", we might say, of the Old Testament, was the Ten Commandments, since they sort of summed up the Old Testament Law, but there actually were over 600 laws in the total Old Covenant revelation from God.

And because of that, the Old Covenant was a serious burden to the Israelite who took it seriously.

Now some have assumed that because the Old Covenant was conditional – in other words, do this and God will bless you, do that and God will curse you – that it was a covenant for salvation. But that is not correct.

Even under the burdensome Old Covenant, salvation could never be earned by works, or obedience. The blessings of obedience were temporal, or temporary, not eternal. They could be physical blessings, like riches, cattle, land, etc., or they could be spiritual, like peace, joy, and so forth. But they were not eternal blessings of salvation, heaven, and so on.

Out With The Old...

Now we read in Hebrews Chapter 8 that when the New Covenant came to Israel, and to us Gentiles, who were “grafted in”, when the New Covenant came, the Old Covenant was made obsolete. This in itself is a great blessing, because the burden of those 600-plus laws was lifted.

But why was the Old Covenant made obsolete? Hebrews 8 gives us the answer. Because the Old Covenant showed Israel, and showed mankind, that we are incapable of following God’s laws to the perfection that He requires.

In C.S. Lewis’ classic book Mere Christianity he points out that we can’t even live up to our own standards, let alone God’s.

Have you ever made a resolution? Have you ever kept a resolution? We set our standards of what we think we should do or not do, and it’s usually not long before we violate our own standard, isn’t it? How much more difficult to perfectly follow God’s standards.

And if God’s standards didn’t seem high enough in the Old Covenant scriptures, Jesus made it clear that the standards were really even higher than they first appeared!

When He pointed out that murder in the Ten Commandments really included even hatred in it’s spiritual sense, or that adultery even included lust in the heart, we all were alerted that God’s standards simply couldn’t be kept to the perfection that God required for life.

...In With The New

And so God instituted the New Covenant in the blood of Christ, which nailed the requirements of the Law to the Cross, and Christ became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The Old Covenant, which man could not keep, was replaced by the New Covenant, which Christ Himself kept FOR us.

And all spiritual blessings became ours in Christ, Ephesians 1:3. And it was all by grace, the free gift of God.

Grace In The Old Testament?

But having said that, we should never get the impression that there was no Grace in the Old Testament.

The Grace that shines like an exploding supernova in the New Testament, the Grace that we see in the face of the Messiah risen from the dead, the Grace that we can taste today in the freedom of the New Covenant, is Grace from the same Gracious Lord Who ruled over the ancient nation Israel.

And shining rays of that Grace are seen over and over even in the Old Testament.

Why?

God Has Always Been Gracious

Because God has always been gracious. It’s part of His character.

It’s not all of His character, of course. He is also Just, and has executed that justice in ways that cause men to tremble. And He is Sovereign, so He exercises His justice and His Grace when He sees fit. But He has always had a remnant, those who believe in Him. Those who, like Abraham, believed God, and it was credited to them for righteousness.

The New Covenant Is Retroactive

But the second reason why shining rays of God’s Grace are seen over and over even in the Old Testament, is because the New Covenant is retroactive.

In other words, all of God’s people who were ever saved from His wrath, and who will join us in Heaven one day, from Adam and Eve, all the way to the Cross and beyond, were all saved ultimately by the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood.

Have you ever heard a furniture company advertise something like, “Come to our furniture sale, pick out your furniture, and no payments need to be made until January of next year!”?

And people flock to the furniture store, because they don’t have to pay now.

Well, that’s sorta how the New Covenant works for the Old Testament saints, except that the payment which eventually came, was paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid on the cross for the sins of Adam, and Noah, and Moses, and David, and Jeremiah, and all who believed God throughout the Old Testament, long before the Cross.

What alternative is there? That they were saved by works? Of course not.

An Old Testament Sample of Grace

Well with that foundation, let’s look at just one example of Grace in the Old Testament. This is not only an example of Grace, but what’s interesting is that the writer of this passage of Scripture actually KNEW he was writing about Grace. He was resting in the Lord, basking in the Grace of the Lord, hundreds of years before the Cross.

So filled with Grace is this passage of Scripture that millions of New Covenant believers have treasured it. The passage is the 23rd Psalm.

Let’s just take a brief look at it, but try to look at it through new eyes. The eyes of Grace, the eyes of seeing the Lord’s undeserved favor toward, not just David, the author, but toward you.

Psalm 23.

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.

You know, one of the things that broke Jesus' heart when He walked the Earth was seeing how the people were like sheep without a shepherd.

But to believers, the Lord is our Shepherd. And because of that, we shall not want. That means lack. That means He will meet all of our needs.

Why? Because we earned it? Because we deserve it? Because we worked for it?

No. You see this is an example of grace, even in the Old Testament. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not lack anything.

In fact, if I think that I lack something, if I think that I need something, God has promised that He will meet all of my needs. And if I don't have it now, I don't need it now. I don't always know what I need. But the Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not want, I shall not lack.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

That's where peace comes in, and peace is a fruit of the Spirit. Peace comes from knowing Him and resting in Him. And that's why I say that even David rested in the Lord, basked in the presence of the Lord.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters.

Can you just picture that in your mind?

He leads me beside the still waters. "Still waters" is not only a picture of serenity and peace again, and resting in the Lord, but the waters are also a picture of what we are fulfilled in when we thirst for that presence of the Lord.

As a deer pants by the waterbrook, so our souls thirst for the Lord. And we can fulfill that thirst through His presence, by His grace.

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul.

How often we need our souls restored. At the end of a long day, sometimes there's nothing we need more than to simply have our souls restored.

And I'll just make a practical suggestion:

If you haven't had your soul restored by the time you go to bed, take some time there. Just talk to the Lord, bask in His presence, and let Him restore you soul. He does it by grace.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness, for His name's sake.

You know, that starts with the free gift of righteousness that He gives us when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then that righteousness, that new spirit that He gives us, is fulfilled in our actual lives. He works in us, as Paul wrote the Philippians, to will and to do for His good pleasure.

He lead us in the paths of righteousness.

Why?

For His name's sake.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. It honors Him when I walk with Him, when I walk in the Spirit. It honors Him. And people say...instead of people saying, "There's that hypocrite Christian," they say, "Look at what the Lord has done in that person's life."

Yea, though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

God takes away our fear by grace when we walk with Him, even through the valley of the shadow of death -- the most frightening situations in life, the most tenuous circumstances, the things that would most crush our soul and cause fear...we don't have to fear.

Why?

For you are with me!

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

We should be comforted by the presence of the Lord, even as David was. And just think of how much more knowledge we have of why this is all able to be given to us. Through the Cross. Through the New Covenant.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.

All by grace.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Where is the "house of the Lord" now?

We are the house of the Lord! "Christ in you, the hope of glory". God has taken up residence in us through His Holy Spirit, and we are so near to Him that when we say to "draw near to Him", that "drawing near" is as close as the Kingdom of God within you. It's as close as "Christ in you, the hope of glory".

This presence of the Lord, this Lord Who is my Shepherd, is right here, with me and with you.

And it's all by grace.

Grace even in the Old Testament. And how much more so in the New Covenant!

"Twenty-Three" By Scott Krippayne

Grace In The Old Testament

This week's message on Grace Walk Radio:

Grace In The Old Testament

Grace For Life radio archives are here.

How Were Old Testament Believers Saved? (Transcript)

How Old Testament believers were saved can shed a lot of light on how our great and gracious and just God thinks and works. Therefore it can also shed light on our own salvation even today, and therefore things like our own relationship to the Lord, and our witnessing or evangelism.

In line with that let's admit that there is much that we don't know about how Old Testament believers were saved. In many cases, we don't even know for sure who was saved. There have been endless debates about King Saul, for example, chosen by God, but ultimately rejected by God as King of Israel. Will King Saul be in heaven? The ongoing debate would indicate that we just can't say.

In examining how Old Testament believers are saved, let's just dive in and look at several things we do know from Scripture. I'll number them for easy reference.

Many Were Saved

1. We know that many were indeed saved. David reflects in the Psalms the wonder of being “in” with God, and having one's sins forgiven. Though it may make us wonder how they could be saved, since the Bible teaches that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. Which brings us to number two.

The Blood of Bulls and Goats

2. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins (Heb. 10:4). If this is true then we have a real problem, because it's all they had. But I want to come back to this point later.

Back To Eden

3. We get clues to how Old Testament believers were saved all the way back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned, we know that God killed animals, shed their blood so to speak, and clothed Adam and Eve with the skins. Most Bible teachers would agree that this was a somewhat primitive picture of salvation by grace through the shedding of blood. And I want to come back to this later, also.

Not Saved By Works

4. We know of no place in the Old Testament that indicates that anyone was ever saved by their own works or effort, by doing anything to gain God's salvation. This is a vital foundational point.

That's not to say there weren't times of sober commandments from the Lord, both to individuals and of course to Israel as a nation. And God in His holiness demanded obedience to those commandments, and sometimes brought devestating retribution on those who didn't obey.

But no indication is ever given that such obedience brought about the salvation of those who obeyed. Which is a good thing, since no one ever obeyed perfectly anyway, until Jesus Himself did so.

The Covering Of Sins

5. Under the Old Covenant, there was a provision made for the covering of the sins of the people, through the sacrifice of animals on the altar of the Tabernacle, and later the Temple. The Tabernacle was a tent-like structure which was built to God's specifications during the time Israel wandered in the wilderness, and could be packed up and carried from place to place. The Temple was built later as a permanent structure of immense beauty, much of it covered in pure gold.

But both had an altar on which animals were slain by the priests, in various ways and at various times, to cover the sins of the Israelites.

A New Heart?

6. We said previously that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins, and what we just said in number 5 is basically why, because they were merely covered. But there is another aspect of salvation missing in the Old Testament. The nature of man was left unchanged by the sacrifices. Even covering of sins wasn't enough to give a person a new heart.

Now there is some discussion of whether a person in the Old Testament was regenerated, and personally I lean toward saying, “No”, simply because the Prophets spoke of a future New Covenant in which God would take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. That's the essence of regeneration, the giving of a new heart or new nature. And since it was promised for a future time, I would conclude that it wasn't the norm in the Old Testament.

And yet, Old Testament believers did believe God at times. Since we may conclude that they were born dead in their sins and trespasses, enemies of God, just as people are today of course, how could they believe God without first being regenerated? I'm not being dogmatic here, but it seems to me that they were somehow given the gift of faith from God. This is consistent with the principle of Grace, which we will return to later.

But that leads to number 7, where we talk about the sunrise understanding of something we call Justification.

Abraham's Righteousness

7. We see in the story of Abraham something which is revolutionary to the thinking of anyone who believes that we earn our way to God by our good deeds or good works. In Genesis 15:6 we read an amazing thing. We read the first account of the basis of God's gift of His righteousness. This basis of God's gift of His righteousness is, and always has been, and always will be, believing what God says, or what the Bible calls faith.

Faith and believing are the same thing. When we say we have faith, we're merely saying that we believe what God said. Faith in Christ is believing what God has said about Him. God said Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. We believe it. God says Jesus rose from the dead, we believe it. God says Jesus is Lord, we believe it.

Just a sidenote: that's why it's silly to say you have faith for a new car, for example. Because God didn't say you would have a new car. He did say Jesus rose from the dead, and He did say that those who believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. See the difference? End of sidenote.

So back to Genesis 15:6. This is what it says. “And he [that is, Abraham, or Abram as he was then named, he] believed in the Lord, and He [that is, the Lord] accounted it to him for righteousness.”

By the way, Bible scholars tell us that this was sort of an accounting term. You know, like when you have debits and credits on an accounting sheet. And when Abraham believed God, God credited His own righteousness to Abraham's account. He declared Abraham righteous, or as we say in Theology, He justified Abraham. That's Justification.

But this truth from Genesis 15:6 was so important that it was quoted three times in the New Testament. By Paul in Rom. 4:3 and Galatians 3:6, and by James in James 2:23. Why was it so important? Let's go to number 8 for that.

The Gospel Seed

8. Abraham didn't just believe God about any old thing. He believed God, in what we would see as a primitive way, about the Savior, the Messiah. God had promised Abraham that he would have a son, his seed, a miraculous event in Abraham's old age. And from that son would come the nation Israel, also called the seed of Abraham. And from that nation would come the Messiah, also called the seed of Abraham. And of course, from the Messiah would come the spiritual seed of Abraham, us believers. All of which was primitively portrayed symbolically by God to Abraham when He showed him the stars and promised that Abraham's descendants would be just as un-countable.

This was no more than a primitive portrayal of what we call the Gospel. And to this day, when one believes God about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are declared righteous, they are justified by God. Now more than just that happens under the New Covenant, but we'll come back to that.

All Saved Through Faith

9. The basis on which Abraham was justified or declared righteous was the same basis on which all Old Testament believers were justified, and that is faith, or believing God.

Four Things

10. So to recap a little, we see four things that existed in Old Testament salvations:

a. Grace, since God provided the faith for His elect to believe, apart from their works;

b. Faith, since God credited their faith to them as righteousness, that is, He justified them by faith;

c. A temporary covering for sins, through blood sacrifices;

d. The forgiveness of sins.

Three Things Missing

11. But along with those wonderful things that did exist in the Old Testament, we see some things that were not in operation, and yet are important to final salvation. Without these things, there could be no final salvation, and the believers in the Old Testament would be lost.

Here are three things that were missing in the Old Testament:

a. The first thing missing was a new heart, or new nature. Without a new nature, without being regenerated, a person is incapable of finally being saved and brought into the spiritual Kingdom of God. And certainly incabable of being brought into Heaven in the presence of God.

b. The second thing missing was the taking away of sins. Remember, the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins. So even though their sins were forgiven, there had to be something else. Something was missing. And what was missing was a sacrifice better than the sacrifice of animals, bull, goats, lambs, and so forth.

c. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The New Covenant not only promised a new heart, it promised that the laws of God would be put on the hearts and minds of His people, and it also promised something else. That God would cause them to walk in His ways. How would this be done? By His Spirit indwelling them. And that was not generally the case in the Old Testament, though there were exceptions I won't go into here.

A Dilemma

12. So we've concluded that Old Testament believers were saved, yet we've concluded that some of the ingredients for their salvation were missing. Isn't that a contradiction? No, and we'll conclude with answering that seeming dilemma in number 13, and then we'll make one last comment in number 14.

The New Covenant Supplies What's Missing

13. The final answer to the salvation of Old Testament believers is ironically the same answer to the salvation of New Covenant believers, and that is the New Covenant. In the New Covenant that which is missing for the Old Testament believers is retroactively applied to those Old Testament believers.

First a quick sidenote: Remember that the New Covenant was not promised specifically to the Nations, to Gentiles. It was promised to Israel, although we Gentiles were graciously grafted in to this wonderful “salvation by grace through faith” plan of God.

And so the New Covenant is retroactively applied to Old Testament believers, Jews and Gentiles alike. And the three things we said were missing in the case of Old Testament believers, were fulfilled and applied. Here are the three things, and how they were fulfilled in Christ.

a. The first is a new heart, or regeneration. And this is exactly what happens when the Spirit of God, through the preaching of the Gospel, causes a person today to be born again. The believer is given the new heart promised by the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 31:31). How exactly this is applied to Old Testament believers we don't know, but this may be what Peter referred to in 1 Peter 3:19, speaking of the Holy Spirit preaching to the “spirits in prison”. One thing is true, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born again.

b. The second missing thing now supplied by the New Covenant is the taking away of sins. No longer are our sins merely covered over by the blood of animals. Through the death of Christ, the greater High Priest, and His shed blood, our sins are now taken away. Hebrews 9:26 says, “...but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

And 1 John 3:5 says, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

God pictures it by saying that our sins are thrown into the sea, and put away as far as the East is from the West. No longer just covered. I praise Him for that.

c. The third missing thing graciously supplied now in the New Covenant, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you are not His, Romans 8:9 tells us. His indwelling us is now a very part of our salvation, our new Life in Christ. We become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).

And it's this union with Christ by which He leads us through His Word. Or as the Prophet Ezekiel promised, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes...”

Or as Paul tells the Philippians, “...it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

And so we see that all the loose ends are tied up for the salvation of the Old Testament believers. God's astounding and miraculously laid plans have not failed. His elect ones will come home. His elect ones will be saved. And the provision for their salvation is complete.

Amazing Grace

14. I want to say one last word, which applies to Old Testament believers and applies to you, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. Please remember this, if you don't remember anything else.

It's all by Grace. It's all a free gift from God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. It's all by Grace.

Not only our initial salvation. But keeping our salvation. And our acceptance by God is by grace through Jesus Christ. He loves us. He accepts us. He declares us righteous. And nothing can change that. Nothing.

It was always by grace, since the Garden of Eden, and it's still by grace. Praise the Lord.

How Were Old Testament Believers Saved?

This week's audio message:

How Were Old Testament Believers Saved?

Grace For Life audio archives are here.

Grace In The Old Testament

This week's message on Grace Walk Radio:

Grace In The Old Testament

Grace For Life radio archives are here.