How Were Old Testaments Saints Saved?

Have you ever wondered how the saints of the Old Testament were saved? As Christians on this side of eternity, believers alive during the time after Christ's salvific work on the cross has been completed, we know that we are saved under the covenant of grace. 

However, Old Testament saints were saved under the covenant of works. Think back to Genesis 1-3. God makes a covenant with Adam and Eve to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17). As part of the covenant, God let Adam and Eve know that if you partake in the fruit "you will surely die." So, these are clear elements of a covenant in Scripture, even though in these early chapters of Genesis, the word covenant is not used. Later we see covenants being made with Noah (the flood, survival of his family, and never to flood the earth again), Abraham (descendants to outnumber the stars), Moses (Levitical-Deuteronomic law), and David (the messiah will come from his lineage). After Mosaic law was established the chosen people had even more laws and rituals to follow to remain clean and holy. This, of course, was a vicious cycle.

Jesus of Nazareth, however, the God-man himself, was sinless because he was fully God and fully man. He never once sinned or was in a state of sin, but he was also fully human while living among us. So being a perfect human, and being fully God, Christ made propitiation for our sins, through his death on the cross and resurrection. We are saved, no longer by works, but by grace through faith, which is not of anything that we have done, but is the gift of God (Eph 2:8 [author's paraphrase]).


This is compatible with the concept of natural revelation, as Paul writes,

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Rom 1:19-21). 

In short, the OT saints were saved under the covenant of works. As an aside, however, the Apostle Paul does in fact reference Abraham's faith which was credited to him as righteousness (Rom 4:1-3). We also have an interesting case study for this. Enter Melchizedek, the priest-king, who was not an Israelite but seems to have been a prophet of the Lord and in good standing with the Lord, but he is a rather mysterious figure indeed, who is referenced in Scripture a few times. This does not negate what we have talked about to this point but point to something deeper going on in a couple of specific cases in salvation history that require much thought from us as we develop our thinking around how we are saved and why it matters how the OT saints were saved.

Thank you all for reading! Feel free to throw any comments or questions you may have below. 

Go in grace and peace,

Ethan