How does Jesus’ death save people in the Old Testament?
Question 3039
If salvation comes only through faith in Jesus, what about all those who lived before He came? Were Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets saved? If so, how? They never heard the name of Jesus. They never knew about the cross. How can the death of Jesus two thousand years ago have any bearing on people who died centuries before it happened? This question touches the heart of how God’s plan of salvation works across all of history.
The Eternal Plan of Redemption
The first thing to understand is that God’s plan of redemption was not devised in response to human sin. It existed before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (NIV). Peter writes that believers were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you” (1 Peter 1:19–20).
In the eternal counsels of God, the death of Jesus was already a settled reality before Adam drew his first breath. When God looked at Abraham believing His promises, He saw that faith as connected to the Lamb who would one day be slain. Time, which binds us, does not bind God. He sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). The cross stands at the centre of history, and its power reaches both backward and forward.
Salvation Has Always Been by Grace Through Faith
Contrary to what some assume, Old Testament believers were not saved by keeping the law or by offering sacrifices. They were saved the same way we are — by grace through faith. The sacrifices they offered did not take away sin; they pointed forward to the One who would.
Hebrews 10:4 states this plainly: “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” If animal sacrifices could have dealt with sin permanently, they would not have needed to be repeated endlessly (Hebrews 10:1–3). They were shadows, not the substance. They were promises, not fulfilment. Every lamb slain on an Israelite altar was a picture of the Lamb of God who would one day take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
What, then, was the basis of salvation for Old Testament believers? Paul answers this in Romans 4. Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3, quoting Genesis 15:6). David spoke of “the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:6). Neither Abraham nor David was justified by works. They were justified by faith — faith in the God who had promised salvation.
What Did They Believe?
Old Testament believers did not have the same level of revelation that we have. They did not know the name of Jesus or the details of His death and resurrection. But they believed the promises God had given them. Abraham believed that God would provide a seed through whom all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18). He looked forward to a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). When he prepared to offer Isaac, he believed that God could raise him from the dead (Hebrews 11:19).
The content of faith has expanded as revelation has unfolded, but the object of faith has always been the same: the God who saves. In Eden, God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). This was enough for Adam and Eve to believe in a coming Redeemer. Abraham believed in a coming seed. David believed in a coming King. Isaiah believed in a coming Servant who would bear the sins of many (Isaiah 53). Each generation received more light, but all believed in the same God and trusted His promises.
Jesus told the Pharisees: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Abraham saw Jesus’ day — not with the clarity we have, but by faith in what God had promised. And that faith was credited to him as righteousness.
The Cross Applied Retroactively
How, then, could the death of Jesus deal with the sins of those who died before it occurred? The answer lies in God’s foreknowledge and the eternal efficacy of the atonement. Romans 3:25–26 explains: “God put forward [Jesus] as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Notice the phrase “he had passed over former sins.” Under the old covenant, God did not immediately punish believers for their sins. He bore with them in patience. But this raised a problem: how could a righteous God overlook sin? The answer is that He was not overlooking it — He was crediting it to the account of the Lamb who had been slain from the foundation of the world. The cross was future in history but already certain in the mind of God. When Old Testament believers placed their faith in God’s promises, their sins were covered on credit, so to speak, until the bill was paid in full at Calvary.
Think of it this way: if you purchase something with a credit card, you receive the goods immediately even though payment is deferred. The merchant trusts that payment will come. In a far more profound way, God credited righteousness to believing sinners throughout the Old Testament era, knowing that the payment would come through the death of His Son. When Jesus cried “It is finished” (John 19:30), He was paying the debt not only for future believers but for all who had trusted in God’s promises from the beginning.
Old Testament Saints and Their Destination
Before the cross, the souls of the righteous dead went to a place of comfort often called “Abraham’s bosom” or paradise (Luke 16:22; 23:43). They were not yet in the presence of God in heaven because the way into the holy places had not yet been opened (Hebrews 9:8). The blood of bulls and goats could not open that way.
Many scholars believe that when Jesus descended to “the lower parts of the earth” (Ephesians 4:9) between His death and resurrection, He proclaimed His victory to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19) and led the Old Testament saints into the presence of God. “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives” (Ephesians 4:8). Those who had waited in hope finally entered into the fullness of what they had believed.
One Way of Salvation
There has never been more than one way of salvation. It has always been by grace, through faith, on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus. The timing of revelation has differed, but the gospel has not. Acts 4:12 declares: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” This applies to all humanity across all time. Moses was saved by the same blood that saves us. David was justified by the same righteousness that justifies us. The heroes of Hebrews 11 all “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar” (Hebrews 11:13).
They saw the promises from a distance. We see them fulfilled. But we stand together, saved by the same Saviour, washed in the same blood, destined for the same glory.
Conclusion
The death of Jesus saves Old Testament believers because God’s plan is eternal, not bound by time. The cross reaches backward as well as forward. Those who believed God’s promises were credited with righteousness on the basis of the atonement that was yet to come. When Jesus died, He paid for sins past, present, and future. There is one Saviour, one sacrifice, one way of salvation. Abraham and Paul, Moses and Peter, David and us — we are all saved by grace through faith in the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.
“This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” Romans 3:25
Bibliography
- Ryrie, Charles C. Dispensationalism. Revised Edition. Chicago: Moody Press, 2007.
- Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958.
- Morris, Leon. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965.
- Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. Israelology: The Missing Link in Systematic Theology. San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 1992.
- MacArthur, John. The Gospel According to Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008.
