Q: How did the Old Testament people become born-again Christians?
Asked by: James
A: James, I want to thank you for your question. I have to smile a little bit because the Old Testament people didn’t exactly become born-again Christians, but I believe they were born again.
So, how were the Old Testament saints saved? Well, the short answer is they were saved by faith, but the content of their faith was different from ours. For example, in Genesis 15, Abraham goes outside, sees the stars, has a revelation from God that his seed will be as innumerable as those stars. And the Bible says he believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.
Now what did he believe? Did he believe that Jesus Christ was going to come, or that Jesus Christ would die for his sins? Maybe Abraham saw that with some clarity, but the average Jew certainly didn’t. But as they believed what God revealed to them and were obedient to what God had revealed by bringing sacrifices and so forth, this indicated that they did indeed believe and their faith was credited for righteousness.
However, their sin wasn’t permanently taken away. Look at King David and the psalms he wrote. He obviously had intimacy with God. And yet David committed a great sin, and that sin had to be set aside along with the other sins of those who were saved in the Old Testament. The sins were set aside, and it’s not until Jesus Christ came that those sins were finally taken away. What I’m telling you is based on Romans 3 where it says that in former times God overlooked the sin. It doesn’t mean that He wasn’t concerned about it, but God set it aside until Jesus came. And so, even the Old Testament saints had their sin finally taken away by the death of Christ.
Scripture references
- Genesis 15
- Romans 3