As a kid, this was one of the unanswered questions that pestered me whenever I watched Bible movies around Christmas and Easter time. In the New Testament, we’re told that Jesus is the only way to Heaven (John 14:6, Acts 4:12). But Jesus didn’t come until the first century A.D. Doesn’t that mean that for thousands of years, people didn’t have any way for atonement?
Actually, in the Old Testament, there was an atonement system set up. In the years before Christ, if you wanted to atone for your sins, you would bring an animal and sacrifice it on the alter. Lamb sacrifice. Although for those who couldn’t afford to purchase lambs for sacrifice, doves were acceptable. You couldn’t just sacrifice any old lamb either. The lamb had to be completely without blemish, no physical defects whatsoever. A “spotless” lamb. Now, does this mean that the animal sacrifices took away the sins of the one sacrificing the animal? If so, why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t we have just continued to offer sacrifices forever? No. In fact, The New Testament tells us that sacrificing animals did not take away the sins of anyone (Hebrews 10:4-11). But you might be wondering, “in that case, why did God tell them to do it?”
I have understood it this way. The lambs were meant to pay the price for sin before Jesus came in a way that’s similar to how credit cards are used before you have the actual money to pay for something. Now, Paul makes it clear in the New Testament that the blood of animals can never take away someone’s sin. That’s true. It’s also true that credit cards cannot actually pay for anything you purchase. Credit cards are pretty much IOUs. They’re used to get what you want to purchase until you actually have the money to pay for whatever it is that you’re buying. MONEY pays for things. Credit Cards don’t. But the credit cards are used until you have the money to pay for the item. In same way, even though animal sacrifices didn’t take away the sins of anyone, they were a sign to God that they were trusting in Him to take away their sins. So that those who offered sacrifices to God (with a repentant heart, of course) were submitting themselves to God and trusting that He would deal with the absolution of their sins. Jesus’ death on the cross is what the paid the price for everyone’s sins even in the Old Testament times. It’s just that, unlike people after His death, Jesus’ death had a retroactive effect on the people who were born before He was. The Old Testament saints looked forward to the cross, whereas we look back.
So, just as credit cards are acceptable to obtain the items you purchased until you have the actual physical money to pay for it, so sacrificial lambs were acceptable until the REAL sacrifice (The Lamb Of God) came along. This is how it was possible for people get saved before Jesus came along.
You have to remember that the Mosaic Law, which was impossible for sinful humans to fulfill, was a precursor of things to come, namely, Jesus Christ. When you sinned, you had to offer blood to atone for your sin. But the next day, you would sin again, and the process had to be done again. Jesus’ blood that he shed, atoned for all sin, yesterday, today and tomorrow. He was perfect, and so was his blood, and now we don’t need to make sacrificial offerings; like he said on the Cross, “It is finished”.
In the book of Hebrews, we’re told of the many patriarchs of the Old Testament, and how they were saved because of the faith that they had placed in The Lord. Christ’s atoning death was applied to them because of that.
For this to be true the old testament would need to confirm the new testament not the other way around. Or where the old testament people ignorant until the New testament people came along to tell them what’s up. (I don’t think so) So where in the old testament does it confirm the idea that that sacrifices where symbology and just a waiting for the new covenant with God in Jesus. I started a study on this myself and this is one of three questions that arise.
1) if Abraham was saved by faith…then we didn’t need Jesus
2) how can Jesus be the Messiah if we don’t know Mary’s lineage to David?
3) do we have original sin like genetic from Adam and Eve that can’t be removed but we move toward righteousness through grace and Jesus or is the original sin removed…if so why can’t I walk with God like Adam?
Thanks for your comment. Let me address each of your concerns in the order in which you’ve enumerated them.
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In response to (1): You may be correct that a hardline exclusivist theology would entail this. After all, Abraham had no conscious knowledge of Jesus’ future atoning act. Although he did meet the Angel Of Yahweh, which, as I argue in my video “The Angel Of The Lord and A Two Person Godhead In The Old Testament” (check the “Videos” section of this website) was the pre-Incarnate Christ. But an inclusivist like myself has no problem. Abraham, David, and everyone else prior to 30 A.D were saved by the WORK of Christ even apart from their KNOWLEDGE of Christ. God judges people in light of the revelation that they do have. And if they respond to even what revelation they have accordingly, it will “be accredited to them as righteousness.” This also extends to the issue of the unevangelized, in cases where people have just God’s evident handiwork in creation (Psalm 19:1-4, Romans 1:20) and the moral law written on their hearts (Romans 2:14-15). They can respond positively to what theologian called general revelation, and be saved. Of course in this latter case, we aren’t given grounds for optimism that people that just have nature and conscience will respond positive on the basis of what Paul says in Romans 10:14-15. But it is at least possible. But people in Israel had even more than that; they had the words of Yahweh being revealed to them. God spoke to them through more than just creation. Granted, they didn’t have the full canon yet, but again, people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and so on, responded faithfully to what they did have. Hence why, in Jesus’ parable, Abraham is on the good side of Sheol/Hades (Luke 16:19-21).
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(2) I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Jesus’ lineage is spelled out pretty clearly in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. Chapter 1 of Matthew’s gospel and chapter 3 of Luke’s gospel. Granted there is some debate over whether these two genealogies contradict, how best to reconcile them, and whether it follows a legal lineage in one and a biological lineage in the other, but if I remember correctly both get you back to David eventually. And I go into some pretty plausible harmonization scenarios in part 7 of my Gospel Reliability series — https://cerebralfaith.net/the-case-for-the-reliability-of-the-gospels-part-7-what-about-contradictions/
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(3) I would say that we do have a sin nature, but I don’t think it’s “genetic” per se. I cringe when my pastor uses the phrase “We’re trapped in these carnal bodies”. Our bodies are good and that sounds a little gnostic-y, but I usually overlook it. What the sin nature is and exactly how it gets passed down is a mystery to me. One thing I am confident of is that we can be sanctified. In fact, I’m heavily leaning towards the Methodist view of sanctification here lately which teaches that if you cultivate your relationship with God passionately enough, you can be made perfect in love, which will take care of your obedience to all of God’s other commands (see Matthew 22:36-40). I definitely do not hold that Adam’s guilt is transferred to any one of us. I think that that is a very obvious misreading of Romans 5. Sanctification is still a process and I would disagree with some of Wesley’s contemporaries that you can become innocent like Adam in a matter of hours or days. But I don’t see why you cannot be restored to Adamic innocence in this life if you live long enough and pursue God with everything you have. Just like with the teaching that a man can never truly conquer lust, perhaps our “We’ll always sin on this side of the grave” mentality is just another Satanic lie to keep us bondage? I still need to research this more before I start openly endorsing Wesleyan Perfectionism, but at this stage I would not be surprised if many Christians aren’t sanctified more simply because they don’t believe Jesus is that kind of Savior. Jesus taught us that the truth will set us free (John 8:32), and if you believe that you will never be afraid from the power of sin, you won’t be. You will create a self fulfilling prophesy. Indeed, you might give in to a defeatist mindset and not even try to fight the sin nature. Again, I need to study a little bit more, but I’m starting to suspect that the low view of sanctification in the churches that I’ve attended most of my life might not be theologically sound.