How were People Saved Before Christ's Death on the Cross?
Someone on another forum asked : How can Jesus be the only way to God when many people passed before Him who even predated Judaism? Can we say there are other ways of salvation and not only Jesus? I thought my reply bears repeating here, so I include it below.
Can there be others paths of salvation that do not include Jesus? No, "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). And God Himself, in the Person of Jesus Christ, stated it directly as well: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6)
Of course that begs the question, "But what about those who lived and died before Christ?" It’s a good question and a frequent one.
In Christianity we say that the Old Testament saints looked forward to the cross while the New Testament saints look back upon the cross. God is timeless. He is eternal and exists outside of time (as a matter of fact, He created time). There are dozens of verses throughout Scripture that attest to the eternality of God and to the fact that He knew us long before we even existed. Consider just a few:
"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." (Psalm 139:16)
"… just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:4–6)
...and one of my favorites:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)
Therefore, God knows who will have saving faith, regardless of when he or she lives. Time only matters to us, it means nothing to Him. Our perfect example comes from Genesis chapter 22 in which Abraham was commanded by God to do the unthinkable, sacrifice his son Isaac. When God saw that Abraham was prepared to do just that, He halted the proceedings and provided a ram to be sacrificed instead. The picture and type of the coming crucifixion of Christ notwithstanding, God tells Abraham through His angel, "I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." (Genesis 22:16–18)
Then later in the New Testament we are told that “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:3, 22; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23). Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.
Well what righteousness could that be? Scripture assures us that we have none of our own. Philippians 1:9: "… not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith" (emphasis mine). So it is an imputed righteousness, based on saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ alone was able to live a sinless life and to be the unblemished lamb sacrificed for the sins of mankind. Christ alone possessed a righteousness that satisfied God the Father. We have none of our own to offer Him. And it was that righteousness, imputed to Abraham on account of his faith, that saved him. And it is that very same righteousness that is imputed to us.
Everyone, from the first man and woman to the last, is saved the exact same way. But like I said at the beginning, the Old Testament saints looked forward to the cross while we look back to the completed work of Jesus Christ on that old, rugged, terrible, beautiful cross.