The Super Apostle Paul who received The Gospel directly from the Lord Jesus Christ wrote and taught in Romans chapter 4 and Galatians chapter 3 in addition to many of his other letters that justification is and always has been by faith ALONE.
Not just for those living after the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ but also ALL the OT prophets such as Abraham and David who Paul makes it explicitly clear were saved by faith alone and not of works.
In Abraham’s case, his faith was credited to him as righteousness when he BELIEVED God’s promise to him that he would be the father of many nations which was 50 years BEFORE he put Isaac on the altar on Mt. Moriah (Which many archeologists believe to be Golgatha where Jesus was 1000s of yrs later to be crucified.)
Those living before Christ placed their faith in the COMING future Messiah (“The Seed of the woman” Who is Messiah Jesus) spoken of by ALL of the Old Testament prophets and first announced in Genesis chapter 3. Not just SOME of the Old Testament prophets.
ALL of the Old Testament prophets prophesied about the Coming Messiah Jesus! Those living after the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ were and are justified by faith in His finished redemptive work on The Cross ALONE.
If you believe and teach that ANYBODY in the Old Testament was saved by works, your issue isn’t with me (don’t shoot the proverbial “messenger”), it’s with The Apostle Paul and The Word of God which makes it explicitly and unambiguously clear that salvation has always been on the basis of God’s grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone and never of works from Genesis to Revelation.
And you may be asking yourself why this even matters. Well, I believe it matters because what is taught and believed about how people were saved in previous dispensations influences how people perceive The Gospel in general NOW!
When we tell people that those who were saved before Jesus weren’t saved because they placed their faith in Him, then we have GREATLY diminished His sacrifice. Because Jesus died for ALL the sins of the world from the beginning of time until the end of time and for ALL sinners of all ages and all times.
If we teach that Jesus only saved sinners who lived after Him, we are essentially saying that Jesus is only the savior in the New Testament. And in doing so, we significantly minimize His sacrifice and The Gospel in general.
Also, when we claim that God saved people by works in the Old Testament, we are violating and therefore UNDERMINING God’s inerrant, infallible and authoritative Word which plainly tells us as I have shown above that justification (salvation) has ALWAYS been by faith alone including all who ever lived…in EVERY dispensation.
Either faith in Jesus WAS and IS sufficient for the salvation of all who ever would trust Him ALONE as savior or it’s not.
There is no middle of the road.
