GOD’S WORD FOR NOVEMBER 11 ~ ~ 1 Peter 1:23 ~ ~ “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,”

From the book, How to Read the Bible by Michael Youssef

Many Christians misunderstand the basis of salvation in the Old Testament. They think that people in the Old Testament times were saved by keeping the Law of Moses and making sacrifices on altars. Nothing could be further from the truth. People in Old Testament times were saved on exactly the same basis as we are saved today: Salvation is a gift of God’s grace which we receive through faith.

Genesis 15:6 tells us, “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” In Romans, his great treatise on faith, the Apostle Paul writes,

“What does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised. This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’” (Romans 4:3, 20-22)

Abraham lived four hundred years before Moses. He didn’t have the Law of the Ten commandments. He could not have been saved by observing the Law and the sacrifices, which came centuries later. Abraham was saved by grace through faith.

If human beings could be saved by works, by keeping the Law and making animal sacrifices, then they would be able to boast of their own righteousness, their own works, their own observance of the Law. As the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 2:8-9:

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –not by works, so that no one can boast.”

Suppose someone in the Old Testament times kept all the laws and made all the sacrifices, yet that person’s heart was not right with God. Would those works save him? Of course not.

The same principle is true today. If a person goes to church every Sunday but has never surrendered in faith to Jesus Christ, will church attendance save him? Of course not. His heart is far from God. We can only be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

People in Old Testament times lived under the Old covenant. Ever since Jesus introduced the New Covenant during the Last Supper, hours before the crucifixion, we have lived under the New Covenant. A covenant is a formal agreement. Under the Old Covenant, which God gave to the people through Moses, God’s people demonstrated their faith by obedience to God’s Law –and the symbols and sacrifices of the Law pointed forward to Jesus Christ. Under the New Covenant, our faith is in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross.

God made several covenants with His people in Old Testament times. In Genesis 12, He told Abraham (or Abram, as his name was then) to leave his country and go to a land that He would give him. He said, in Genesis 12:1-3:

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Later, God performed a covenant ceremony with Abraham involving animal sacrifice (See Genesis Chapter 15 and Hebrews 6:13-15).

God’s covenant with Abraham was unconditional, a promise that required nothing of Abraham.

(More about this subject tomorrow.)

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Romans 6:22

 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Isaiah 51:11

 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away

Psalm 37:18

 The Lord knows the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.

John 6:47

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on me has everlasting life.

Jude 24, 25

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen

Exodus 33:17

And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that you have spoken: for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name.

Psalm 42:8

Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

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