How were people saved before the cross?

1
How were people saved before the cross?

• On one hand we know people were saved.

2
How were people saved before the cross?

• On one hand we know people were saved.
• We read of Enoch, Noah and Abraham being saved
  before the giving of the Law of Moses. (Heb
  115-8)

3
How were people saved before the cross?

• (Hebrews 115-8 NKJV) By faith Enoch was taken
  away so that he did not see death, and was not
  found, because God had taken him for before he
  was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased
  God. 6 But without faith it is impossible to
  please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
  that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those
  who diligently seek Him.

4
How were people saved before the cross?

• 7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of
  things not yet seen, moved with godly fear,
  prepared an ark for the saving of his household,
  by which he condemned the world and became heir
  of the righteousness which is according to faith.
  8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to
  go out to the place which he would receive as an
  inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where
  he was going.

5
How were people saved before the cross?

• We also read of Samuel, David and Gideon saved
  while under the Law of Moses. (Heb 1132)

6
How were people saved before the cross?

• (Hebrews 1132 NKJV) And what more shall I say?
  For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and
  Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and
  Samuel and the prophets

7
How were people saved before the cross?

• It is my prayer that our study will bring us a
  greater appreciation of the nature of God and
  what He has done for us.

8
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Men of faith were instructed to pray for
  forgiveness.

9
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Men of faith were instructed to pray for
  forgiveness.
• Moses prayed for Israel. (Ex 3232-33)

10
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Exodus 3232-33 NKJV) Yet now, if You will
  forgive their sin but if not, I pray, blot me
  out of Your book which You have written. 33
  And the LORD said to Moses, Whoever has sinned
  against Me, I will blot him out of My book.

11
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Solomon prayed for his people. (1 Kgs 833-34)

12
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (1 Kings 833-34 NKJV) When Your people Israel
  are defeated before an enemy because they have
  sinned against You, and when they turn back to
  You and confess Your name, and pray and make
  supplication to You in this temple, 34 then
  hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your
  people Israel, and bring them back to the land
  which You gave to their fathers.

13
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Daniel prayed for Israel. (Dan 919)

14
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Daniel 919 NKJV) O Lord, hear! O Lord,
  forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for
  Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your
  people are called by Your name.

15
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• David prayed for his personal forgiveness. (Psa
  2516-18)

16
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Psalms 2516-18 NKJV) Turn Yourself to me, and
  have mercy on me, For I am desolate and
  afflicted. 17 The troubles of my heart have
  enlarged Bring me out of my distresses! 18
  Look on my affliction and my pain, And forgive
  all my sins.

17
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• God's nature is described as forgiving in the Old
  Testament.

18
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• God's nature is described as forgiving in the Old
  Testament.
• What would Micah's readers conclude? (Mic 718-19)

19
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Micah 718-19 NKJV) Who is a God like You,
  Pardoning iniquity And passing over the
  transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He
  does not retain His anger forever, Because He
  delights in mercy. 19 He will again have
  compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities.
  You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the
  sea.

20
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Those under the Law were urged to pray to a God
  that will forgive. (Psa 865)

21
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Psalms 865 NKJV) For You, Lord, are good, and
  ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all
  those who call upon You.

22
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Those who repented were promised forgiveness by
  God Himself.

23
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Those who repented were promised forgiveness by
  God Himself.
• These verses are plain! (Isa 556-7 2 Chron
  714)

24
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Isaiah 556-7 NKJV) Seek the LORD while He may
  be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let
  the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous
  man his thoughts Let him return to the LORD, And
  He will have mercy on him And to our God, For He
  will abundantly pardon.

25
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (2 Chronicles 714 NKJV) if My people who are
  called by My name will humble themselves, and
  pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked
  ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will
  forgive their sin and heal their land.

26
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Some have tried to make a distinction between
  forgiveness and atonement. When one has
  atonement they also have forgiveness. (Lev 435,
  510,13,16,18)

27
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Leviticus 435 NKJV) He shall remove all its
  fat, as the fat of the lamb is removed from the
  sacrifice of the peace offering. Then the priest
  shall burn it on the altar, according to the
  offerings made by fire to the LORD. So the priest
  shall make atonement for his sin that he has
  committed, and it shall be forgiven him.

28
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Leviticus 510 NKJV) And he shall offer the
  second as a burnt offering according to the
  prescribed manner. So the priest shall make
  atonement on his behalf for his sin which he has
  committed, and it shall be forgiven him.

29
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Leviticus 513 NKJV) The priest shall make
  atonement for him, for his sin that he has
  committed in any of these matters and it shall
  be forgiven him. The rest shall be the priests
  as a grain offering.

30
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Leviticus 516 NKJV) And he shall make
  restitution for the harm that he has done in
  regard to the holy thing, and shall add one-fifth
  to it and give it to the priest. So the priest
  shall make atonement for him with the ram of the
  trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.

31
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Leviticus 518 NKJV) And he shall bring to the
  priest a ram without blemish from the flock, with
  your valuation, as a trespass offering. So the
  priest shall make atonement for him regarding his
  ignorance in which he erred and did not know it,
  and it shall be forgiven him.

32
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• Forgiveness was claimed in the Old Testament.

33
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• How was this accomplished? (Psa 325 Psa 10312)

34
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Psalms 325 NKJV) I acknowledged my sin to
  You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said,
  I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,
  And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

35
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• (Psalms 10312 NKJV) As far as the east is from
  the west, So far has He removed our
  transgressions from us.

36
Forgiveness as Described in the Old Testament

• God's word was plain to His people. Now let us
  gain a better understanding from the New
  Testament.

37
Additional Light from the New Testament

• God had a plan that required a New Testament.
  (Jer 3131-34)

38
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Jeremiah 3131-34 NKJV) Behold, the days are
  coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
  covenant with the house of Israel and with the
  house of Judah 32 not according to the
  covenant that I made with their fathers in the
  day that I took them by the hand to lead them out
  of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they
  broke, though I was a husband to them, says the
  LORD.

39
Additional Light from the New Testament

• 33 But this is the covenant that I will make
  with the house of Israel after those days, says
  the LORD I will put My law in their minds, and
  write it on their hearts and I will be their
  God, and they shall be My people.

40
Additional Light from the New Testament

• 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor,
  and every man his brother, saying, Know the
  LORD, for they all shall know Me, from the least
  of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD.
  For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin
  I will remember no more.

41
Additional Light from the New Testament

• The people of God under this testament will be
  forgiven.

42
Additional Light from the New Testament

• The distinction here in how you become a child of
  God.

43
Additional Light from the New Testament

• The distinction here in how you become a child of
  God.
• The Law of Moses was not given to provide
  salvation by itself.

44
Additional Light from the New Testament

• The distinction here in how you become a child of
  God.
• The Law of Moses was not given to provide
  salvation by itself.
• There is no justification under a system of law
  alone! (Rom 320)

45
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Romans 320 NKJV) Therefore by the deeds of
  the law no flesh will be justified in His sight,
  for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

46
Additional Light from the New Testament

• God's purpose of the law was to prepare them for
  a Savior, not be one in itself. (Gal
  311,17-18)

47
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Galatians 311 NKJV) But that no one is
  justified by the law in the sight of God is
  evident, for the just shall live by faith.

48
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Galatians 317-18 NKJV) And this I say, that
  the law, which was four hundred and thirty years
  later, cannot annul the covenant that was
  confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should
  make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the
  inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of
  promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

49
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Abraham was not saved by the law. How do we know
  this? He lived before the Law of Moses! (Rom
  41-4)

50
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Romans 41-4 NKJV) What then shall we say that
  Abraham our father has found according to the
  flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works,
  he has something to boast about, but not before
  God. 3 For what does the Scripture say?
  Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to
  him for righteousness. 4 Now to him who works,
  the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.

51
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Why does law not save? Because as with any law
  the way to salvation is to do all without fail.
  (Gal 310 53)

52
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Galatians 310 NKJV) For as many as are of the
  works of the law are under the curse for it is
  written, Cursed is everyone who does not
  continue in all things which are written in the
  book of the law, to do them.

53
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Galatians 53 NKJV) And I testify again to
  every man who becomes circumcised that he is a
  debtor to keep the whole law.

54
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Animal sacrifices under the Old Testament did not
  provide forgiveness in themselves.

55
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Animal sacrifices under the Old Testament did not
  provide forgiveness in themselves.
• While God commanded these things, their blood was
  not the source of appeasing God's wrath. (Heb
  104)

56
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Hebrews 104 NKJV) For it is not possible that
  the blood of bulls and goats could take away
  sins.

57
Additional Light from the New Testament

• The sacrifices had to be repeated suggesting
  inadequacy. (Heb 1011-12)

58
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Hebrews 1011-12 NKJV) And every priest stands
  ministering daily and offering repeatedly the
  same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
  12 But this Man, after He had offered one
  sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right
  hand of God,

59
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Forgiveness to any man who ever lived must come
  through the blood of Christ.

60
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Forgiveness to any man who ever lived must come
  through the blood of Christ.
• Jesus was the only sufficient sacrifice in all of
  history. (1 Pt 118-19 Heb 924-28)

61
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (1 Peter 118-19 NKJV) knowing that you were
  not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver
  or gold, from your aimless conduct received by
  tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the
  precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
  blemish and without spot.

62
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Hebrews 924-28 NKJV) For Christ has not
  entered the holy places made with hands, which
  are copies of the true, but into heaven itself,
  now to appear in the presence of God for us 25
  not that He should offer Himself often, as the
  high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year
  with blood of another

63
Additional Light from the New Testament

• 26 He then would have had to suffer often since
  the foundation of the world but now, once at the
  end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin
  by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is
  appointed for men to die once, but after this the
  judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear
  the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for
  Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin,
  for salvation.

64
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Those under the Old Testament law were forgiven
  by the blood of Christ. (Heb 915)

65
Additional Light from the New Testament

• (Hebrews 915 NKJV) And for this reason He is
  the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of
  death, for the redemption of the transgressions
  under the first covenant, that those who are
  called may receive the promise of the eternal
  inheritance.

66
Additional Light from the New Testament

• Why is there a controversy then on this question?

67
Some problems Examined

• There are two verses that may indicate another
  possible conclusion.

68
Some problems Examined

• There are two verses that may indicate another
  possible conclusion.
• What did it mean for God to "pass over" sins?
  (Rom 325-26)

69
Some problems Examined

• (Romans 325-26 NKJV) whom God set forth as a
  propitiation by His blood, through faith, to
  demonstrate His righteousness, because in His
  forbearance God had passed over the sins that
  were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at
  the present time His righteousness, that He might
  be just and the justifier of the one who has
  faith in Jesus.

70
Some problems Examined

• Were the sins in the Old Testament "rolled
  forward?" (Heb 101-4)

71
Some problems Examined

• (Hebrews 101-4 NKJV) For the law, having a
  shadow of the good things to come, and not the
  very image of the things, can never with these
  same sacrifices, which they offer continually
  year by year, make those who approach perfect.
  2 For then would they not have ceased to be
  offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would
  have had no more consciousness of sins.

72
Some problems Examined

• 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder
  of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible
  that the blood of bulls and goats could take away
  sins.

73
Some problems Examined

• Some possible explanations to these passages.

74
Some problems Examined

• Some possible explanations to these passages.
• Because of the number of sacrifices it was
  evident that they were insufficient.

75
Some problems Examined

• Still under these sacrifices there was
  forgiveness. Consider the promise associated with
  the day of atonement. (Num 1527-28)

76
Some problems Examined

• (Numbers 1527-28 NKJV) And if a person sins
  unintentionally, then he shall bring a female
  goat in its first year as a sin offering. 28
  So the priest shall make atonement for the
  person who sins unintentionally, when he sins
  unintentionally before the LORD, to make
  atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him.

77
Some problems Examined

• Rather than suggesting that sins are rolled
  forward it is pointing out the inadequacy of
  these sacrifices by themselves.

78
Some problems Examined

• Rather than suggesting that sins are rolled
  forward it is pointing out the inadequacy of
  these sacrifices by themselves.
• The same could be said about the sacrifices given
  before the law.

79
Some problems Examined

• Rather than suggesting that sins are rolled
  forward it is pointing out the inadequacy of
  these sacrifices by themselves.
• The same could be said about the sacrifices given
  before the law.
• When did those in the Old Testament find
  forgiveness?

80
Some problems Examined

• Rather than suggesting that sins are rolled
  forward it is pointing out the inadequacy of
  these sacrifices by themselves.
• The same could be said about the sacrifices given
  before the law.
• When did those in the Old Testament find
  forgiveness?
• If Jesus had not died then how could they be
  forgiven?

81
Some problems Examined

• God is independent of time. He knows the future
  and can speak of things in a present tense as not
  yet occurring. (Rom 417)

82
Some problems Examined

• (Romans 417 NKJV) (as it is written, I have
  made you a father of many nations) in the
  presence of Him whom he believed God, who gives
  life to the dead and calls those things which do
  not exist as though they did

83
Some problems Examined

• If forgiveness was not realized then at that time
  then I cannot know how men like Moses or Isaiah
  could appear in His presence. (Isa 63-7)

84
Some problems Examined

• (Isaiah 63-7 NKJV) And one cried to another
  and said Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts
  The whole earth is full of His glory! 4 And
  the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of
  him who cried out, and the house was filled with
  smoke.

85
Some problems Examined

• 5 So I said Woe is me, for I am undone!
  Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell
  in the midst of a people of unclean lips For my
  eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts. 6
  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in
  his hand a live coal which he had taken with the
  tongs from the altar.

86
Some problems Examined

• 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said
  Behold, this has touched your lips Your
  iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.

87
Some problems Examined

• If forgiveness was not present then how could
  God's presence and help be present? (Isa 591-2)

88
Some problems Examined

• (Isaiah 591-2 NKJV) Behold, the Lords hand is
  not shortened, That it cannot save Nor His ear
  heavy, That it cannot hear. 2 But your
  iniquities have separated you from your God And
  your sins have hidden His face from you, So that
  He will not hear.

89
Some problems Examined

• How did men before the cross find forgiveness?
• The same way we do, by faith. (Rom 43-8, 16)

90
Some problems Examined

• How did men before the cross find forgiveness?
• The same way we do, by faith. (Rom 43-8, 16)

91
Some problems Examined

• (Romans 43-8 NKJV) For what does the Scripture
  say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted
  to him for righteousness. 4 Now to him who
  works, the wages are not counted as grace but as
  debt. 5 But to him who does not work but
  believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his
  faith is accounted for righteousness,

92
Some problems Examined

• 6 just as David also describes the blessedness
  of the man to whom God imputes righteousness
  apart from works 7 Blessed are those whose
  lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are
  covered 8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD
  shall not impute sin.

93
Some problems Examined

• (Romans 416 NKJV) Therefore it is of faith
  that it might be according to grace, so that the
  promise might be sure to all the seed, not only
  to those who are of the law, but also to those
  who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the
  father of us all

94
Some problems Examined

• What are you doing with your faith?

95
Some problems Examined

• What are you doing with your faith?
• Let each of us be thankful for the marvelous
  provisions of the cross of Christ!

96
Some problems Examined

• This must be the focus of our happiness. (Gal
  614)

97
Some problems Examined

• (Galatians 614 NKJV) But God forbid that I
  should boast except in the cross of our Lord
  Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been
  crucified to me, and I to the world.

98
Some problems Examined

• Our lives must be fully given to such a Savior.
  (Gal 220-21)

99
Some problems Examined

• (Galatians 220-21 NKJV) I have been crucified
  with Christ it is no longer I who live, but
  Christ lives in me and the life which I now live
  in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,
  who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do
  not set aside the grace of God for if
  righteousness comes through the law, then Christ
  died in vain.