09-12-10 Old Testament Salvation

We are going to stay out of our study of Romans for one more week

so that we can look at a question

that I very much believe is worthy

of our attention for a morning.

It is the question of what happened to all of those people

who lived prior to the coming of Christ.

For several weeks now

we have been talking about the way in which death came through the law,

but grace came through Jesus Christ.

Two weeks ago we spent our morning

talking about the way in which that grace of God

has the ability to bring about true, deep changes in our lives.

But a discussion like that

cannot help but bring to the back

or perhaps to the front of our minds

questions about all those people

who lived prior to Christ’s entrance into history.

Was it just their tough luck

that they dropped into the flow of history

before the death of Christ

opened the way for man to know God’s forgiveness and salvation?

I want you to know

I am aware of the dangers

of spending a morning on a question like this.

At first glance it has the feel

of dead orthodoxy -

mucking around in Bible ideas

that seem to have no relevance to the immediate issues of life

we are all fighting our way through on a daily basis.

With the very announcement of this topic

some of you are already

quietly retreating into that favorite mental playground of yours

reserved for surviving half-hour lectures

on topics that could not interest you less.

But, before your mind goes completely,

stay with me just long enough

to allow me to explain

why we are going to do

what we are going to do this morning.

There is a kind of theological study

that is nothing more than an intellectual game

played by those who like such games.

It motivates those involved in such games

to line up their pile of verses

to be used as ammunition with which to attack and destroy

those who hold opposing views.

It can lead to contention,

and division,

and in the end it has little if any real impact on the lives of those involved in the game.

That is not what God intended,

and it is certainly not what we are after this morning.

You see, whether we realize it our not,

every one of us possesses

our own clearly defined theology.

Each of us have our fixed set of ideas about God -

who He is,

what He’s like,

how we think He relates to us personally,

and generally what kind of a Being He is.

Though we rarely or never consciously realize it,

our theology,

our ideas about who God is

and what He’s like

form the foundation upon which

every other aspect of our belief system is based.

What we believe about morality,

and ethics,

and priorities in life,

and about political issues,

and about money,

and about every relationship in our life and how we approach those relationships,

all of those things grow directly out of our own personal theology.

The man who fills his tool box

with his employer’s tools

does so ultimately

not just because he is a thief,

but because he holds a concept of God in His mind

the allows him to believe that being a thief is to his advantage.

The person who uses other people for his or her own pleasure or gain

does so because he holds an attitude toward God

that makes such conduct reasonable, justified.

The person who sets aside his or her moral boundaries

for the sake of attempting to meet some physical or emotional or psychological need in their life

does so because their personal theology

holds a concept of a God who doesn’t understand,

or doesn’t care,

or doesn’t love,

or doesn’t feel their pain.

He is either weak

or sadistic

and unworthy of their trust.

I want us to spend our time this morning

talking about this question

of how God related to those people

who lived before Christ

because questions like this

go to the very heart

of the most important issue in life -

our perception of who our God is,

what kind of God He is,

and how He relates to us, His creation.

Though most of us never allow ourselves to realize it consciously,

the love of God is the only real constant in life.

His love for us

is the only foundation upon which

everything else in our existence can be built.

When we normally think of the constants in life,

we think about the air we breath,

and the sun that rises and sets each day,

and the earth beneath our feet

and the stars in the night sky.

But the truth is

all of that is just a temporary tool

in God’s revelation of Himself to us.

Psalm 102 says of our Creator,

Ps. 102:25 "Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

Ps. 102:26 "Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.

Ps. 102:27 "But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.

You see,

the only real constant we can ever know,

the only thing upon which

we can hope to build our lives with absolute security

is the love of our God for us.

I mention this again

because it is our faith in that constant

that Satan is forever seeking to attack

and destroy within us.

And where he succeeds in that attack

there ceases to be any real hope,

any solid footing left for us.

If we believe we do not have a God of love,

who cares about each of us personally,

intimately,

then there is nothing left in life

but an endless stream of futile little people-games

that leave us feeling empty,

and hopeless.

And when we find ourselves wrestling with questions about

what happened to all of those people

who lived and died before Christ came,

underlying that question

is the far greater issue

of what kind of God we really have.

Does He have some people He loves

and some He hates,

or worse, some He doesn’t even notice?

Is entrance into His offer of redemption

mostly a matter of blind fate

determined by when and where we happened to have been born?

Or does our Creator God

love each one of us equally,

personally,

eternally,

offering every human being who has ever lived

the offer of restoration and redemption?

In other words,

is He truly,

absolutely,

unceasingly GOOD?

Is His love truly

the only unchanging constant in life?

Before I offer you

what is really a pretty uncomplicated explanation

of how God related to those people

who lived prior to the coming of Christ,

I want to first of all read for us

some words written by a man

who lived nearly a thousand years

before Christ was ever born on this earth.

He was certainly not a theologian in the academic sense.

He was, at least early in his life,

a shepherd,

the youngest in a large family.

I want us to listen

to what this man understood

about God,

and about God’s forgiveness,

and about how He relates to our sins,

and about what kind of God we really have.

As I read this

I want us to keep in mind

that this man knew nothing

about Jesus Christ,

or about His death for our sins,

or about most of the other doctrines

that form the foundation of our faith today.

But listen to what he did know and experience.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;

Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;

Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;

Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

The Lord performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.

He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

You may know those words

as the first 14 verses

of Psalm 103 written by David.

Nearly a thousand years before Christ came

David described His God as the One... ‟Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;

Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;”,

and he tells us that, ‟As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him...”

I’ve read this for us because

it would be difficult to find

a more vivid description

of God’s redemptive work in us and for us even in the New Testament writings.

And here was David,

hundreds of years before the arrival of Christ,

clearly sharing in the reality of God’s redemption.

So how could that be?

To answer that

I need to make a statement

that may trouble some of you

until I explain what I mean.

You see,

it is not the death of Christ

that saves us from our sins

and restores us to a love union with God.

The death of Christ is the basis upon which

God can make the offer to us,

but it is not His death that saves us.

It is our faith that saves us,

our belief that our God has done or will do for us

what we were powerless to do for ourselves.

Scripture is clear

that the death of Christ

was an adequate payment

for the sins of the entire world.

But relatively few human beings

will ever share in that salvation.

Why?

Because our sharing in that salvation

requires us to reach out to our God

and ask for His forgiveness.

It is the death of Christ in our place

that allows God to offer us His mercy,

but it is our faith in God’s mercy

that unites us with Him

and enables us to personally share in the salvation He offers us.

Now, obviously the people who lived prior to the coming of Christ

knew nothing,

or very little about how God was going to remove their sins from them.

But the means of their salvation

was identical to ours -

choosing to believe

that their God would provide a way

for their sins to be removed from them.

I want to state this

as simply and clearly as I can.

Salvation comes to us

when our spirit cries out to our God,

“I have sinned against You, oh Lord,

please save me!”

That is the beginning of faith,

that is the point at which our restoration to God is established.

When David cried out in Psalm 25:5

“... You are the God of my salvation...”

he had no clear knowledge

about how God would one day accomplish the removal of his sins.

But his faith in the truth that God would remove his sins

was the means of His salvation.

A thousand years later

Paul would write,

Eph. 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

But the truth of those words

was as applicable to David

as it is to us.

So,

this is the way it works.

1. Jesus Christ’s death is God’s payment for the sins of the entire human race

from Eve’s first act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden

through the last act of willful human rebellion

the instant before God disposes of this world forever

in the still distant future.

2. Our recognition of our need

for the mercy and forgiveness of God

and our faith in that offer of payment for our sins

allows us to share in that payment

as God removes our moral debt from us forever in response to our faith in Him.

3. The only difference between the faith of those living before Christ

and those living after Him

is that those who lived before Christ

looked to the future

trusting that God would one day do whatever would have to be done

to remove their sin debt from them,

whereas we now by faith

look back at what God has already done in Christ

accepting His death as total payment for our sins.

But with both those who came before Christ

and those of us who have come after,

the requirement for salvation is the same:

a heart response to God that says,

“My God, I have sinned against You, and You alone can save me.”

However,

having said that,

I cannot leave this without completing the picture.

For, you see, even though, throughout all of human history,

salvation has come to man

through our crying out to our God

and asking Him for the forgiveness,

and the mercy,

and the grace He alone can give us,

those of us who live now,

in the year of our Lord,

with our debt having already been paid,

have been granted access

into a walk with God

unlike anything those who lived before Christ could ever have known.

Peter describes for us the excitement

and the anticipation the Prophets before Christ felt

as they prophesied what would one day come to us through Christ.

He says, in 1 Peter 1:10-12,

As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-- things into which angels long to look.

I tried to come up with some sort of human illustration

of what I want us to see here,

and everything I came up with

sounded rather pathetic and inadequate,

but I’ll share one of them with you anyway.

It’s a little bit like the difference

between the son and the grandson

of a father who possesses incredible wealth.

When the son enters his adult years

he makes some tragic financial choices

and encounters tremendous debt.

In desperation he approaches his father

and pleads for help.

The father responds by assuring the son

that, when the father dies,

the son will indeed inherit all that the father possesses,

and his debt load will be removed forever.

This gives the son hope for the future,

but it doesn’t change his immediate situation.

The grandson, however,

who enters his adult years

following his grandfather’s death,

knows the living reality of his inherited wealth.

Now, that’s full of problems as an illustration,

but what I want us to see

is the difference between living with the hope of our sin debt removed by God,

and living with the reality of it being gone.

Those of us who come to Christ now,

bringing our load of moral debt to our God,

crying out to Him for mercy,

discover that, to our utter amazement,

in response to our cry,

He instantly takes our certificate of debt from our hands,

nails it to the cross of His Son,

and declares us to be forever more

His holy ones,

sinless,

righteous,

and pure.

2 Cor. 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

And here is the great and amazing thing -

because we are now sinless,

because our spirits are now as holy as God Himself,

without spot,

without blemish,

without flaw,

He is now able to literally indwell us,

so that we live in His presence

and He lives in ours every second

of every minute,

of every hour,

of every day of our lives forevermore.

If any of us really knew who we were in Christ,

if we knew who we have become,

if we knew what we already possess,

if we had any idea what Peter was talking about

when he tells us that we “...are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that (we) may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called (us) out of darkness into His marvelous light...”

it would transform our lives forever.

True growth in Christ

has nothing whatsoever to do

with striving to become the people we should be.

True growth in Christ

is the growing discovery of who we have become

as a result of the cleansing work

God has already completed in our lives.

We are not here simply to play church,

or to fulfill some pre-established set of religious duties.

We are here to discover what our God has already accomplished in our lives

as a result of our faith in Christ,

and through that discovery,

to each proclaim in our own unique ways...the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light...