(Preached May 4 and May 11, 2025,
Bible Baptist Church, Sharon, Tennessee)
"The children of the kingdom of heaven are in danger of losing their salvation because this kingdom operates under a faith and works system . . ."
"In the Old Testament, you find salvation before the Law by grace through faith and under the Law by faith and works . . . "
"There were saved people in the Old Testament who were called Sons of God."
"Since I began to search the Scriptures, I have realized that the Scripture does teach different plans of salvation for different groups of people."
"I say salvation was, at a time, under the law, through works."
"It’s apparent that NT saints were saved differently from the OT saints."
I don't normally begin my messages without scripture, but I'm making a exception this time in order to open with an essential point, then we'll get very much into the scriptures.
The quotes above, at least three of them coming from preachers who are also authors, all share one common flaw, and the flaw is not that things differ in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. Anyone with an IQ above 70 can clearly see that the Old Testament differs from the New Testament, and most people can also see that the faith and works of the Old Testament have a very different focus from the faith and works of the New Testament. So, debates about faith and works then and now are usually silly and are usually a waste of time, since such debates almost never get around to dealing with what everyone is overlooking: SALVATION. As we are about to see, that's as silly as arguing about how little children are saved verses how adults are saved.
All of the opening quotes speak of Old Testament salvation and assume that it existed. IT DID NOT EXIST. It is pointless to compare Old Testament faith to New Testament faith, if both do not produce the same end result, and they don't. I have never encountered a worse case of apples vs. oranges in my life than when I began studying some of these Christians who like to argue about dispensational "salvation," because 77% of your Bible deals with a time when salvation as we know it today DID NOT EXIST!
"Bro, Melton, how do you believe people were saved under the law?" THEY WEREN'T! I am so sick of God's people being so incredibly stupid that they can't even see a purple elephant in a living room. The elephant is the fact that everyone keeps talking about Old Testament "salvation" when THERE WAS NONE! If there was salvation available in the Old Testament, then Jesus was unnecessary.
It's like saying, "Bob, in your opinion, do you think our green skies are prettier in the morning or in the afternoon?" Then Bob replies, "Oh, definitely in the morning!" Then Bill argues, "No, too much fog and haze in the morning. The afternoon is the best." Then Bill's wife weighs in with, "I don't know, Bill, I think on some days the morning haze helps to compliment the green." See that? Three people just overlooked the fact that THE SKY IS NOT GREEN! Everyone keeps talking about New Testament salvation versus Old Testament salvation, completely overlooking the fact that THERE WAS NO OLD TESTAMENT SALVATION.
SAFE IN SCHOOL, BUT NOT SAVED FROM SIN
"So they all went to hell?" someone asks. No, they didn't go to hell. "Then that means they were saved." No, it doesn't. It means they were SAFE until they could later be saved. Is a two year old child saved? No, he's SAFE until he can later be saved. Like a child, the Old Testament saints were under the schoolmaster of the law, according to Galatians 3, until Christ came. They weren't saved; they were safe.
Come to Galatians, and we'll look at it. It's very important to notice that EIGHT TIMES in this brief epistle Paul calls his readers "children." Please note the occurrences and how the word is used:
"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." (Gal. 3:7:)
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:26)
"Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world." (Gal. 4:3)
"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." (Gal. 4:19)
"For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." (Gal. 4:25)
"For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband." (Gal. 4:27)
"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." (Gal. 4:28)
"So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." (Gal. 4:31)
Now, notice how he explains it as a SCHOOLING in chapter three: "But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:22-26)
Clearly, Paul is saying that the Old Testament, specifically the law of Moses, was like the school years of a child until they gained enough knowledge of sin to see their need for Christ. The Old Testament was a school, and the law of Moses was the text book
Look at verse 11: "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith." They were UNDER SIN until Christ came, and if a man is under sin, then he is not yet saved. That was made clear in the previous chapter, in 2:16: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." That's why the Old Testament never says they were saved or justified. I guess we can say that they were SAFE, just like a four year-old child is safe, but they were never said to be justified or saved from their sins.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION
Please look at the context of when "salvation" first appears in the New Testament, in Luke 1. The first mention of the word is verse 69: "And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David." Then verse 77 gives us this: "To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins."
Question: If they already had salvation throughout the Old Testament, why is it needful to give them KNOWLEDGE OF it when Jesus shows up? They had been under the law of Moses for some 1,500 years, and they had known about blood sacrifices for 4,000 years, so why is it needful to teach them about salvation?
Come to Hebrews and I'll show you why. Hebrews 10:4: "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Well, well, if it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins, then guess what: THEY WEREN'T SAVED! None of them were saved, not Adam, not Noah, not Abraham, not Isaac, not David, and not anyone else. You say, "Well, they were saved in the Old Testament sense." No, they were not. They were SAFE, but they were not "saved" until the SAVIOUR came. Maybe that's why he's called the SAVIOUR, you think?
Come to I Peter. Chapter 1:9-10: "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." See that? The salvation of one's soul was not an Old Testament reality. It was something that they all had to WAIT FOR until their faith reached its end in Jesus Christ. The fact that they didn't know it is irrelevant. GOD knew it, and that's what counts. Moses didn't know the prophetic reason why he couldn't enter the promise land, but God knew that his entrance would picture men being saved by the law, and that just wasn't going to happen. He BURIED him instead, because you need a risen Saviour, not a dead lawgiver.
Look at Romans 10:3-4: "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." He didn't say that the righteousness of God was one thing for them and something else for us. No, he said that their law had a starting line and a finish line. Moses was the starting line of the written law, and Jesus Christ is the finish line. They were never made righteous by keeping the law, because that wasn't the purpose of the law, and if they weren't righteous, THEY WEREN'T SAVED. This whole debate about "Old Testament salvation" is just plain crazy. You'd just as well speak about green skies, the population of Pluto, or great moderates of American history, since it all amounts to NOTHING.
"SAVE," "SAVED," AND "SALVATION"
If you will do a search of the words "save," "saved," and "salvation" in the Old Testament, you will come up with some interesting results. The word "save" is found 164 times, the word "saved" is found 47 times, and "salvation" is found 115 times. Are you ready for this one? NONE of those mentions involve a present cleansing from sin and the salvation of anyone's soul, not a single one. When the Old Testament speaks of someone being saved, it is speaking either of salvation from trouble or it is speaking of future salvation in Christ. Even when a single verse appears to be speaking of salvation as we know it today, if you'll read the chapter and context, you will read either about salvation from some kind of trouble or a prophecy of the future salvation that comes in Christ.
Yet, when we see the first New Testament mention, we see the sin issue addressed: ". . . thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." (Mat. 1:21) No one was saved from their sins in the Old Testament, because it wasn't possible before Calvary. That's why the words "saved" and "sins" are never found in the same Old Testament verse, nor are the words "save" and sins." Salvation from sin is strictly a New Testament doctrine as a result of Christ's work. Therefore, to speak of different "plans of salvation" is absurd. Are there different applications and exercises in faith? Yes, of course, but this is never called salvation.
That doesn't mean that it's wrong to discuss grace versus law, because Paul did this often, but he never stated that the law offered salvation. It offered a "good report" card for those who were still under a "school master" (Heb. 11:2, 39; Gal. 3:24-25), but no one finished school until the Good Master said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). THAT is what is not preached and taught enough, and that's why there is so much confusion and division running rampant.
Alright, let's get Zechariah 9:9: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass."
Okay, take a close look at the verse. It says that when the King comes he will be "having salvation." Do you see that? Now, watch those words vanish when quoted in the New Testament: "All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." (Mat. 21:4-5) WOW! What happened to the "having salvation" from Zechariah? John does the same thing in John 12:14-15. They rejected Christ, so they didn't get saved. They weren't saved in the Old Testament and they weren't saved at the first coming. All Israel "shall be saved" (Rom. 11:26), but they weren't saved in the Old Testament because it wasn't possible, and they weren't saved at the first coming because they rejected Christ. That's why "having salvation" vanished from the text.
Now, with that in mind, get Hebrews 9:28: "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." There's the salvation, not in the Old Testament and not at the first coming (which was technically Old Testament), but at the SECOND TIME. Why? It tells you why: he bore the sins of many. Until then, no one could be saved from their sins, which is why the Old Testament never says that anyone was.
TRUE JUSTIFICATION
Next, get Acts 13:38-39: "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Through "this man" is preached the forgiveness of sins, not through the blood of bulls and goats, not through building an ark, not through offering your son on Mt. Moriah. Those things FORESHADOW the salvation that Christ would bring, but they offered no salvation in and of themselves.
Hebrews 11 says that they offered a "good report," but not actual salvation and forgiveness of sins as we know today. The verse plainly says, "ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Well, then you could not be SAVED. To justify means to pardon and clear from guilt, and only Christ can do that through his blood.
Next, look at Job, the oldest book in the Bible. Job 25:4: "How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" See that? Your first birth is no good and you cannot be justified with God because of it. That's even BEFORE the law of Moses.
Now get Psalms 143:2: "And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." That's David under the law of Moses saying that no man can be justified. He might be given a period of grace due to his obedience, but he is not justified. He is not pardoned and permanently cleared from sin guilt in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 45 is next, verses 22-25: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." He uses the word "shall" eight times in the passage, because it's a prophecy of what will happen when Israel receives Christ. Justification is a word that's used in reference to what is COMING for Israel, not what was available in the Old Testament.
Romans 3 is our next stop. Verse 20: "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." He's not saying that folks USED to be justified by the law, but now they are justified by faith. No, he's saying that the law's purpose was not justification, but rather the knowledge of sin. The law was a schoolmaster, not a justifier.
Look at 3:24: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Justification is never said to be found in the law, but rather in Christ who fulfilled and ended the law. If you're running a marathon, then you complete the race (Heb. 12:1-2); you don't run part of the way and call yourself a marathon runner. The race began in Genesis 3 and didn't end until John 19:30; so any talk of justification short of Calvary's finish line is foolishness.
Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." There are no Old Testament verses that say, "Therefore being justified by faith and works, we have peace with God through keeping the law." Yes, they had faith and works, but NOT FOR JUSTIFICATION. That's what no one is addressing. The law of Moses was a schoolmaster, not a justifier and not a saviour; so speaking of Old Testament "salvation" is to speak out of ignorance, since there was none before Calvary.
THE LAMB OF GOD
I think we all understand the significance of the sacrificial lamb in scripture. Beginning in Genesis 3, the blood of a lamb began to serve as an atonement for sin. Then we read the word "lamb" a total of 69 times in the Old Testament, and none of those occurrences are capitalized. But look at the New Testament's first occurrence of the word in John 1:29: "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." For the first time in the Bible, the word "Lamb" is capitalized. Why? It's capitalized because this is a different Lamb. This is THE Lamb that "taketh away the sin of the world." Those Old Testament lambs couldn't TAKE AWAY sin; they only covered it for a time. That's why Paul said they were "under sin" until Christ came (Gal. 3:22). Their sins had not been taken away by the one true Lamb of God.
Hebrews 10:4 says, "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins", and Hebrews 10:11 says, "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." They had lambs, but they never had "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." So, it's incorrect to say that they were saved. Safe, yes, but not saved.
In the New Testament, where a believer IS said to be "saved" (Tit. 3:5; II Tim. 1:9; Eph. 2:8; I Cor. 1:18; Rom. 10:13, etc.), he is also said to be loaded with numerous other spiritual benefits, none of which are true with any of the Old Testament saints. The following is a partial list:
(1) We are called sons of God (John 1:12; I John 3:1-2).
(2) We are born again of God's Spirit (John 3:1-8).
(3) We have God's image (Col. 3:10; II Cor. 3:18).
(4) We are new creatures (II Cor. 5:17).
(5) We are sealed with God's Spirit (Eph. 4:30).
(6) We possess eternal life (John 10:28-29)
(7) We are washed from our sins in the blood of Christ (Rev. 1:5).
(8) We are separated from our sinful flesh by spiritual circumcision (Col. 2:11).
(9) We are crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20).
(10) We go straight to heaven when we die (II Cor. 5:8).
No Old Testament saint enjoyed any of those privileges, so it is folly to speak of Old Testament salvation. Using the words "salvation" and "saved" in reference to Old Testament saints just keeps the pot of confusion stirred and keeps the devil happy, because everyone will keep trying to compare "Old Testament salvation" to New Testament salvation when THERE IS NO COMPARISON.
Frankly, when considering the blessings that we have in Christ, it's an insult to God to even try to make a comparison, and this is clearly the emphasis that God presents to us in Galatians and Hebrews, if only folks would slow down and read full context instead of cherry picking verses and phrases. Shallow, argumentative brethren will fight about this issue till the cows come home, but those who have been properly schooled and matured by the word of God have a far better comprehension of what the Old Testament saints had and didn't have. None of what they had is worth a dime without the Lord Jesus Christ taking it all across the finish line at Calvary. Calvary is the headquarters of salvation, and anyone who doesn't know that has been skipping too many classes (Gal. 3:24-25; Rom. 3:20). Today, all Old Testament saints are saved, but before Calvary they were only SAFE.