I've been studying the Tabernacle; how that it is a perfect image of Jesus Christ, and God's redemptive plan for mankind. In my reading, what has surprised me is how perfectly it mirrors the requirements of Salvation, and how it clearly shows that Jesus is the ONLY way to God.
Jesus said, NO ONE comes to the father but by Him... the Tabernacle expresses this.
From M.R. DeHaan's The Tabernacle
Our redemption has been bought with a precious price. It was the price of the blood of the Son of God...Ye are bought with a price (I Corinthians 6:20)
Peter tells us:Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (I Peter 1:18,19).
It is called "precious" blood. It means that it is of tremendous and inestimable worth. It was precious because it was the blood of God, not the blood of a man. Now if that statement seems to be strange and bold, we would remind you that the Bible clearly teaches that it was the "blood of God" which was shed on Calvary. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was not derived from man, but it was divine blood, and the divine contribution, the blood of God. Jesus was virgin born, without a human father. The blood in Christ was a divine contribution. Paul settles this beyond all dispute in Acts 20:28, where he says to the Ephesian elders:Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock... to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
Notice the words -- "the church of God, which he [God] hath purchased with his own [God's] blood." Since it was the blood of Christ, He must of necessity have been God, because it is called "the blood of God." Jesus is God, and His blood therefore, was the blood of Almighty God Himself. No wonder that Peter calls it "precious blood."
Everything, therefore, depends upon the blood of Christ because it is divine blood. There is no salvation apart from personal appropriation of that blood by faith. Man may make light of it, and may refuse to accept it, but the fact remains, without the shedding of blood there is no remission, and without the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ there is absolutely no salvation. The natural man, of course, rejects this, and calls our theology a theology of the shambles and the butcher shop, but the fact remains that without this blood there is no approach to God. It is the very foundation, the very rock, the very silver foundation upon which all of our hope is built. If any man build on this foundation, he shall be saved.
The point is, there IS no other way to God but through Jesus. Recently, in discussions at other blogs, the struggle has been between those who choose to view all religions as having some truth of God; and a chance at Salvation-- that their god is not so shallow as mine, and will not consign whole generations and peoples who have never heard the name of Jesus to hell --and those who accept what the Bible truly says about salvation... that Jesus is the ONLY way, and that no one-- not Muslims, Hindus, or Jews --comes to the father but by Him.
I admit that is it a difficult thing to accept that these people, having lived and died never hearing the name of Jesus, should miss out on eternal life. But the message of the Bible... the ENTIRE Bible, not just the Gospels and the New Testament... clearly teach that there is but one way to God. Only one, for only ONE God shed His blood to redeem man.
For anyone interested in a fascinating and powerful look at God's redemptive plan, and how he showed it in type centuries before fulfilling it, I highly recommend this book by the late M.R. DeHaan.
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It makes no sense that God would allow His own creation to crucify Him and thrust a spear into His side all to pay for the sins of mankind, if they could get to heaven by following their OWN gods...
By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God...
etc, etc, etc,
...And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
I've been taught (in my traditional So Baptist upbringing) that those in the OT were saved by God's grace through faith, just the same as we are. Their faith was faith in God as they understood God - some of them looking forward to a Messiah, but not all of them having lived in a time when a Messiah was actively taught.
Our faith is in God as we understand God - looking back on Jesus, the Messiah, having perhaps a more (but never totally) complete understanding.
But through it all, it is God's grace through faith in God as we best understand God that is saving us.
That's what the Southern Baptists when I was a kid taught us.
The OT Saints had the promise of a Messiah to look forward to... namely Jesus. So while they looked forward TO the cross, we look BACK to the cross. But salvation for both is centered on the cross. Old Testament prophecy points to it, the New Testament Gospel record confirms it.
Consider also the events related by Jesus of Lazarus and the Rich Man; certainly a moral tale, but also a TRUE tale in that it illustrates the truth on a number of issues. Consider that the Rich Man recognized Abraham... in hell... but not the compartment reserved for torment. If Abraham was saved by faith, why was he in hell, albeit the good place... paradise? And this is just speculation... but why did Jesus say in John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad."
But Abraham was in paradise... not in heaven. I suggest that Abraham was glad because he knew his redemption was close at hand... it was but a matter of time before Jesus came for him and every other member of the righteous dead.
Consider also that Abraham had no Law, or Tabernacle in the wilderness... no God ordained standards and rules of worship to make himself holy before a holy God. Instead, Abraham chose to believe God when He told him He would make of Abraham's seed a great nation, through whom ALL nations would be blessed... and it was accounted unto him as righteousness. But Abraham still needed a redeemer... a Paschal Lamb, if you will. Only the blood of a holy God could remove his sin... all of our sin.
And let's not confuse individual righteousness with the remission of sin. They are not the same. Righteousness is imputed; no has righteousness in and of themselves. It requires someone who IS righteous to give it to us. For Abraham, his belief in the promises of God was enough. For later generations, adherence to the complicated Law, and after the cross, adherence to the teachings and commandments of Christ. Which, I should point out, amount to the same thing. For by loving God, and our neighbors as ourselves we FULFILL the Law in ourselves.
Salvation on the other hand was/IS available ONLY at the cross. Abraham, Job, David, Solomon, and every other righteous man before the cross had to wait until Jesus arrived.
That compartment of Hell is now empty... no one goes there anymore. For to be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD. We are made righteous through Him. Not for anything we have done, but because of what HE did. All we had to do was believe that He died for our sins, spent three days in the grave, and rose again on the third day... we had to publicly declare for Christ to be saved.
All in all I don't disagree with your comment at all. Salvation is salvation, be it Old OR New Testament. Righteousness is what is extended to us BECAUSE we believe. Which side of the cross the believer is on makes no difference.
Thank you, Dan. I enjoyed this.
Until next we disagree...
Peace.