If people in OT times could be saved without knowing about Jesus, does that mean the same is true today?

A common question. Which leads some people to try and argue that the faithful in OT times would have known as much about Jesus as we do today. They argue this to avoid being open to pluralism, relativism. inclusivism or rose-by-any-other-name-ism.

Here’s what I wrote in a recent e-mail on this matter – just in case it helps anyone.

My view on the mechanics of OT faith is that we today trust in Christ. We don’t do so im-mediately, but mediately. That is to say, we trust the promises of God that we read in Scripture. Those promises find their “Yes” in him, so we cannot separate trust in the promises from trust in Christ. Those who trust those promises are trusting Christ. Equally, those who refuse to trust those promises are refusing Christ. This is so in spite of the fact that there is much about Christ that we do not know or understand. That is neither here nor there; it is not the ability to grasp a certain amount of propositional truth that saves us – it is Christ alone, and we respond to him by trusting the promises and revelation that we do have.

Those in Old Testament times did nothing different. God made them promises. Those promises find their “Yes” in Christ. Therefore to trust those promises is to trust Christ and vice versa. This is so in spite of the fact that there are lots of propositional truths that they did not grasp. It is Christ who saves them, and they respond to him by trusting the promises and revelation that they had.

The only difference between us and them, at this level, is when we live. They lived BC; we live AD. That means we know more, but we still trust promises whose fulfilment is in Christ, so we are still saved by faith in Christ. This does not open up the possibility of pluralism or inclusivism. The Old Testament saints may not have been able to tell you many details of the Christian faith that was revealed later, but their trust was still in promises made by the one true God, promises fulfilled in Christ. Those of other faiths today are not trusting promises made by the one true God. Does that help?

I’ll add as a caveat that my own view of the OT is increasing all the time. I wonder if I have, in the past, downplayed the amount that the faithful in OT times could have known if they pieced things together. The kind of thing I would have said is: They couldn’t have known that Jesus would be called Jesus. Well… perhaps they would conclude that there would be no name more fitting for him. Certainly the Old Testament is more than background information for the New. It provides the framework, the worldview, the covenantal structures, without which the NT makes little or no sense.