Salvation During Old Testament Times

How was salvation obtained in the Old Testament? Was it through circumcision? Was it adherence to laws, rituals and ceremonies? How could they be righteous without the indwelling Holy Spirit? These are profound questions that have been the source of contention for decades. The Bible attests to several instances in which men of God were called righteous: Abraham (Gal. 3:6), Noah (Gen. 6:9), and Job (Job 1:1,8). How is it that folks could be righteous without the work of the Spirit? A study of the Bible reveals that indeed the Spirit of God has been working a plan since the beginning of time. There may not have been a blanket indwelling of the Spirit of God, but there were several accounts of men controlled by God’s influence (cf. Moses, Joseph, Saul, Daniel, Joshua, Abraham). Here's one instance you may find interesting. There was "an apostolic appointment as far back as the days of Moses: 

"Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him" (Deut. 34:9). Was this a foreshadowing of New Testament "laying on of hands" for the gifts of the Spirit?

The point is, God has been working through his Spirit long before incarnation. 

Millard Erickson posits masterfully that the grace of the Old Testament “was indirectly received. They did not know how the grace had been effected and they surely did not understand it was proleptic  (achieved by the future death of the incarnated Son of God).[1] Instead of grace by faith through Jesus Christ, it was mediated by the priests and sacrificial rites. And perhaps the most important factor here, instead of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, God exerted an external influence through his presence (many times in a theophany), his prophets and his words. There was a visible presence  (form) in the tabernacle and in the temple. “The law was an external written code rather than the Spirit’s imparting of truth to the heart” in New testament times.[2] Like New testament believers, the Old Testament saints “grew in holiness through faith and obedience to the commands of God.”[3] Can we say then that God has been at work throughout the ages preparing a people for himself in a systematic way?

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[1]  Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 912.

[2]  Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

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Written by Kevin A. Hall