** This response is biblically sound, provides scriptural support, and is personable in tone. It answers the question directly, has logical flow, and explains foundational issues clearly. **

Question: If Abraham was justified by faith before the belief in Jesus, why did Jesus have to come down and die for sins? How come people in the old testament couldn’t just do the same like Abraham to be justified. Why did Jesus have to die if there was already a way to be saved like how Abraham was saved?

Profile: Male, North America, 26–35, Christian

Answered by: Grant McKenzie, who has been a volunteer with us since October, 2009.

Answer: Lots of people have questions about how the Old Testament saints received salvation. While there is no one specific passage that answers that question directly, I believe we can still come to an understanding through a few different passages.

First, we know that Abraham was saved by faith and not by works. “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”” (Romans 4:2-3).

Hebrews 11 goes into greater detail as to what that faith looked like. One of the things mentioned there were the promises of God. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13). The rest of that passage, vv 14-16, speaks metaphorically about seeking heaven/salvation (a “heavenly country” in the NKJV). They believed in the promise of salvation yet to come as part of their faith in God.

Those promises of a coming salvation existed from the very beginning, when God said to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15). This is a specific reference to salvation through Christ, a promise made by God from the moment sin had entered the world.

So, everyone from Adam and Eve knew there would be salvation through the “seed” (or “descendant”) of Eve. All of the Old Testament saints were aware of the promise of salvation through that seed. Their faith was not just in the existence of God, but in His ability to fulfill that promise. Even though they did not see the fulfillment of the promise, they had faith that God would provide the sacrifice.

One of the most repeated themes throughout Scripture is the necessity of Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation. God stated it when sin entered the world. The prophets wrote about it. The patriarchs believed the promises. Jesus told his followers in the Gospels. The Apostles wrote about it after the resurrection. All of humanity – past, present, and future – can only be saved by God’s grace through faith through the suffering and resurrection of Christ.