Session 13 - Apostasy Cases (Saved for Eternity)

Salvation in the Old Testament and Apostasy Cases in the Bible

What about the cases recorded in Scripture as actual apostasy in the faith? Among such examples are Lot, King Saul, Solomon, Judas Iscariot—Jesus’s disciple—Ananias, Hymenaeus and Philetus, Demas, etc. First, let’s deal with the Old Testament individuals who lived before Jesus’s death and resurrection. About some of the more prominent figures of the Old Testament, like Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the other prophets, we know for sure that after Jesus’s death on the cross, they became saved. However, on what basis? Moreover, what about all the other less-known people whose names were not mentioned in the Bible but who were still part of God’s people? Were they saved after the cross? If yes, how? On what basis? If not, why? How did redemption touch the lives of Ruth and Rahab? These are essential questions. Personal salvation by grace, through faith in the atoning work of Christ on the cross, may not have been as clear at the time of Noah as it is to us today. The Lamb of God, Who takes away the world’s sins, came to the nation of Israel approximately four hundred years after the Old Testament canon was closed. How, then, could there be a clear object of faith?

A common misconception about the Old Testament way of salvation is that Jews were saved by keeping the Law. But we know from Scripture that this is not true. Galatians 3:11 says:

Galatians 3:11 (NKJV)11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”

Some might say this verse applies only to the New Testament, but Paul is quoting from Habakkuk 2:4, where it says,

Habakkuk 2:4 (NKJV)4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.

Salvation by faith, apart from the Law, was an Old Testament principle. Paul taught the purpose of the Law was to serve as a “tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). Also, in Romans 3:20, Paul made the point that keeping the Law didn’t save Old Testament or New Testament Jews because no one can be declared righteous in His sight by observing the Law. The Law was never intended to save someone; the purpose of the Law was to make us conscious of sin. If people’s salvation in the Old Testament was not through the keeping of the Law, then what was it through? The answer to that question is found in Scripture, so there can be no doubt regarding this issue. In Romans 4, the apostle Paul clarifies that salvation in the Old Testament was the same as in the New Testament, which is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. To prove this, Paul points us to Abraham, the forefather of the Jewish people, who was saved by faith and not by works: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3). Abraham could not have been saved by keeping the Law because he lived over four hundred years before it was given! Also, circumcision was not introduced to Abraham and his descendants until Genesis 17, that is more than ten years later. Romans 4:13-16 says this:

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