How where people saved when under the law, before Christ came?

One often hears this question: “How were the Jews under the law saved before Christ came? The Bible gives the answer: ” for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified”(Gal.2:16). They were saved just like we are. In fact, there has only been one way of salvation from sin and the gift of eternal life from the beginning of mankind on earth until the last one is saved, which is: faith alone in the “great God and our Savior Jesus Christ”.

God Himself has made payment for the sins of the believer. This account of Abraham and his son, thousands of years ago, is a type (illustration). “And he (Isaac) said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together” (Gen.22:7-8). When you take God’s Lamb, Jesus Christ, as your burnt offering, you and Christ will, as it is written of Abraham and Isaac,”they went both of them together”.

The purpose of God’s law is to be spiritual salt. It makes one thirsty for the water of life: Christ. Living on salt would starve one to death; and very miserably.

The Bible gives a story of how an Old Testament sinner came to salvation. At the time of prayer, a publican, tax collector for the Roman government, sees Christ in the Jewish daily blood sacrifice as the mercy (judgment) seat for his sin. With head bowed, he cries out as a sinner, asking the Lord Himself to take his place, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” This man went home justified (Luke 18:13-14). He had not only seen himself in the light of God, for he said of himself, “Me a sinner”, but he also saw the remedy. That is the mercy seat propitiation whereupon was the sacrifice in the Old Testament worship, taking his place as a sinner because “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Another, an innocent one, had taken his place, pointing to the sacrifice of Christ, our substitute on the cross, to come. Now He has come.