Our salvation centers in the cross of Jesus Christ. Have you ever wondered what people did about their sins before Jesus was crucified on Calvary? How were sins atoned for in Old Testament times?

Dispensationalists believe that before Christ, salvation came through the law, and now, after Christ, salvation is by grace. But as we saw in the previous article, all are obligated to keep the law of God. Therefore, salvation for those living before Christ must also have been by grace. In fact, grace existed even in the time of Noah, who "found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8).

In 2 Peter 2:5, Noah is called a "preacher of righteousness." Righteousness comes by faith in Jesus Christ. The New Testament makes it quite clear that all salvation is through Christ Jesus. Hence, Christ is the Saviour of those that lived before the crucifixion.

The sacrificial system of the Old Testament pointed to the coming death of the promised Messiah. The Gospel was presented in the form of typology—an enactment of God’s salvation plan using symbols.

The sacrificial lamb of the Jewish system represented Jesus, the innocent Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the guilty world. He abolishes even the record of our sins through His sacrifice and grants the repentant sinner eternal life in Him and through Him. The blood shed by the lamb represents the blood of Christ that would be shed. Paul writes, "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22).

Grace from the Beginning

The Bible teaches salvation through Christ from the time of the Fall to the time of the Second Coming of Christ. The blood of the lamb—the first sacrificial animal—saved Adam and Eve. When sin stripped the holy pair of their robes of righteousness and left them naked, God Himself covered their nakedness with animal skins (Genesis 3), symbolizing the righteousness that is available to all through Christ.

The animal that gave its life represented the Lamb of God that would be slain for them. Since God Himself clothed them with these pelts, representing the promise of righteousness restored, he must have explained to them this way to salvation—the Messiah who would come to pay the price for sin so that they could regain eternal life.

The Acceptable Sacrifice

The difference between relying on one’s own merits for salvation and relying on the merits of the Messiah who was to come was demonstrated in the lives of Adam and Eve’s sons, Cain and Abel.

Cain brought to God an offering only of farm produce, the fruit of his own labor. His offering did not receive the approval of God, because by bringing only this sacrifice Cain showed that he relied only on his own merits rather than the blood of the Lamb for salvation. However, “without shedding of blood is no remission.” Salvation lies outside oneself in Christ.

Abel’s offering, on the other hand, included the blood offering (Genesis 4:4). His sacrifice was accepted because it pointed to the coming Redeemer. Abel thus understood that salvation was only to be obtained through faith in the blood of the Lamb. His testimony stands to this day.

By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh (Hebrews 11:4).

To read further about God’s grace through the ages, see the next article. It tells the story of Abraham, a man of faith who followed God’s law and saw God’s grace in a very real way.