Indeed. All believers, whether they were born before or after Jesus, are granted eternal salvation as a result of his death on the cross.
By grace, through faith
Faithful people in the Old Testament were not rescued by following God’s rules. “No human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law,” the Bible states unequivocally (Romans 3:20). We don’t deserve to get to heaven. That applied to believers in the Old Testament just as it does to us now.
By animal sacrifices, Old Testament believers were also not saved. According to Hebrews 10:4, “For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.” Rather, the sacrifices made in the Old Testament served as a prelude to the one sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross in order to provide everlasting salvation.
Old Testament believers were justified by grace through faith, just like believers in the New Testament. According to Genesis 15:6, Abraham “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” He was saved by faith rather than by his deeds.
God’s promises
Old Testament believers’ faith encompasses multiple facets. It always has faith in the same God who made the earth and the heavens. It is always a readiness to live by the rules that God has given. Always have faith in what God has promised.
The promise of the Messiah was the most significant of all of God’s promises. It is difficult to determine how much and how exactly Old Testament believers comprehended the many predictions that pointed towards the Messiah. Nonetheless, there was undoubtedly a hopeful expectancy of God’s deliverance through the Messiah, as well as a prophetic comprehension of it. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day,” Jesus declared to the Jews. He rejoiced when he saw it (John 8:56).
Therefore, Jesus’ gift of eternal redemption is available to all people, not only followers of the New Testament. “A death that has occurred” is how his passing is described. and according to Hebrews 9:15, “that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
God knows everything
If many perished even before Jesus made the sacrifice, how is it conceivable that their sins were pardoned because of it? This is so because God is all-knowing. Salvation has an eternal component. The people who worship the beast are described as “everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” in Revelation 13:8. Even before the world was created, God wrote all the names of the people who would be rescued in His book. He decreed that they would be saved via Jesus’ sacrifice. And He extended the blessings of that offering to every Christian, regardless of when they were born or when Jesus died.
Undoubtedly, the paramount inquiry is not about whether or not Jesus saved Old Testament Christians; rather, it is about whether or not Jesus has saved you. If you place your faith in Him, you will share in the gift of eternal life and spend eternity with Him, along with all of the believers from both the Old and New Testaments.
