M wrote:
I need to understand something and I don't know if this is the verse I am looking for.
How could righteous Jews (or other people) who obeyed God's commandments and lived and died before Jesus's resurrection be saved?
I have heard many theories on this subject but I want to know the scriptural truth if possible.
Nana:
Salvation for OT people was the same as for NT ones. It was belief/faith in Messiah. Obedience to God's commandments did not render one righteous then, nor does it today.
Hebrews 11 [read the whole chapter
]
1 ¶ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders [OT believers] obtained a good report.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him , for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out into a place which he was afterward going to receive for an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he went.
9 By faith he lived in the land of promise as a stranger, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of the same promise with him.
10 For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
13 These all died by way of faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And they were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they who say such things declare plainly that they seek a fatherland.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they stretch forth to a better fatherland , that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise,
40 for God had provided some better thing for us, that they should not be made perfect without us.
The verse you are looking for is this one:
1 Peter 3:18 ¶ For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;
19 in which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
20 to disobeying ones, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared (in which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water);
21 ¶ which figure now also saves us, baptism; not a putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;
22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, where the angels and authorities and powers are being subjected to Him.
In my opinion
this passage is not referring to Jesus preaching to those who were dead back in the days of Noah. Once you are dead, there is no opportunity for salvation. Faith in Jesus is a living faith while you are alive. I believe "those in prison" is a reference to those who are dead in sin - before salvation.
The comparison is to Noah and how they were "baptized" in water - the flood - and saved. So too, when we accept Jesus as Messiah, we are baptized into Him for He is the Living Water or "baptism"
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
I also do not believe that Jesus descended into hell after He died. He uttered "It is finished" and then committed His Spirit to His Father in Heaven. His human body was dead, but Jesus/His Spirit never died, therefore He could not be in hell. He raised Himself from the dead. To say that He went to hell, is to contridict His Word.
John 2:18 Then the Jews answered and said to Him, What sign do you show us, since you do these things?
19 Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
20 Then the Jews said, This temple was forty-six years building, and will you rear it up in three days?
21 But He spoke of the temple of His body.
22 Therefore when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
John 10:15 Even as the Father knows Me, I also know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep who are not of this fold. I must also lead those, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.
17 Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I might take it again.
18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down from Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment from My Father.
Col 2:13 ¶ And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
15 Having stripped rulers and authorities, He made a show of them publicly, triumphing over them in it.
One other note, and I think there is some confusion on this. The Church, according to Acts [Steven's speech just before he was martyred] began at Mt Sinai when God gave the Mosaic Law. Those who believed in the promised Messiah were considered righteous/believers even then [Heb 11].
When Jesus said to Peter that on "this Rock I will build My church" He was referring to the reality that His Messiahship was, is, and always will be the foundation of the church. He did not build His church on Peter. If you do a word study, Peter's name is not the same word used for "upon this Rock".
It is true that the church changed its function - Old covenant was to follow the Mosaic Law which was "proof" of "salvation". Once Jesus came as the New Covenant - His shed blood - the Law was changed to the Law of Messiah - "a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you". And as Paul and James both said - the Law is fulfilled in love. Now the body of Messiah/the true church is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free.
Shalom, Nana
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