Does the Law promise eternal life?
- Thread starter User46952
- Start date
-
Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.
If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!
To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
They probably loved and believed in God who created them. No one has ever been saved by the law. The truth is, as stated in the bible, the law kills because now you have knowledge of sin and therefore have no excuse.
I have bolded what God promises if the law is kept:
Deuteronomy 11:
1 Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
2 And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm,
3 And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land;
4 And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day;
5 And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place;
6 And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel:
7 But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.
8 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
9 And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
10 For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
11 But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:
12 A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
17 And then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
23 Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.
24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
25 There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:
28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
29 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.
30 Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?
31 For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.
32 And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.
Salvation then was by a corporate level, by being part of the nation Israel, compared to now under the grace dispensation, where it is individual.
In the past, you were saved so long as you are not cut off from the nation Israel.
That requires circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses (Genesis 17:14, Exodus 12:48 and Acts 15:1)
OT saints were saved by grace through faith ...
Romans 4:
1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Those born after Moses and before Christ, can they, like us, show faith by worketh not according to the Law? (Romans 4:5)
Salvation has always been about G.R.A.C.E.
God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
God's Riches At Christ's Expense.
Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
Good question, eternal life is believing in the God of Israel existing in three persons. Everybody in the old testament that got saved believed this. The holy spirit was always there and everyone believed in the messiah and accepted the fathers commands and there were prophecies about Gods son, the messiah written all over the old testament.
Many people in he OT depended on feeding God with animal blood to gain His favor and the Lord told them through his prophets that was not so. They were told that the blood represented life, and they must give life and give up their sin to gain eternal life, the blood was a symbol. We know now, since Christ showed us, that life and that blood was His. No eternal life has ever been given without the blood of Christ, either after Christ lived and gave his life on this earth, or in the symbol of Him that the blood of animals was.
We are told in Matthews 27:52-53 that although the saints were preserved in sleep, when Christ gave his blood those saints could walk in the streets of Jerusalem.
God has never given eternal life without the blood of Christ, although in the OT that blood was symbolic. God is eternal, God does not change with time. We can read in Exodus exactly how the sacrificial system worked, that system is in operation today with the actual blood of Christ. If we were to use animal blood, now that Christ has come, we would be denying Christ.
They were saved by grace through faith (and the blood of Christ) just as we are saved today.
God is eternal, God does not change with time. We have the actual blood of Christ and much of the mystery of the blood of life is solved for us as our scripture explains to us. They had only Christ's symbolic blood. It saved in preserving souls in sleep but when Christ gave His blood they could wake as Matthew tells us.
As I understand it, the law doesn't save us so it in itself cannot promise eternal life. Jesus died to insure that for all who believed.
The thing about the law of God is that obeying what God asks of us leads to learning obedience to his will for us. And that then leads to our being able to replicate the spirit of Christ in our own lives. Righteous judgment, mercy tempered in love and a stronger faith because we see God working within and through us.
The thing about the law of God is that obeying what God asks of us leads to learning obedience to his will for us. And that then leads to our being able to replicate the spirit of Christ in our own lives. Righteous judgment, mercy tempered in love and a stronger faith because we see God working within and through us.
At the time of death, they were not saved. They were kept safe in Abraham's bosom by believing God's revelation to them in their time period whatever that may have been. After the Lord's death, He went and preached the gospel unto them so His blood could be applied.
1 Peter 4:6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
I agree with your "they were kept safe", but wasn't being kept safe until Christ's death on the cross brought them to living, walking life being saved?
To be saved, Christ had to preach the gospel to them so they could believe. Belief in the shed blood of Christ is the only way unto salvation.
First the whole bible is the law
John
3:11
I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
3:12
I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
3:13
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man.
3:14
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
3:15
that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John
3:11
I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
3:12
I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
3:13
No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven--the Son of Man.
3:14
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
3:15
that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Yes, OT believers saved by faith. I love the verses in Heb 11 where we are told about all the believers who lived their lives "by faith". And God then says of whom the world was not worthy (Heb 11:38).
Is eternal life seen in the Old Testament? Yes, I think so based off ecclesiastes (eternity in the heart of man) and the clear information that there is something "else" in that two men did not die. I'm sure the majority were probably content with progeny being readily seen "eternal life" based off works of the law of righteousness (my supposition) with the vague "what happens to me" element pretty background.
Is there any specific law that says that? Not really. I would say that because they would have been aware of spiritual realities and probably (like a lot of people not just Christians) believed in eternity, when the Lord said "do this and live" I would strongly contend that this would translate in one's heart to life after death...the manner in which one lived.
I see grace in the OT often enough...much like grace in our own legal system. It's there, but you have to comply. Don't comply? Suffer the consequences. It was pretty brutal and salvation would still be by grace (as we see in the NT). I think it is likely that there were individuals with this idea, just not quite "fulfilled" if that makes sense as Christ had not yet come in the flesh. Perhaps it was a sort of "wait and be patient" sort of thing.
A lot of my life has been "what's next" so I'm sure people like me lived back then. The answer? "be patient".
Romans, Chapter 4:
13For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Hebrews, Chapter 8:
1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
3For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
6But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
13For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Hebrews, Chapter 8:
1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
3For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
4For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
6But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Faith has always been PROVEN by obedience. Believing the Gospel, and then acting upon it, (Ephesians 2:8 regarding the New Testament and the New Covenant in Christ). But the question is in regard to the Old testament under law, (summed up in the 10 Commandments). Here, scriptures such as Lev. 18: 4,5. with 17:11 speaking of the blood (life) of an animal COVERING the sins of the people, but not eliminating them, as later, Christ would do. Other scriptures relating to obedience to the law and life, are found in Ezek. 20: 11, and verse 21. Matt. 19:17-21. (Jesus words BEFORE his resurrection) and Romans 10:5. The REASON for bringing in the New Covenant in Christ is explained in Hebrews 7:18. For example of righteous living before Christ, see Luke 1:6 and Luke 2: 25-38. After Christ's resurrection, the New Covenant in Christ, has replaced the Old.