The Justification of Sinners Before God

Those who were the LORD’s in the Old Testament were elect in Christ from eternity in God’s eternal covenant of grace, just as those since the cross of Christ. A covenant is a will and testament, just as we have today for those who should be beneficiaries. But as the writer to the Hebrews wrote in God’s Spirit-inspired Word, “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” (Hebrews 9:16-17) The will is the eternal decree to save and justify but the benefits were not given until the death of the Testator.

Those who were the LORD’s in the Old Testament were given the Spirit of God as an earnest of the redemption and justification that the LORD Jesus would accomplish on their behalf, “...when fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)

The Spirit of Christ that was in them caused them to look forward to the sufferings of Christ and the glory (glorification) that should follow, 1 Peter 1:11. It is by the Spirit of Christ that they believed God’s promise to send His Son and redeem and justify them upon completion of His work at the cross. When Christ had finished the work of salvation by His righteous life and obedient death, it was then and there, in one time and one place, by One Sacrifice that God redeemed, justified and sanctified all of His elect together. When He died, His elect died with Him. When He arose, it was for their justification [Romans 4:25] and when He ascended on high, they were glorified with Him forever.

The Old Testament elect died in the hope of the work Christ would accomplish for them in His death and resurrection, Job 19:25. “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40) Since the cross, the elect die in the same hope of what Christ did accomplish on their behalf.

The LORD dealt with the elect in the Old Testament in His forbearance for their sin, Romans 3:25. Forbearance is the quality or attribute of God, which enabled Him to delay reckoning of judgment. In Romans 3:25, remission conveys the same idea as forbearance. In all other uses of ‘remission’ the word is ‘aphesis’, a compound word in Greek meaning ‘away’ and ‘sent’, meaning the absolute sending away of sin. Here, however, it is ‘paresis’, meaning ‘over’ and ‘pass’. It is the passing over of sins committed in the past. God patiently delayed dealing with the sins of His elect in the Old Testament until He set forth His Son to be the Propitiation. He determined not to judge the sins of the elect until Christ came. To have propitiation, there had to be a soul and a body. There had to be suffering and obedience. There had to be sacrifice and blood, not just a covering as with animal sacrifices. Christ was the Purposed Lamb from eternity and in time, the Promised Lamb in type, picture and prophecy but He was the Propitiatory Lamb when He came in the flesh and laid down His life, Hebrews 10:7-14.

God is a God of order and the order is:

1. Election from eternity, Ephesians 1:3-5.

2. Forbearancethrough atonement, the covering of sin with the animal sacrifices in Old Testament, Romans 3:25.