Growing up in the church, I was taught a lot of concepts about God that I have later come to realize simply are not true. One such teaching is the idea of multiple plans for redemption through history.
A summary of this idea would go something like this: Adam and Eve were in perfect relationship with God, but when they sinned God introduced animal sacrifices to make atonement for sin. Men like Abraham and Job not only practiced sacrifices for their sin, but they also followed various commands God gave them, and therefore were made right with God.
Then Jesus came to offer a sacrifice that performed the same purpose as the animal sacrifices but with finality. There would never be another need for a sacrifice because his was so valuable. However, Jesus was always the plan, from before the first act of creation, and it has been imparted to man over all of history and completely revealed at Christ’s resurrection.
Before Christ?
How could men who lived and died before Jesus was even Mary’s baby bump have possibly believed in him to be saved?! God didn’t leave us to wonder. In the midst of the section of the book of Hebrews often called the “faith hall of fame” we see the following:
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Hebrews 11:13
These men believed in their redemption and the kingdom of God without having received them. They saw them from afar and accepted it. What could that look like? This is where Job comes in.
Job, at this point in the book, is suffering greatly at the hands of Satan, who is determined to make Job so miserable that he will become unfaithful to God. In this suffering his friends have come, but rather than being a comfort they are giving him a tongue lashing about how he must be doing something bad for these things to be happening to him.
As he laments his suffering and poor company, he reiterates where his hope still lies.
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
Job 19:25-27
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!
There’s so much in this section that is amazing. First, it should be noted that most people consider Job to be living before the law given to Moses. This would place him sometime around Abraham in the timeline. Let’s unpack what Job believed about his salvation.
First, his Redeemer lives. Not that he will live, but is alive in the time of Job. Second, “at the last” he will stand upon the earth. He is alive, but not yet walking the earth. Job acknowledges that he will die and his body will be destroyed, then says that he will yet see his God in his flesh.
Job believes in a redeemer who exists in his time, yet will walk the earth in the future. He also believes that he will die and decay, yet will be resurrected bodily and meet his God. I have no idea what his contemporaries thought of this, but now that we’ve had the revelation of Christ it seems pretty obvious who his “mystery” redeemer is!
Always the Same Sacrifice
Again, in Hebrews, God makes it absolutely clear that animal sacrifice was only intending to be a demonstration to Israel of the coming sacrifice that would redeem them.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Hebrews 10:1-4
All of humanity, throughout all of history, have had one hope. Good faith has always and will always be placed fully and completely in the work of Jesus. Long before he came to live his perfect life on our behalf and die the death we deserved, God had revealed enough to mankind that they knew their redeemer was the eternal God come to earth to give us eternal life even after our deaths.
Living this side of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, what excuse could we have for lacking the faith men had in him thousands of years before his birth?!
