Two Ways to Heaven? (No)

Deuteronomy 27:1b,26a, Genesis 15:6

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Are there two different ways of salvation? Number of years ago, I was talking to a coworker of mine when I was in the service and we were discussing the way you get to heaven. I told him that the only way to get to heaven is through trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior. However, he stopped me, said, Well, wait a minute, what about the children of Israel? Weren’t they saved in a different way than trusting in Jesus as their Savior? I asked him what he meant. He went on to explain how God had given the commandments to his people at Mount Sinai and God had told them if they obeyed his commands, they would be his people and he would be their God. It really got me wondering, was there by chance a different way to be saved other than through faith in Jesus Christ?

Well, I knew that I couldn’t be so, after all, Moses himself said in Deuteronomy chapter 27, he instructed the people,

Keep the entire set of commands that I am giving you today. (Deuteronomy 27:1b)

and the people in that context, responded

Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by doing them. (Deuteronomy 27:26a)

Moses clearly instructed the people do everything that God’s law says and the people themselves, said, cursed, are you if you don’t obey what God’s Word says. So how could anyone be saved by obeying the commands of God?

Well, the Apostle Paul really explains this question for us, whether there was a different way of salvation in the Old Testament as opposed to the New. In his letter to the Romans, also his letter to the Galatians, he points to Abraham. He takes us back to Genesis chapter 15, verse 6. What is recorded there?

Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

The Apostle Paul makes the point that Abraham was righteous in God’s sight, not by his obedience to the law and not by following God’s commands, but by believing, by having faith in the God of the promise. The Lord.

And so that’s really the answer to the question. The Old Testament believers weren’t saved in a different way, they weren’t saved by obeying the law. They too were saved by faith. But how could they be? They didn’t know Jesus, did they? But they did, you see in the Old Testament they look forward to one who is referred to often as the Messiah. He is the same one that we refer to as the Christ today, Jesus.

They trusted in Jesus, even though he had not yet come, even though they didn’t fully know his name. They trusted the one that God would send as their Savior from sin, the one who would obey God’s law perfectly in their place only through him could they have eternal life. Jesus himself says,

I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes of the father except through me.

There is not another way. If it’s up to us and obeying God’s commands, we will fail every time. The only way to truly have life is through Jesus. That is the only way that we get to be with God, the father forever in heaven. And so God invites us believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. Amen.