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Dear Arthur and Sandra:

I had a quick question. Before Jesus came, the Jews relied on sacrifices to atone for their sins and be reconciled to God, but what about the Gentiles? Were the Gentiles able to be reconciled to God before Jesus? And what was that provision for them?

Good question. As a point of clarification, before Jesus came, the Jews did not rely on sacrifices to atone for their sins and be reconciled to God. Salvation in the OT is the same as in the NT - by faith alone. By faith, Abraham was reckoned righteous, right? In Genesis 3, right after the fall of Adam and Eve, God promises a coming Savior who would crush Satan's head but bruise His heel (the cross) in the process. It was faith in Him that brought salvation - even back then. We are saved now by looking in the past and trusting in the Messiah. OT saints were saved by looking in the future and trusting in the coming Messiah.

The sacrifices of the unblemished lambs were 1) a constant (and gruesome) reminder to the people of how they were unable to keep the law - and how grotesque their sins against God really were; 2) a symbol pointing to the ultimate Lamb that would come - sin required death and so the lambs were slain, as instructed, and God suspended death from the Jews for a time. The violent and cruel death of those innocent lambs pointed to the type of death that their Savior would have to endure for them (Is. 53) - how indicting!

As for the Gentiles, they were saved by faith in the coming Messiah as well. Israel was God's chosen nation. Chosen for what? Chosen as His vessel to bring His light to the world. It wasn't that they were the only ones chosen for salvation in the OT and then suddenly things changed in the NT. That's what many Jews thought, especially Pharisees. They rested in the fact that they were biological descendents of Abraham but God wanted spiritual descendents of Abraham (Romans 9). Rahab is an example of a Gentile convert. There are others that I can't name right off the top of my head. Gentile converts then became adopted into the spiritual household of Israel.

The concept of sonship is not defined in terms of biological descent but rather obedience. Disobedient Jews were disinherited from spiritual Israel. Those obedient (Jews and Gentiles alike) were adopted as sons.

Hope this helps.

Arthur

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Total Devotion is the High School Fellowship at Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles.

Total Devotion meets on every Friday night from 730 PM to 10 PM in Room 131 except for the last Friday of each month.