Old Testament Prophecy (3)

This is part 3 of 3 of chapter 4 of my book, Biblical Glasses.

What was their purpose?

The prophets flawlessly and precisely predicted the future; however, that was not their goal. Instead their intentions were to warn the people of God’s impending judgment, preach a message of repentance, and pave the way for the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. The promised Messiah ordained to save God’s people from their sins while bringing judgment and peace to the world was critical as the focal point and major purpose of Old Testament prophecy. Ultimately as we look collectively at the Old Testament, we see a resounding theme:

The Creator God of the universe is sovereign. To this point in history, He had revealed Himself to man through all creation, through the prophets, and most importantly through the Scriptures.

God made man in His image to obey, glorify, and enjoy Him. The first man, Adam, was given free will, so he could choose to truly love God by obeying Him, glorifying Him, and enjoying Him, but Adam chose not to do those things; in other words, he sinned. All of Adam’s descendants, everyone born of man, inherit his sin nature. The descendants of Adam do not have completely free will; rather, they are governed by the will of their sin nature.

In His perfection, God cannot be in the presence of sin, but He still wants a relationship with man. Because of His love for man and desire to be with him, God offered forgiveness of man’s sin in return for repentance and obedience in faith, as well as the offering of pure blood sacrifices in faith, according to His rules to atone for sin. Nevertheless, all people and all creation must still deal with the consequences of sin, which get worse with each sin committed.

God originally established a covenant of law with Adam; Adam disobeyed God, making the law inadequate for salvation for all descendants of Adam. God established a covenant with Noah, to never again destroy the earth with a flood; the sign of this covenant is the rainbow. God established a covenant of faith with Abraham, represented by circumcision, to make him the father of many nations. God gave Moses the law to show people their sin and help them realize their need for God’s mercy and grace. They would be saved by grace through faith in God’s plan of salvation. God established a covenant with King David to make his descendants sit on the throne of Israel (the spiritual group of believers) forever.

All of these covenants were established to maintain the relationships between God and His righteous people. Unfortunately for mankind, the Bible says no one is righteous (see Psalm 14, 36, 53; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. … The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 3:23, 6:23). James 2:10 says: “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”

Because even one sin is too much and because God is perfectly just (most people only consider His perfect mercy), He must punish sin. His wrath must fall on those who do not live perfectly according to His law. God warns man repeatedly before issuing a judgment, because He is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

In the end, the Old Testament law is inadequate as a method of salvation because of man’s inability to obey God. No one was able to meet the demands of God’s law. Being a good person is inadequate because of sin. The Bible says: “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) in the eyes of God. But there is hope!

The message of repentance issued by the Old Testament prophets was given in anticipation. They knew that one day God would send a Savior, a Messiah, to redeem His people from their sin. The Savior, as the Lamb of God, would once and for all become the final pure blood sacrifice for the atonement of sin. God would punish all sin through Him; the wrath of God would be poured out on Him, out of love for His chosen people. The Savior would be for all those who trust that His sacrifice—His perfect life without sin, His sacrificial death, and His physical resurrection—is sufficient in and of itself to cleanse them from all of their sin and make them righteous in God’s eyes.

It was faith alone in God’s plan of salvation, through this Messiah, that allowed for those who lived before His work was done to be saved. The only sin for which the Savior’s sacrifice would not atone is the sin of unbelief—blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) listed five points to acknowledge regarding the sin of unbelief. First, unbelief is the cause of every other sin. The first sin was committed by Adam and Eve, because they did not believe God’s warning that disobedience would lead to death.

Second, unbelief makes sin easy to commit. Without belief in God, there is no absolute truth on which to base right and wrong. We could go on discussing moral relativism all over again.

Third, unbelief makes us unable to do good works for God. “Virtues without faith are whitewashed sin. … Faith fosters every virtue.” Honesty is great, but worthless, unless it is a result of faith in God. The Bible says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

Fourth, unbelief begs for punishment. Look at the Old Testament—full of punishment for unbelief! About unbelief, Spurgeon said:

God hates it; God has dealt hard blows upon it: And God will ultimately
crush it. Unbelief dishonors God. Every other crime touches God’s territory; but
unbelief aims a blow at His divinity, impeaches His veracity, denies His
goodness, blasphemes His attributes, maligns His character; therefore, God of
all things, hates first and chiefly, unbelief, wherever it is.

Fifth and finally, unbelief is unforgivable. Spurgeon said:

There is an atonement made for the unbelief of a Christian, because it is
temporary; but the final unbelief—the unbelief with which men die—never was
atoned for. You may turn over this whole Book [the Bible], and you will find
that there is no atonement for the man who died in unbelief; there is no mercy
for him. Had he been guilty of every other sin, if he had but believed, he would
have been pardoned; but this is the damning exception—he had no faith. … I
beseech you lay these things to heart, and remember that if you are damned, it
will be unbelief that damns you. If you are lost, it will be because ye believed
not on Christ; and if you perish, this shall be the bitterest drop of gall—that
ye did not trust in the Saviour [sic].

The Savior of Whom Spurgeon, and more importantly the Old Testament, speaks would establish a new covenant. The Savior would fulfill the requirements of the law by living a sinless life in obedience to God. He would give grace to His chosen people, enabling them to have faith in Him alone—in His righteous life, His perfect atoning sacrifice, His substitutionary death as payment for sin, and His bodily resurrection—to reconcile them with God, thereby presenting them as holy and blameless, free from accusation before Him (see Ephesians 2:8-9; Colossians 1:22). The New Testament tells us more about the Savior.