Commentary on First Peter (20)

All the way back in Genesis 3:15, God had already preached Christ, as the seed of the woman, to Adam and Eve, and at the same time declared the serpent's defeat. Although the serpent would "strike his heel," God tells the serpent that the seed of the woman would "crush your head."

Galatians 3:8 says that the Scripture "announced the gospel in advance" to Abraham, saying, "All nations will be blessed through you." The verse specifically refers to the gospel of justification by faith, and through this gospel God would justify even the Gentiles. It is by this message that God would make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars. And it is by believing in this same message, then still in promise form, that Abraham was counted as righteous before God (Genesis 15:5-6).

So of course Abraham knew and believed in Jesus Christ. As Jesus himself remarks in John 8:56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." Note: He saw it and was glad. By this it is clear that he had some definite information about the person of Christ, the significance of his work, and the circumstances surrounding his ministry. In addition, he "was glad" about what he knew – he rejoiced at the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is not to say that he knew everything that we now know, but however vague and partial his understanding was, it was enough to be described as "seeing" the day of Jesus Christ.

In Luke 24:26, Jesus mentions that the prophets had predicted that Christ would "suffer these things and then enter his glory," as if to refer to these two phases of his ministry is an adequate summary of his redemptive work, and as if these things were what the disciples were supposed to believe from the Scripture concerning himself. So the prophets had received the content of the gospel message.

Peter says that "all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days" (Acts 3:24). Turning back to 1 Peter 1:12, there he says that the prophets "spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you." In other words, the prophets spoke of the same things that those who preached the gospel had now told Peter's readers. The prophets spoke of the very contents of the gospel message.

In addition, verse 11 says that these prophets spoke by "the Spirit of Christ," the same "Holy Spirit" (v. 12) that now inspires and energizes those who preach the gospel. To be precise, the verse says that it was "the Spirit of Christ" that "predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow." The prophets spoke the same message as those who now preach the gospel because they spoke by the same "Spirit of Christ," or rather, the same Spirit of Christ declared the same message through them both.

Thus it is clear that the Old Testament prophets had received major and detailed revelations regarding the sufferings of Christ, the glories that would follow, and also the time and the circumstances in which these things would happen. In fact, they knew much more than what today's professing Christians know or would care to learn. Moreover, what they knew and what they believed was called the "gospel," and explicitly described as an advanced knowledge of what Christ would both perform and experience, as well as the spiritual purpose of his work.

Therefore, we conclude that the people of God in the Old Testament, ever since the time of Adam, were aware of and saved by the same gospel that we now know and believe. They had less information than we do, their picture of the work of Christ was not as clear and detailed, and perhaps they did not realize all that his redemptive work entailed, or perhaps they did not have a full revelation of the magnitude of the blessings that would follow. Nevertheless, it had always been the same gospel in essence, the same message about the grace of God, sovereignly decreed and executed for our salvation. And insofar as, by God's sovereign control and enabling, they believed what God had revealed – whatever the extent of the revelation was when they lived – they were saved from their sins and righteousness was imputed to them.

It follows that, since they knew and believed the same gospel as we now know and believe, in this sense we can very appropriately call them "Christians" – they were believers, followers, and disciples of Jesus Christ. In fact, once we have obtained this biblical perspective, we now see that God's people have always been "Christians" in this sense, and "Christians" have always been the only kind of people whom God has saved. The only true faith – the only faith revealed by God and wherein lies salvation – has always been the Christian faith, whether in the Old or New Testament. Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Daniel, Malachi, John the Baptist, and so on, were all Christians – yes, with some differences compared to us, but Christians nonetheless.