Q: What about people who passed away prior to Jesus coming as the Son of God and giving salvation? Is there anything in Scripture to suggest what happened to them?
A: The Old Testament people of God were saved, like us, by grace, through faith in Christ, even though they couldn’t fully understand how he would provide for them or who he would be.
Directly after Adam and Eve fell into sin, God began revealing His good news (Genesis 3:15), that humanity might trust in the future work of Christ and be saved. To the vague picture of a “serpent-crushing offspring of the woman”, more detail was added through typology and direct prophecy. He would bless all nations as the offspring of Abraham (Genesis 12-15). Like Joseph, he would save his people through the betrayal of his brothers (Genesis 37-50). He would be like a star rising in Israel, like a lion roused (Numbers 24). He would be a prophet-deliverer greater than Moses (Deuteronomy 18). He would rule in justice and his heart would be fully God’s as the Son of David (2 Samuel, Psalms). He would be a suffering servant (Isaiah 52-53, Zechariah). These are just the tip of the iceberg – if the people of Israel knew their Scriptures, they could find on nearly every page imagery depicting their promised deliverance (e.g. Genesis 22, Exodus 12-14, Judges 16:29-30, 2 Kings 13:21, Daniel 2 & 7).
Those who trusted in this stream of revelation, believing that God graciously would rescue His people not only from their enemies but even more fundamentally from themselves, these, like Abraham were counted as righteous by God! (Genesis 15:6, Galatians 3:7-9). Their understanding was also helped along by the sacrificial system. The entire book of Leviticus, full of regulations for purity and sacrifice, is one big foretelling of all that would be accomplished by the atoning cleansing, and reconciling work of Christ!
The author of Hebrews, in chapter 11, certainly sees the Old Testament saints as belonging to our same story of salvation. Peter tells us that they were “searching and inquiring carefully what person or time the Spirit of Christ was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories” (1 Peter 1:10-12). Jesus himself agrees with this, in John 8 saying, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” Paul also sees continuity, saying, “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience….” (2 Timothy 1:3).
But what exactly happened to these who died before God the Son came in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth? We can’t say for certain what their experience was like, other than that they were in rest and blessing (Luke 16:19-31), even while they awaited the accomplishment of their redemption. Romans 3 admits that God was preserving them without warrant, but that the completed atonement at the Cross proved God’s righteousness in forbearing the punishment for his peoples’ sins in the earlier generations (3:25-26). After the Cross and Resurrection, it’s clear that they were freed from any tenuous status (Matthew 27:52-53, Ephesians 4:8-10).