Have you ever wondered how people were save before todays "gospel of the grace of God"?

Although mankind at any time during any age could be ‘saved by the grace of God through faith’… the required content of that faith differed from one dispensation to the next. That is, the message to be believed and acted upon in order to be ‘counted as righteous for salvation’ has varied according to God’s progressive revelation throughout the ages.

Before the current age of Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God” that is seen by “the revelation of the mystery” (Rom. 16:25) during today’s “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2) whereby men are saved by grace through faith alone in Christ alone… a man’s faith always had a ‘Performance Requirement’ in order to ‘prove their faith.’

Nevertheless, God’s grace was always extended by offering a means for being ‘right in His eyes’ and thereby saved. These varying messages represent the different gospels of different dispensations. These dispensations can only be understood through careful study of Scripture, by “rightly dividing the word of truth,” (2 Tim. 2:15) according to what had been revealed to men about the various ‘gospels’ that applied during those ages.

Each ‘dispensation’ had differing requirements for one to be ‘counted righteous before God’ The word for “dispensation” in the Greek is transliterated as “oikonomia,” meaning “the administration of a household economy or relationship.” An ‘economy’ is based on investment and return. The several economies seen through the ages in the Bible, that is before today “gospel of the grace of God,” required man’s investment and participation by his ‘obedience’ in order to gain the return of “salvation.”

Only in today’s “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2) do we have an economy whereby man has no input of ‘works,’ only to believe in order to freely receive right standing with God for eternal salvation. Paul, our Apostle of “the grace of God,” here quotes David in Psalm 36 refers to Abraham … whose faith was counted for righteousness. God considers Abraham as the ‘father of all who live by faith.’ (Rom. 4:16)

So, all economies or dispensations, other than ours today, required both; 1) man’s obedience, plus 2) man’s “faith” in what God had said to them. The obedience of faith made their faith visible. Thus, James wrote to ‘the scattered sheep of the house of Israel’ (James 1:1), who were under the Law;

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all…. ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. ¹⁸ Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works… ²⁰ But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?  (James 2:10, 17-18, 20)

Under “the Law,” God’s grace extended right standing in His acceptance of animal sacrifices to cover a faithful Israel’s sins. This was foreseen in Genesis, when God covered Adam’s nakedness with ‘animal skins,’ whose blood was obviously shed that Adam and Eve’s sin could be covered.

But today, under God’s pure grace economy, our “good works” do not count for or against our salvation.  “if by grace, then is it No More of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more (it is not) grace: otherwise work is no more work.” (Romans 11:6).

Today, faith without works saves us. “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (Rom. 4:5)

Each relational economy or dispensation seen in the ages of the Bible may be called ‘the gospel for that age.’ In Part 2 we will look into several of God’s saving gospels as noted in our Bible.