Matthew 16:21-22

Matthew 16:21: “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.”

Notice (besides the brutal honesty of this passage) that the disciples had no idea what the gospel was. They didn’t understand the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, or how the Messiah had to die to atone for the sins of man. What we today call the gospel was completely lost on them.

People like to say that Old Testament believers were saved the same way that New Testament believers are, but that’s not really the case. Yes, it’s true that salvation comes by faith, and that has not changed. Just as Abraham believed God and it was credited to Him for righteousness, so we believe God and receive righteousness as well. Abraham was saved by grace through faith, and so are we. However, what we believe today is very different from what Abraham believed, and that is a point that most people seem to miss.

No one in the Old Testament believed in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They didn’t know anything about any of that, because God hadn’t revealed it yet – at least not until the time of Isaiah, and even then there was tremendous confusion about what the prophecies meant. Those who lived before the time of Isaiah knew almost nothing about what the Messiah would do – they only knew that He would come and save them. Some people thought there would actually be two Messiahs: one who would suffer and die, and another one who would reign. No one could imagine how one person could possibly do both.

Anyway, my point is that Matthew makes it very clear that before Jesus died, people had no real knowledge of the gospel. Even the disciples didn’t understand it.