The understanding in the Old Testament of the term "Salvation" or what it means to be "Saved" may be a little different with how the phrase is loosely used today.  In Christianity today, IF you say "The Sinners Prayer," most preachers will declare you "Saved" based upon asking Jesus into your heart, which is the first step, and yes, if you died right then you would be saved and going to Heaven.

      But eternal life is also a HOPE (That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:7), yet to be REAPED (For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Gal 6:8) in the AGE TO COME (But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. Mark 10:30) for only those who PERSIST in doing GOOD (To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: Rom 2:7) and do not GROW WEARY and GIVE UP (For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Gal 6:8-9).

 

 

     Reading through Scriptures in the Old Testament, "Salvation" is better understood as "deliverance."  When the Lord delivered them from their enemies, THEN they were SAVED!   He has delivered us from sin, washing our sins in His own blood (Rev 1:5) and it's through faith, but we're not on the other side right now, we haven't crossed over the finish line yet, we still yet have to inherit Heaven.   I know that might be an obscure statement to handle for some people, but we are not "Saved" / safe UNTIL we get there!  We "receive the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls" (1 Pet 1:9) here and now, and if we should die anywhere along the line in this race called "faith" we would go to Heaven, but that's the ticket, when you die you must die IN FAITH!  And I don't mean mentioning that you were a Methodist in your obituary, you accepted Jesus 50 years ago, never followed the Lord or loved His house, but you were a Methodist!  That would probably be a surprise to the Methodists!   What I mean is that you died pressing forward, reaching forth, in motion of faith!  As spoken of the Old Testament saints,

 

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city." 

(Heb 11:13-16)

 

     These guys didn't die without God, defeated, backslid, or cold in their faith.  "And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Heb 6:11-12)

 

 

      Because we are NOT there yet, it is still a hope, "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."

(Rom 8:24-25)  "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;" (Heb 6:19).  We have this hope NOW, and we shall reap it IF and ONLY IF we "abide IN Christ" continue In Him, stedfast until the end.  "Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life." (I Jn 2:24-25)

 

"In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;" (Titus 1:2).

 

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." (1 Tim 6:12)

 

"Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." (1 Tim 6:19)

 

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (I Jn 5:13)

 

"And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come."1Thes 1:10