There is a great abundance of evidence in the Bible to show that the saints in the Old Testament had their sins forgiven and were born again.

In Deuteronomy 14:1, the Israelites were called “children of God”:

Ye are the children of the LORD your God… (Deut. 14:1)

Israel is called God’s “son” in a figurative sense in the Old Testament to express the special relationship between God and His elect nation; yet there is no reason to limit Scriptures such as Deuteronomy 14:1 and Psalm 82:6 to this idea, and they clearly signify that the faithful Israelites in the Old Testament were born again:

…all of you are children of the Most High. (Ps. 82:6)

There are other Old Testament Scriptures that reveal the same thing:

If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. (Ps. 73:15)

In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and His children shall have a place of refuge. (Prov. 14:26)

…thou, O LORD, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. (Is. 63:16)

King David called God his “Father”:

Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our Father, for ever and ever. (1 Chron. 29:10)

God speaks of David in Psalm 89 with the words:

I have found David my servant…he shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. (Ps. 89:20-26)

God also spoke of Solomon as His son:

And He said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his Father. (1 Chron. 28:6)

The New Testament shows that Abel was born again. 1 John 3:12 says that Abel did works that were “righteous.” An unregenerate, however, is a slave to sin and cannot do righteous works. But Abel could do righteous works because he was born of God. The whole theme of 1 John 2:29-3:13 is that when a person is born again he will do righteous works. In this passage, Abel is discussed, and the context makes it clear that he was born again and could therefore do righteous works and was therefore hated by unregenerates (v. 12). Abel’s experience is used to parallel our experiences (see vv. 12 13). Obviously Abel was born again.

Many men in the Old Testament were born again. Moses talked with God “mouth to mouth” and “face to face” ; Enoch and Noah both “walked with God” ; and Abraham was called God’s “friend.” These men experienced a closer personal relationship with God than most Christians today! Obviously they were not unregenerate!

God cannot enter into a personal relationship with an unregenerate man. The unregenerate have no desire to know God and no inclination to seek fellowship with Him. They hate God. The unregenerate say to God, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways” (Job 21:14, 15).

And God is not “friends” with unregenerates, but He considers them to be His enemies. For Abraham, Moses, Noah and Enoch to have been able to experience such depth of fellowship and personal relationship with God absolutely demands that they were born again.

Moses knew God’s “ways” (Ps. 103:7); but the unregenerate cannot know God’s ways. Moses had “found grace” in God’s sight, and God “knew” him “by name” (Ex. 33:12, 17). Obviously Moses was born again!

David said, “My soul thirsteth for God” (Ps. 42:2). Was he unregenerate? Certainly not! The unregenerate thirst after iniquity, and despise God. David said, “I opened my mouth, and panted: for I longed for thy commandments” (Ps. 119:131); but the unregenerate hate God’s Word and truth. Was David unregenerate? No! David’s heart was “perfect with the Lord his God” (1 Kings 11:4).

Many saints in the Old Testament were said to have had “perfect hearts” before God, and their lives were perfect, righteous and blameless. Were they unregenerate? No! The heart of the unregenerate is not “perfect,” but it is corrupt and defiled, and the ways of the unregenerate are not perfect, righteous and blameless, but sinful, filthy and stinking before God.

Saints in the Old Testament walked in a reverent and holy “fear” of God, and yet the unregenerates have “no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:18).

Saints in the Old Testament praised and worshipped God, while the unregenerate does nothing but curse God. It is impossible to praise God truly without a new heart.

Many people in the Old Testament were called “righteous” by God. Would God call a wicked unregenerate a “righteous” man? Obviously not!

The unregenerate loves sin and has totally given himself over to sin, and yet consider these statements about some saints in the Old Testament:

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. (Ps. 24:3 4)

Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. (Ps. 32:2)

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 51:10)

Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. (Ps. 86:2)

Obviously the Old Testament saints were born again!

The very fact that men were called “saints” in the Old Testament proves they were born again. A man is either a “sinner” (unregenerate) or a “saint” (regenerate), and the Old Testament is filled with “saints.”

Furthermore, there were saints in the Old Testament who were said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Were these people unregenerate?

There is much evidence that Old Testament saints had peace in their consciences.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (Ps. 103:12)

David’s psalms are full of statements of his own genuine peace and close relationship with God.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. (Ps. 32:1-2)

Paul makes reference to this in Romans 4:

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, (Rom. 4:6)

David evidently enjoyed a “blessed” relationship with God.

Genesis 15:6 says that Abraham was justified before God by his faith. Were the Old Testament saints justified? Abraham was justified! Furthermore, Abraham was justified by his faith, and unregenerates have no true faith in God. Hebrews chapter 11 contains a list of Old Testament saints who exercised great faith in God. In fact they were so faithful that God “is not ashamed to be called their God” (Heb. 11:16); while God, however, is ashamed of unregenerates.

Abraham is the example of faith in the entire Bible. How could he have been unregenerate? Abraham is the father of “they which are of faith” (Gal. 3:6 9). Abraham is our spiritual father. How could Abraham have been unregenerate?

God commanded the unfaithful Israelites in many passages to repent and “circumcise their hearts” and be washed clean from their sins. To have a “circumcised heart” is to be regenerate. God would not command the people to do something which was not possible until the cross! But it was possible to be born again in the Old Testament, and many were.

When Nicodemus questioned Jesus about the new birth in John 3, Jesus answered, “Art thou a master [i.e., teacher] of Israel, and knowest not these things?” Apparently Nicodemus, who was a scholar of the Old Testament, should have understood Jesus’ teaching concerning the new birth.

We could give many more proofs from the Bible that the Old Testament saints were born again. David was a man after God’s own heart. Surely he was not unregenerate!

Asaph lived his life continually with God, and when he died he went to be with God. Was he unregenerate? Surely not! And what about Elijah and Enoch both of whom God “took”? Were they in heaven, in the presence of God, still waiting to be born again? Hardly!

Many Scriptures in the New Testament prove that people were born again before the cross. The many people who heard and believed Jesus’ own words were born again and received eternal life. Jesus’ own disciples were clearly born again. In Matthew 16:15 17, Peter made a saving confession before the cross; in John 13:10, Jesus said His disciples were “clean”; and in John 17:14, Jesus said “they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Obviously they were born again.

Furthermore, Jesus gave His disciples power and authority to cast out demons and to heal the sick. But unregenerates have no authority over the devil; they’re under his authority. Would Jesus have sent out a group of sinners to heal the sick, cast out demons and preach the Gospel of righteousness and truth? Obviously they were born again!

And it was by the precious blood of Jesus!

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