I am intrigued by the idea that an earnest Pharisee living in ancient Israel, in the epicenter of God’s chosen people, having memorized the entire Tanach (Old Testament) and equipped himself to teach its core principles to others seeking a right relationship with God (Jn 3:1), could be clueless about eternal salvation and how to be reconciled with God. Nicodemus, who came to Christ with sincere questions, simply had no idea. (10) Similarly Paul, also a Pharisee in all good conscience before God, evidently persisted for years in deep ignorance and unbelief regarding justification by faith (1Ti 1:13), until he was taught the Gospel personally by Christ Himself. (Ga 1:11-12)
This begs a profound question: why has God written His word the way He has, with such important concepts being so elusive, hidden and mysterious? Even if we are intimately familiar with scripture, we still might be missing its primary message. It is as if God is hiding the truth from us and doesn’t want us to find it very easily.
We know God cannot be pleased in our ignorance because God is loving, to the point of self-sacrifice on behalf of anyone who will turn to Him, and He is infinitely wise and good: He did not design His word the way He did by accident; ultimately, there must be some merciful and gracious purpose in it. (Ro 11:33)
Perhaps God has concluded mankind as a whole will persist in unbelief and is hiding the truth so He might have mercy upon us all. (32) Perhaps God is acting as if no one will be receptive to the truth even if He does make it obvious (2Ti 4:4), as if no one is interested in understanding or seeking God at all (Ro 3:11), and so by hiding the truth, purposely making it difficult to find, He is in a sense giving us all somewhat of an out, an alibi to lessen our condemnation. Perhaps God is hiding the truth so He can be a little bit more merciful to those who willfully refuse to seek it.
Evidently, as there are levels of reward in Heaven (Mt 5:19), it stands to reason there are also levels of punishment in Hell. (Ro 2:5) Perhaps God is dealing with the fact that no one will seek Him on their own and almost everyone is voluntarily headed for eternal destruction. (Mt 7:13) Perhaps God is providing room for a little bit of mercy to lessen the severity of damnation for those who neglect to pursue a relationship with Him.
And for His elect, it may very well be that in earnestly searching out the truth when it is so hard to find, this very process not only strengthens us (Php 2: 12-13), but makes the truth that much more precious to us when we do find it. (Mt 13:45) This is very good. (Pr 25:2)
We should all seek God so we may know Him (Je 9:24), and walk with Him in spirit and in truth (1Jn 1:3), and God has promised to give understanding to everyone who seeks it. (Ja 1:5-6) So, this is not a matter of whether we can ultimately come to an understanding of the truth (Mt 7:7-8), it is more a question of how we get there, how much we must invest in doing so: it costs us everything. (Lk 17:33)
God tells us to invest our all in this pursuit, to value Wisdom and Understanding above all else. (Pr 4:7) There is nothing more important than walking in a working knowledge of God and of His ways which is grounded in spiritual reality (Php 3:8-9), putting on display what He has revealed to us about Himself as we have sought Him.
Another aspect to this is that hiding the gospel in the Tanach is evidently how God so elegantly chose to accomplish our redemption through the very engagement and free agency of Satan himself as the executor: if Satan had understood the plan, he evidently would not have participated in it. (1Co 2:8) As it was, the offer to crucify Christ, to humiliate and torture Him, was simply too tempting for Satan to pass up. There is certainly a fine piece of poetic justice to be found here.
While it is true that the Gospel is much more clearly stated in the New Testament than in the Tanach, it is also evidently true that exactly how we come to benefit from it, exactly how we are justified and when, is still a bit of a mystery.
We are told to believe in and on Christ, to receive Him (Jn 1:12), but also that many who think they believe in Him actually do not. (Mt 7:22-23)
Salvation is not based on our works (Ga 2:16), yet without works we do not have salvation. (Ja 2:17)
We are called to repent (Mk 1:15), and also that God must give us repentance. (2Ti 2:25-26)
We are told to believe (Ac 16:31), but also that believing is the work of God. (Jn 6:29)
We are not told exactly how to believe in Christ or what this feels like, only in various places what accompanies salvation (He 6:9), which we can search out if we are paying attention.
Whatever we might say, salvation is still not paint-by-the-numbers: if we are not diligently seeking salvation, just like saints of old, striving to enter the kingdom, we will very likely miss it and be lost. (Lk 13:24)