Were believers in the Old Testament born again?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1998.

As far as I know, it is nowhere said in the Old Testament that the Old Testament believers were born again, but it seems to me that that does not of itself settle the question whether they were or not.

The terms for being begotten of God, as laid down in John 1:12–13, are that a person should receive him—and in the context, the 'him' is the Word of God. If I, therefore, ask the following question, 'When Abraham believed God, was the Word already with God, and was the Word already God?', the answer must, of course, be, yes. When Abraham believed God, he was believing in the triune God, whether or not he knew that God is a trinity.

It seems to me that it would be difficult to think that Abraham, whose justification is held up to us as the all-time example of how a man is justified, could be a justified man and not a child of God. It is true that in Old Testament times believers were not baptized in one Spirit into one body. The body of Christ only came into existence on the day of Pentecost. But it seems to me that being a child of God, and being a member of the body of Christ, are not necessarily one and the same thing.

And finally, I would point to Romans 4:16 and Galatians 3:26–29—through faith in Christ we have become Abraham's seed and he is our spiritual father. It would strike me as a very odd thing if we were born again, but our spiritual father was not.

With love in the Lord,