Salvation history is the story of God and the story of man.
It’s how God has loved and cherished mankind since the beginning of time.
It’s how mankind has journeyed from Godly riches to rags and back again.
It’s how the hero-king, the rescuer Jesus Christ, came down from his throne to share his life and deliver mankind from captivity.
Quite literally, salvation history is the story of how we are saved–our redemption in Jesus Christ. But it’s actually much more than that. It’s the vehicle to understand who you are in this world and what you’re meant to be.
Salvation history is the answer to who we are as human persons. The answer to why we have these longings that we don’t understand. The answer to how we can fill the restlessness in our hearts.
God’s Covenant Family
• God revealed Himself and His one divine economy of salvation gradually to mankind through a series of covenants.
• The Old Testament:
– the story of Israel
– living like God, sharing love within the human family on earth.
• The New Testament:
– the story of Israel and the Church
– living in God, sharing the love of the Blessed Trinity in heaven.
Covenant Love
• God uses covenants to forge family bonds with his people in every age.
• Includes family relations and binding obligations. The relations are the ultimate dimension of the covenant; the obligations flow from them.
• Terms of a covenant:
– certain actions merit rewards/benefits
– breach of the commitment results in penalties
• Biblical pattern of the covenant: the Father blesses his children when they keep the covenant and punishes them for breaking it.
• Laws of the covenant: fixed and immutable.
The Lord is always the initiator in our relationship with Him. God calls man first, and man’s first response is prayer. Prayer has a place all throughout Salvation History. We see this in the readings of the Old Testament and especially with Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets. Jesus continues to teach us about prayer and our relationship with God.
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