This is the third part in the five-part series by Father Gerard Beigel, S.T.
The Revelation of God in Salvation History
When God created man and woman, they not only had a capacity to know God and to love Him, they were also securely established in a right relationship with Him. Before original sin, man and woman experienced an abiding communion with God. Not only did they possess the image of God through the ability to know and love God, they also possessed the likeness to God through their continuous communion with Him. Imagine what it would be like to be forever face to face with God! Such a condition would indeed make us like God.
Salvation history
- The Creation of Man and Woman
- The Fall
- The Promise of Salvation
- Noah
- Abraham and the Patriarchs
- Moses and the Exodus from Egypt
- Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments
- The Entrance into the Promised Land
- The Judges
- King David
- The Prophets
- The Babylonian Exile
- The Return from Exile
- The Coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ
Adam and Eve used their freedom to disobey God. In this original sin, they broke their communion with God and thus lost the likeness to God that had been given to them in the original creation. After original sin, man no longer possesses likeness to God, although he does retain within him the image of God—the capacity to know and love God.
Salvation history is the story of how God has worked throughout history after the Fall of man in order to undo the damage of original sin and to restore man and woman to the likeness to God. The process of salvation history involves a deep and personal revelation of God to the heart of man. God takes the initiative in restoring man to a right relationship with Him. God speaks to man, revealing who He is and revealing, too, His plan to save and restore man to the condition of friendship with God. This work of God in salvation history is accomplished through words and deeds, both of which have God as their author. God speaks to man, encouraging him, rebuking him, consoling him, and promising him salvation. The Lord also works mighty and miraculous deeds that demonstrate His power to save man. The only appropriate human response to these saving works of God is faith—to believe in God and to entrust one’s life to Him.
As people responded to God’s work with faith a particular type of history began to unfold—the history of the interaction between God and His people. This is what we call “salvation history.” The Bible is the book that records the words and deeds of God in salvation history. The Bible is thus the unique and privileged witness to the work of God in salvation history. There is no other book or collection of books that recounts how God formed a people for Himself, and how He taught this chosen people through the prophets, preparing them for the gift of salvation that was to come in Jesus Christ.
God’s work with man in salvation history began immediately after original sin. God promised that He would “put enmity” between the serpent’s offspring and the woman’s “seed”: “He will strike at your head, while you will strike at his heal” (Gen 3:15). These words are called the proto-evangelium, or the “first announcement of the gospel.” The Church teaches that this promise refers to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who assumed a human nature, becoming “the seed of the woman” who crushed the serpent’s head through his death and resurrection. The goal of salvation history—God’s gift of His Son as the Savior of mankind—is thus mystically foretold in the first moment of God’s work with man after sin.
The process of revelation leading from the proto-evangelium to the Incarnation and birth of Jesus Christ encompasses the well-known events and persons of the Old Testament era. God revealed Himself to Abraham and made him the father of the chosen people to whom the messiah would come. Abraham responded to God with faith, by which he was justified or “made right” before the Lord. God then sealed His relationship with Abraham by establishing a covenant with him, a binding agreement to protect, bless and guide Abraham. Abraham’s descendants settled in Egypt, where they were later reduced to slavery under Pharaoh. But God was faithful to His promises and raised up Moses, through whom He delivered Israel from bondage, led them through the Red Sea, gave them the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and led them through the desert to the Promised Land. After the time of the Judges, God raised up David to be King of Judah and Israel. To David God promised to establish his “house,” and that He would raise up one of David’s heirs and establish his throne “forever.” (1 Chronicles 17:12). God also raised up prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel who proclaimed God’s word and specifically foretold the coming of the Messiah who would establish God’s Kingdom and righteousness. Even after God punished the disobedience of His people through Exile to Babylon, He did not abandon them or forget His promises. In a new Exodus, the Lord led the Jews back to Israel and renewed with them the promise of redemption and salvation through the coming of a Messiah.
This work of God from Abraham to the time of Christ encompassed 1800 years of history—1800 years of God working faithfully to prepare His people for the gift of salvation. By the time of the birth of Christ, the Jewish people had been well trained and formed by God to expect salvation through a messianic king. The culmination of salvation history, the fulfillment of all of God’s words and deeds in the Old Testament, is found in Jesus Christ. He is the center and summit of everything that God does and reveals to man.
Father Gerard Beigel teaches at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, Colorado, and writes regularly for The California Mission.
© The California Mission.