Story of Salvation

Knowing salvation history means knowing His story of love for us. The history of Israel reveals God’s merciful love for His chosen people, wherein He made a covenant with them. “You will be my people, and I will be your God.” This is the core of the covenant; it's an exchange of persons, a giving of oneself for the beloved. The more we know the saving works that God has done for us, the more we will appreciate the love that God has for us. Thus, the history of Israel helps us to know our identity, purpose, and goal. 

Firstly, the history of Israel allows us to know who we are. The story of Israel reveals the story of being adopted sons of God, wherein God made a covenant with man to keep them. The first covenant that God made was Abraham’s great name. We can reflect on the fact that God gave a name to a person. This tells us that God knows us by name, not by our sins. His knowledge of all of us is very precious and personal, and he calls us each and every moment to bring back to Him the love He has given us. This is perfected in Jesus, who made flesh, which allows us to encounter Him in a substantial way in the Eucharist, and the more we receive Him, the more we will be ever more in touch with Him, who tells us our identity as a child of God. Thus, knowing our history helps us know who we are. 

Secondly, the history of Israel reveals our purpose in life. The famous prayer that the Israelites express is, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” They pray this twice a day to keep them always reminded that the purpose of their existence is to love God with all our being. On the other hand, Jesus perfected this prayer by revealing the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This tells us of the reciprocal exchange of love and the ultimate purpose of every man—love of God and love of neighbor. 

Thirdly, the history of Israel tells us our goal in life. The story of Israel is a story of liberation from slavery to freedom. This freedom is not tainted by the world’s view of freedom, which is free from any restraint or rule. The freedom that God wants for us is freedom from the slavery of sin. Sin enslaves our being; it corrupts our relationship with other people. That is why we need the grace of God that is perfected by Jesus in the sacraments. The crossing over of the Israelites from the Red Sea is perfected by Jesus in His crossing over from death to life on the cross. This is what we share in the love of Jesus, and this is what Jesus wants us to experience—an experience from sin to new life in Christ, our goal. 

Thus, the only way to deal with history is to own it ever more in order to know Him more intimately, love Him more dearly, and serve Him more closely.