Session 1: Salvation History

Objectives
1.Understand God’s plan of salvation, the role of
Jesus and our destiny in this Divine plan.

2.Understand that God’s salvation is offered to all

people and all created beings.

3.Understand that salvation is whole of person (personal,

social, corporeal, historical, and transcendent).

4.Understand that salvation requires not only free

response and acceptance but that we become
cooperators of God’s salvation in the strata of society.
 Assignment
• Bring photos that show different
issues in the Philippines. (e.g. mass
protests, mining, people indicted to
corruption, liturgical celebrations,
church and government, etc.)
What does Salvation mean for you?
Video
What was the video all about?

Have you experienced being saved? Why

do you think that person saved you?

In the history of salvation, the most compelling reason why

God saved us is because He loves us.
What is God’s plan of Salvation
• God’s plan of salvation is the desire of God for man, woman and all
creation to be united with Him in eternity. This salvation is offered by God
freely. God is neither forced nor coerced to give this to us. It is out of His
great love for His creation to make us become partakers in His Divine life.
What is man’s role?
• Man has a role to accept and realize this eternal destiny through
Moral exercise of Freedom and Moral exercise of Responsibility.
• Moral exercise of Freedom means that we can be united with God
only by freely choosing to love Him.
• Moral exercise of Responsibility means that a person cannot be
united with God unless he commits himself to God’s will. To be united
with God is to love him through following his commandments. The
commandment to love God and our neighbor.
What does salvation history mean?

• is the progressive unfolding of God’s plan to save the

human race from sin and death after the Fall. This plan
gives true meaning to the entire history of the world.
 Overview of Salvation History

2. The promised
1. Before and Messiah foretold
After the Fall by the prophets

4. The mission of
3. Jesus as the fulfilment of the promise
the Church as 5. Destination
Evangelization
 1. Before the Fall

God created everything that

came to exist. And this
beginning is described by
these two factors: Original
Holiness and Original Justice.
Original Holiness means the grace for man to share in divine
life (LG 2). As long as man remained in this divine
intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die (Gen 2:15)

Original Justice: the inner harmony of the human

person, the harmony between man and woman,
the harmony between man and all creation..
 After the Fall

The bible tells us in a quite

dramatic way that Adam and Eve
ate the forbidden fruit which
eventually led them away from the
garden of Eden.

That represents their sin as

turning away from God. And the
consequence of this sin is the loss Man lost his friendship with God
of original holiness and justice and is doomed to die.
that Adam and Eve enjoyed.
 2. The promised Messiah
foretold by the prophets

Yet, God out of his great love, even in the

sinfulness of Man, desires to forgive him,
gives a second chance, and wants that his
creatures will be with him in eternity.

God promised a Messiah. A future salvation. A savior that would liberate

Man from the bondage of sin and death. God then made a promise, a
covenant with his people. The covenants were experienced by the
Patriarchs and the promised of a messiah were proclaimed by the
prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah.
3. Jesus as the fulfilment of the promise

In the fullness of time God sent His

son. He was conceived by the Holy
Spirit, born of a woman named Mary.
We are saved through the Paschal
Mystery of Christ. The Passion, Death
and Resurrection of Christ.

He proclaimed the Kingdom

of God. A kingdom of Peace
and Justice
What is salvation?
• The meaning of salvation offered by God is not limited
to ‘spiritual’ meaning only. Salvation refers to healing,
a bringing back to health or making a person whole
again.
• Salvation is a liberation from the bondage that
oppresses the human person. This salvation is whole of
person. It is salvation from slavery, poverty,
corruption, suffering, and all systems that oppress and
deprive the person from their inherent right.
 What did Jesus do?

Jesus liberates us from sin,

oppression and death.
Other stories of liberation in
the Bible

Through Moses, God freed

them from slavery and was
given a land called Canaan.
Liberation from Moral Oppression

Jesus’ healed a man on a Sabbath and was criticized by the Pharisees and conspired how
to destroy him. Jesus said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath,
to save life or to kill (Mk 3: 1-4). Jesus even mention in another account in response to
the Pharisees that, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark
2:27). The point of this religious law, as with all religious law, is not found in itself. No,
the law is designed to bring freedom and life.
Time and again, people Liberation from Spiritual Oppression
who are "oppressed by
demons" come to him to
be freed from illness,
which Jesus understood
as a type of spiritual
oppression. Thus when
Jesus commissions his
disciples to share in his
work, he sums up that
work in this way: "Heal
the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, cast out
demons" (Matt. 10:8)
Breaking the walls of division.
Liberation from racial discrimination and from being indifference.

The Samaritan helped the dying Jew. Jews do not want to mingle with the
Samaritans because for them Samaritans are not only inferior to them but also
unclean.
 4. The mission of the Church as Evangelization

Mission stage is the continuation of the

mission of Jesus Christ.

We are called to participate in the mission of Jesus in which he

summoned the church to continue his mission of building the
Kingdom of God. “Building the Kingdom of God means working for
liberation from evil in all its form. For example, the Church is active in
the promotion of peace to liberate people from violence. In a word, the
Kingdom of God is the manifestation and realization of God’s plan of
salvation in its fullness (Redemptoris Missio 14-15).
Therefore every one of us is
called to be part of this mission.
One essential element of doing
this mission is to commit
oneself. Commitment to carry
out the mission is a response to
the love offered to us by God.
By committing ourselves to
work for the mission, we
become cooperators of the
mission of God to build His
Kingdom. We contribute to the
social transformation.
5. Destination. If we follow the commandments, love God and his people,
then we will be with God who created us. A state where justice reigns (2 Cor
5:2; 2 Pt 3:13) and happiness (1 Cor 2:9; Rev 24:4-5
Clarifications
Group activity
• Group the learners into 9 groups
• In your Manila paper, identify the things (minimum of 3) that a
group, environment, or social structure need to be liberated
from as well as the possible steps to attain salvation or
liberation. Sample below
• Presentation
Liberation from Steps to attain liberation or salvation
1. Poverty 1. Programang pangkabuhayan from the
Poor people Government
2. Unemployment 2. Free education
3. Discrimination (sometimes 3. Change of perspective. Do not generalize.
they were called poor because of Some poor people are such but not because of
laziness. their own fault. Sectors in society should
create more opportunities for them.
 Liberation from Steps to attain liberation or salvation

Beggars
Rich people
OFW
Environment
Indigenous People
Victims of War

Terrorists
Learners
Media

Corrupt politicians
Synthesis

“God in his Divine Plan of Salvation wants perfect union

with all creation. This eternal destiny of individuals is
both the consequence of God’s faithful offer of grace and
of the moral exercise of their freedom and responsibility
(cf. Rev 20:12-13). This moral responsibility includes our
being cooperators in the mission of Jesus of building a
Kingdom of God. Also, this plan of salvation is gradually
unfolded as seen in the following stages: Before the Fall,
The Fall, The Promised of a Savior, Jesus as the
Fulfillment of a Promise, Mission and Destination.”