noted, other Scripture citations are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible — Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition), designated as RSV-SCE. Copyright © 1965, 1966, 2006 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from the introduction to the Letter to the Romans is taken from the New American Bible, revised edition, copyright © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Quotations from papal and other Vatican-generated documents available on vatican.va are copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, copyright © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica, copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc. — Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
Excerpt from the Renewal of Baptismal Promises is taken from the English translation of The Roman Missal, copyright © 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation (ICEL). All rights reserved.
Introduction
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
— John 3:16-17
We begin this Bible study with the assumption that God wants to save the world because of his love for human beings. From his very conception and infancy, Jesus is identified as the one who saves his people. For instance, the meaning of his name in Hebrew is explained by the angel in St. Joseph’s dream when he says that the still Virgin Mary “will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). When the angel appears to the shepherds after the birth of Jesus, he tells the shepherds “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord” (Lk 2:11).
As Jesus walked toward Jerusalem with his disciples before his passion and death, he taught them that “the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost” (Lk 19:10); “the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). When he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he announced that “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (Jn 12:47). An often-quoted verse points out Jesus’ mission: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). At the Last Supper, he made it clear that his mission is not for abundant life that centers on this world but eternal life, which means knowing the Father, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent (Jn 17:3).
Salvation was not defined as a political deliverance from the Romans but as the forgiveness of sin and a new life of holiness and goodness. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15). St. John taught that “he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). The extension of salvation to the whole world was a promise of the prophets: “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is 49:6). Jesus taught this as well: “[May they] all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21, RSV-SCE).
Clearly, Jesus is the focal point of salvation: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn 14:6), and “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). Yet the vision is directed outwardly to the whole world: “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn 18:37).
For that reason, this Bible study will explore a number of the rich mysteries of salvation with the sole purpose of deepening and enriching the interpersonal relationship of every human being with the tri-personal God, who is one and yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Session 1
Salvation Comes from God and for God
“He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.”
— St. Augustine, Sermo 169, 11, 13: PL 38, 923
Salvation establishes a relationship between God and sinful humans, a relationship by which God saves them from past sin, reconciles them when they continue to sin, and helps them to avoid sin in the present. His goal is abundant life and holiness, a love of truth that motivates people to share God’s truth with other people, and eternal life after death. Ultimately, God, who created humanity in his image and likeness, is graciously working to transform sinners who fall short of his glory (Rom 3:23) so that they might be restored to the full image and likeness of God, who is Jesus Christ.
Study
Salvation Is a Relationship
In this relationship of salvation, the Lord God takes the initiative, as he has done since the time of the original sin by Adam and Eve, calling to the new sinners, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). In response to the sound of his approach, the no-longer-innocent couple chose to hide themselves from God, until he insisted on their coming out to meet him. True, after a thorough examination of the man, the woman, and the serpent, the Lord God imposed punishment on each of them, and yet he also showed mercy to the man and woman. He cursed the serpent with a promise about salvation for the humans: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).
A Woman’s “Seed”
The woman’s “seed” is an odd expression, since in Hebrew and other languages, the seed refers to the man’s contribution to the conception of a child. This promise of a woman’s seed was perplexing, until a Virgin conceived a Child by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit millennia later, and he was named “Salvation” — that is, Jesus. The curse of the ancient serpent was at the same time the promise of a future salvation.
After the punishments, the Lord God showed mercy by clothing the couple with animal skins to cover the shame engendered by their disobedience to his commandments. Even their exclusion from the Garden of Eden was a mercy; they would not be allowed to eat the fruit of life in their sinful state until the defeat of the serpent by the Seed of the Woman at the new tree of life — the cross.
This episode shows that while God took the initiative, the couple still retained their own free will. They chose to hide, and at the Lord God’s insistence, they came forth to meet him for justice and for merciful promise. The salvation of humanity entails a true relationship because both God and humans have free will within it. God chooses to freely give his grace to save sinners, and humans can either hide or come forth to meet him.
This free quality of the relationship is what makes the process of salvation seem so complicated. However, like any relationship of free persons, the complexity is the basis of the richness of the relationship. In the Introduction, we saw that the Lord God took the initiative to walk in the cool of the Garden of Eden and call out to the recently guilty man and woman, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9).
Consider
Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wonderfully saw “Where are you?” as the most basic