God creates the world, Adam and Eve are formed, they sin, end of story. Short story, hey? Well, luckily for all of us, it didn't end there. We know what happened in the creation story. Everything was perfect, and then it failed. However, God didn't stop there. In Genesis 3:15, God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the evil one, foreshadowing the redeeming works of Christ defeating death and restoring humanity. "I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

 

Salvation history is how God makes his plan for the world known by God's chosen, and how that plan affects us today. It is like a big long timeline of unfolding events of how God has brought salvation into the world through faithful men, and women. One of the ways that God makes his love known through the world is by establishing Covenants.

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Covenants are oaths between two people or a nation of people; these kinds of covenants are found throughout the Bible. It unites the entire Bible and each story in the Bible, and it teaches us about our union with God and His promises to us. 

 

Covenants are permanent, unbreakable bonds between persons/families/kingships. It is where people give themselves to others in a covenant relationship through the name of God. An everyday example of this is marriage. In a wedding celebration, both the bride and groom make vows to each other, they are establishing a covenant relationship with each other until death draws them apart.

 

Covenants are sworn with an oath, sealed in God's name, and an exchange of persons. The word "testament" actually refers to "covenant". Understanding this reveals that the Bible is God's unbreakable love story with all of creation. In the Old Testament the punishment for breaking a covenant was death. This is why Heaven was sealed off to all of us - and why we needed a saviour to free us from the eternal damnation. Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice, taking that death sentence that we deserved onto himself, so the gates of Heaven could be open to us. 

 

As we continue reading through the Scriptures, we see every covenant that God makes is growing to encompass a broader range of people. From a covenant in a marriage where it was between two people, to Christ reconciling humankind to Himself through His sacrificial blood. From the first words of Scripture to the last, God pours his love out to us, by giving us chances to grow in His love and to establish a relationship with Him. 

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Reading the Old and New Testament side by side captivates the message and the beauty of the entire Bible, and shows that we are very much a part of God's family plan. Salvation History also teaches us that this world we're living in is just a waiting place for the glory and joy that will be revealed at the end of time.

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We can never fully understand or appreciate the life of Jesus, or the Good News of salvation if we don’t know the Old Testament. Skipping through the Old Testament is like only watching the last part of a two-part movie. Even though we might see the climax and see the characters being redeemed, we wouldn’t be able to acknowledge the huddles they climbed over to get to that moment; along with the importance of the character's background. It’s the same with the Scriptures. The New Testament does have a new set of figures (Jesus, Mary, Peter, John, etc). However, we wouldn’t completely understand what Scripture means when they talk about the figure’s background if we skim through the Old Testament. 

 

The Old Testament is critical in understanding the true significance of the message of salvation. It starts the track of Salvation History. 

 

The Old Testament can be confusing and seem irrelevant in our modern lives, with many names and locations we probably can’t pronounce or make sense of. However, it is God’s story, our story. Throughout the Old Testament, we see God making covenants with His chosen people and rescuing people from conflict and distress. The Old Testament gives countless foreshadowings of Christ and an overflow of sacraments that point forwards to Jesus Christ and how he fulfils it in the new covenant.

 

The New Testament brings the Saviour, Jesus Christ, into the story. It is where God's love story becomes extensively known throughout nations, and the hope of eternal Salvation becomes alive. The New Testament shows how Jesus fulfils the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament.