Redemption: Exodus and Christ

Basic Principle:  The Old Testament as a foretaste of the New.  The New Testament does not negate the Old, rather the New Testament fulfills and completes what is begun in the Old.

Exodus	Christ’s Death and Resurrection
Liberation from political slavery in Egypt	Liberation from (internal) slavery to sin
Escape from death at the hand of Pharoah	Escape from the reign of death itself: resurrection of the body
From 12 tribes to one “people,” one “nation”	From many nations to one people: the communion of saints, the Body of Christ, a Catholic Church
Salvation is something that happens for and among the Jews. ("Salvation is from the Jews," says St. Paul.)  But its ultimate trajectory is "catholic":  "all nations will stream to Zion."	Salvation is for all people, all nations, all times and places (truly “catholic”):  the communion of saints
God's people fed physically with manna in the desert and water from the rock	God's people fed spiritually by the Body and Blood of Christ (“the rock was Christ”)
Goal: the Promised Land (a physical place, but also a place to worship God freely: what are we to do with and in that land?) -- Is it David’s Kingdom or God’s Kingdom? Goal:  A greater union with God	Goal: Heaven, the Beatific Vision (although perhaps more accurate to say: “The Kingdom of God”)
Old Law (written law)	New Law (the gift of the Holy Spirit whereby charity is spread abroad in our hearts)
Covenant ratified in the blood of a lamb	Covenant ratified in the blood of Christ (“the lamb of God”)
We make the sacrifice	God makes the sacrifice (Cf. Abraham:Isaac::God and His Son)
At the seder meal, the Jewish people celebrate the “memorial” of their liberation (salvation), their covenant with God, and their union as a people: this involves unleavened bread; manna; blood of the lamb, the Law	At the mass (the Eucharist): Christians celebrate the “memorial” of their liberation (salvation), their covenant with God (love God and neighbor; who is my neighbor? All mankind), and their union with all the saints: but now their “Passover,” although still memorialized with bread (and wine), involves the Body and Blood of Christ who died on the cross and rose from the dead.
When the Jewish people celebrate this meal, they “make themselves present” to the Exodus event, thereby “realizing” (making real) in a fundamental way their fidelity to God in the covenant, their obedience to God’s law, and their unity as a people. They “remember” and “become,” once again, God’s “people.”	When Christians celebrate this meal, they make themselves present to (by partaking physically of Christ’s Body and Blood) the death and resurrection of Christ, thereby realizing in a fundamental way their fidelity to God in the covenant, their obedience to God’s will, and their unity with all God’s creation. They “remember” and “become.” They are “re-created.” They are “made new” (or renewed.) They are branches of the one vine. They are members of Christ’s Body (the “Catholic Church”). They are united with the communion of saints. They partake already of the heavenly banquet. They “share in the divine nature”; they partake in the eternal three-fold communion of love (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).

* Again, on this view, the New Testament does not negate the Old, rather the New Testament fulfills and completes what is begun in the Old. 

* The Old Testament gives the context for understanding the New.  And yet, the New provides the light in which we must understand the Old.  Potential problems:  If we "cut off" the Old from the perspectives of the New, then we may narrow the intention behind the promises of the Old. 

* We might conclude, for example, not that salvation is from the Jews -- that is, that it begins with them -- but rather that salvation is for the Jews alone and has no significance for others. 

* Or we might mistakenly conclude that "the land" is primarily a place for us to own and possess, not primarily a place for us to worship God freely.  If so, we will have turned a means (the land where we can worship freely) into an end (possess the land). 

* A related misunderstanding would turn the "Kingdom of God" into a political kingdom.

* And yet, if we cut off the New from the context of the Old, we will almost undoubtedly have misunderstandings as well.   How else would we be able to understand the significance of the Last Supper?  To understand its full signficance, we need the Old Testament context in which Jesus Himself lived and which he was addresssing.

Notions of Salvation:

* Note how each has its value, but also its limitations.  All build on one another to give us a more complete picture.

1. Salvation as a "Recapitulation" of Salvation History:

- Creation and Re-Creation
- Adam and Christ:  “As one man’s disobedience brought about man’s condemnation, so one man’s obedience brought about our redemption.”

- Abraham is not ultimately required to sacrifice his son, rather the LORD provides the sacrifice, so too the Father provide the sacrifice for the alter in the New Testament: He is willing to offer His own beloved Son.

- Moses and the Exodus points to Christ and the Cross

- The prophets foretell the coming of the Kingdom of God and the Messiah: fulfilled in Christ

- Old Law realized in the New

2. Salvation as the Fulfillment of the Law through God’s grace and the gift of Charity

3. Salvation as Redemption and the forgiveness of our sins.  (We live "under the reign of sin and death" and yet "in hope.")

(We incurred the debt; God pays. It brings about freedom – in this case, from sin and death.)

4. Salvation as Divinization (or true Humanization). (God, by taking on our humanity, imparted to us His divinity ("shares the divine nature"). God by becoming man, makes man divine. But in truth, since we were created “in the image of God,” to be made more God-like, is to be made, finally, truly human.)

5. Salvation as Participation (sharing in the divine nature: in the eternal three–fold communion of love, thereby being united to our neighbor in selfless love and following the law freely).