THE ECONOMY OF OUR SALVATION By Father Panagiotes Carras.

THE ECONOMY OF OUR SALVATION

By Father Panagiotes Carras.

This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart will I inscribe them.

[Heb 8:10)

When Adam was led into captivity, God did not cease to love mankind nor did He abandon the creation which was made in His Image and Likeness. Adam and Eve were wounded but not dead. They were outside of Paradise but not away from God. They were now in a captive land, not in their Father’s house, but their Creator came searching for them so that they could be led back to the Kingdom of Heaven and become once more children of God.

Within Paradise Adam had been given the opportunity to become a son of God. God had made a Covenant or agreement with Adam. Our Heavenly Father would adopt Adam and make Him His Son when Adam would mature in his love for God. Adam on the other hand was to abide by a single commandment-not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.

The Tree would be the symbol of this Covenant, yjj Our Forefathers did not honour this Covenant and chose to go their own way.

The path which they took led them into a captivity from which they could not save themselves. Their Heavenly Father, however, came searching to find the lost sheep. The Will of God and His providence to lead Adam out of captivity is called the Economy of Salvation.

The word Economy is derived from the Greek word ekonomia which literally means “looking after one’s house”. The term Economy of Salvation is used by St. Irenaeus (Demonstration 47) and other holy Orthodox fathers and refers to everything that God has done to save us from Satan’s captivity.

The Economy of Salvation began before Adam had fallen: According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. (Eph 1:4). Immediately after the Fall God imposed certain hardships on mankind so that he would have something to make him realize that he was a stranger in a foreign land. Along with these hardships God also promised Adam there would be an end to this captivity. I will put an enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Gen 3:15). These are the words of our Lord as He cursed Satan. He speaks of the struggle between mankind and Satan, and how finally Satan’s head will be crushed by our Lord and Saviour, the Seed of Eve.

The Old Testament records the mighty acts of God as He led mankind along the long road to sonship. Within the Old Testament we see God’s wisdom, patience and love for us. Concerning the Economy of Salvation, St. Irenaeus tells us inasmuch as God is invincible and longsuffering, He did indeed show Himself to be long-suffering in the matter of the correction of man and the probation of us all. (Against Heresies, III, 23:1). 

In the Old Testament, the Prophets recorded the many ways that God sought to bring us closer to Him and the stubbornness of the human race which chose to remain under the captivity of Satan. In the days of Noah, our Heavenly Father again made a Covenant with mankind. In time this Covenant was also rejected by mankind and there was not one person in the whole world that loved God.

With the passage of time God appeared to Abraham who, not knowing God, nevertheless desired to find him. God, having pity on him who alone quietly sought Him, appeared to Abraham, manifesting Him- self through the Word as through a ray of light. (St. Irenaeus, Demonstration, 24.) Abraham was instructed by God to take his wife Sarah and his nephew Lot and to leave their homeland and to go to the land of Caanan. Once again God made a Covenant with mankind. It was revealed to Abraham by the Logos, the Word of God, that if he and his descendants were faithful to God, then they would become the people of God. The sign that God chose for this Covenant was circumcision. The new nation, the Hebrews, who at this time became the Chosen People of God were circumcised to show they accepted this Covenant.

Among all the inhabitants of the world only the Hebrew people, the descendants of Abraham, knew God. All other nations worshipped demons. God made a Covenant and founded the nation from which our Lord would arise: I will establish My Covenant between Me and thee... and thy seed after thee, to their generations, for an everlasting Covenant, to be Thy God, and the God of Thy seed after thee. (Gen 17:2,7).

With the passing of generations, the Hebrew people lost much of the faith that they had in God and the Lord brought forth another Covenant to strengthen the faith of the Israelites. This was the Covenant of the Hebrew Pascha or Passover. The sign for this Covenant was the Law of God which was given to Moses. 

The Mosaic Law revealed to them how sin alienated them from God but was powerless to save them from the captivity of Satan. The Hebrew people entered into a new stage of the Economy of Salvation-, the period of the law. St. Paul tells us that Satan and death which kept mankind sepa¬rated from God was now exposed for what it is. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had notsinned after the similitude of Adams transgression (Rom 5:14). Commenting on this, St. Irenaeus tells us: The law coming, which was given by Moses, and testifying of sin, that it is a sinner, did truly take away death’s kingdom, shoiving that he was no king, but a robber... a ynurderer. God was leading mankind, step by step, to the day when Adam’s children would be able to become children of God.

St. Paul tells us that the Hebrew nation during the period of the Old 

Testament, i.e., Covenant, was like a child being guided by his tutor until the day would come when he would no longer need a guardian: Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, dijfereth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of thefather. (Gal 4:1-2). God in His wisdom provided the Israelites of old both with restrictions and instruction in order to help them in their struggle to remain faithful to the Covenant of the first Pascha.

The restrictions which were placed upon them had the pur-pose of keeping them from worshipping false gods or living an ungodly life and thus abandoning God. The Law of Moses was given to the Hebrew nation to guard them from wander¬ing away from their Heavenly Father. It was not able to bring mankind to sonship, but it served to preserve the Israelites from being completely under the rule of Satan. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by which we draw nigh unto God. (Heb 7:19). Faithfulness to the Law of God was what the Lord required from His people. If the Covenant with God were to be maintained, it could be accomplished only through the keeping of the Law.

The Israelites knew God through His mighty acts and the Old Testament is a record of the Acts of God which the Is-raelites transmitted from generation to generation. For the Hebrew people, God was a living God Who made himself known to His Chosen people. Throughout their history God was with them, protecting them and guiding them through every adversity. Even when Jerusalem was destroyed and they were led captives into Babylon, the Covenant between the Lord God and His Chosen people was maintained. The holy Prophet Daniel and the three youths would not worship another God but steadfastly kept all of the Lord’s commandments and in this way remained faithful to the Covenant which God had made with their fathers.

The saints of the Old Testament were not faithful to God only because they had seen the acts of God but more so be-cause it had been revealed to them that the day would come when the Lord would establish a new Covenant, the Covenant of Adoption. The expectations of the Saints of old Israel are expressed by Prophet Jeremiah: Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a New Covenant, not like the Covenant which I made with theirfathers... Tins is the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: putting my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart; and I will be a God to them. And they shall be a people to me. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow-citizen and everyone his brother saying, now the Lord; because they will know me. (Jer 31:31-34). The Lord God gave the Hebrew people His laws to protect them from falling away but he also gave them His holy Prophets so that they would prepare themselves for the coming of the New Covenant. The Israelites would fall away many times but God always preserved a faithful remnant who were true Israelites: For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. (Rom 9:6). It was to these faithful Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises (Rom 9:4).

The Theotokos and the first Christians were the true Isra-elites who awaited the Day of the Lord. (Joel 2:11, Mai 3:1-2). They understood the prophecies of the Old Testament which foretold the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Son of God became man the teachings of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament became evident. Throughout the books of the New Testament we are constantly reminded that everything which our Lord and Saviour enacted was according to the Prophets. (Lk 24:27,1 Cor 15:3-5). Throughout the Old Testament we can find Prophecies which refer to the Salvific Acts of our Lord and Saviour. Our Lord’s birth from a Virgin was foretold by Prophet Isaiah (Isa 7:14). The curing of many illnesses was similarly foreseen (Isa 61:1-2). Our Saviour’s entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech 9:9), His suffering (Isa 50:6), the parting of His garments (Pss 22:8), the Crucifixion (Pss 69:4,21, Isa 53:3-12), the power of the Holy Cross over Satan (St. Justin Martyr, Dialogue 91:112, Exo 17:11), the Resurrection (Pss 3:6), the Ascension (Pss 23:7) were all known by the Prophets.

he saints of the Old Covenant knew that one day the Son of God would become man and as Emmanuel (God is with us—Isa 7:14, 8:8-10) would be with His people as a father is with his children. The whole of the Old Testament looks towards the day of the New Covenant.

Vol. 12, Issue 07-08