Redemptive-Historical Preaching

Definition and Meaning

Redemptive history (Korean gusoksa, 救贖史) means "the history of salvation that delivers from sin." It refers to the course of God's saving acts, beginning with creation and the fall and continuing through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ to his second coming. Redemptive-historical preaching is a method of preaching that interprets each individual text as part of this larger narrative and focuses on how the text connects to Christ. The term is often used as roughly synonymous with "Christ-centered preaching."

The contrasting approach is "exemplary preaching," which treats the actions of biblical figures as examples to imitate or to avoid. In the account of David and Goliath, for example, exemplary preaching urges listeners to imitate David's bold faith. Redemptive-historical preaching instead reads the account as an event in which God saved his people through the king he had appointed, and it sees this event as pointing to Christ.

Biblical and Historical Background

Proponents of redemptive-historical preaching appeal to passages such as Luke 24:44–46, where Jesus says that things were written concerning him in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. Typology, which holds that Old Testament persons and events foreshadow Christ, and covenant theology provide the theological foundation for this method.

As a method, it is generally said to have taken clear shape in the preaching controversy within the Reformed churches of the Netherlands in the 1930s and 1940s. In that debate, Klaas Schilder and others criticized exemplary preaching and advocated a redemptive-historical reading. The approach was subsequently introduced to the English-speaking world and to Korea through the biblical theology of Geerhardus Vos and the homiletical writings of Edmund Clowney and Sidney Greidanus.

Practice in the Korean Church

In Korea the approach has spread mainly through homiletics courses at Reformed Presbyterian seminaries and through translated books. It is reportedly emphasized especially among pastors of denominations with a strong Reformed orientation, such as the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Kosin) and the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapshin).

Other denominations have embraced it to varying degrees. The Methodist and Holiness traditions emphasize sanctification and holiness as understood in Wesleyan theology. Pentecostal churches emphasize the experience of the Holy Spirit and the transformation of life. Some pastors in these denominations also make use of Christ-centered interpretation, but it is not an officially prescribed preaching method of those denominations.

Assessments of redemptive-historical preaching differ.

• Proponents hold that it guards against moralism, which reduces the text to moral lessons, and that it makes the gospel clear.
• Critics point out that sermons may tend toward similar conclusions and become monotonous, and that concrete application to life may be weakened. Some also warn that forcing Christ into a text where he is not present risks drifting into excessive allegory.

Many also take a mediating position that seeks to combine the two approaches.