Redemptive History

Definition and Meaning

"Redemption" (救贖) means to buy back by paying a price, and it refers to salvation through the atonement of Christ. The Korean term for redemptive history translates the German Heilsgeschichte and is also rendered "salvation history" (救援史). Rather than reading the Bible as a collection of separate teachings, this perspective reads it as a single narrative that moves through creation, the fall, redemption, and consummation. It holds that this narrative reaches its climax in Jesus Christ and concludes with the consummation of the kingdom of God.

Reformed theology distinguishes redemptive history from the ordo salutis (order of salvation). The ordo salutis concerns the sequence in which an individual is saved (calling, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and so on). Redemptive history concerns the process by which God has accomplished salvation in history.

Biblical and Historical Background

Passages commonly cited in support of this perspective include Luke 24:44-46, where Jesus says that the writings of Moses and the prophets speak of him; Galatians 4:4, which states that "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son"; and Hebrews 1:1-3, which declares that God, who "spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." Stephen's sermon in Acts 7 and Paul's sermon in Acts 13, both of which recount the history of Israel, are read in the same light.

The term is generally thought to have become established in theological usage in the nineteenth century through Johann von Hofmann and others of the Erlangen school in Germany. In the twentieth century, Oscar Cullmann systematized the concept in works such as Christ and Time. Within the Reformed tradition, Geerhardus Vos exerted wide influence by developing "biblical theology," which holds that revelation unfolds progressively through the advance of the covenants. By contrast, scholars in the tradition of Rudolf Bultmann criticized this perspective, emphasizing existential decision over historical events.

Practice in the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the concept appears most often in the phrase "redemptive-historical preaching." This approach to preaching does not treat Old Testament figures merely as examples to imitate; it first asks how a given passage relates to Christ's redemptive work. Its proponents argue that character-centered "exemplary preaching" reduces the text to moral instruction. Defenders of exemplary preaching counter that Scripture itself presents figures of the past as examples, as in 1 Corinthians 10:11 and Hebrews 11. Some also caution that redemptive-historical preaching can weaken application to daily life.

Emphases differ by denomination and theological tradition.

• Presbyterian: Particularly in Reformed seminaries, the redemptive-historical perspective is widely taught alongside covenant theology.
• Dispensationalist: Churches influenced by dispensationalism divide history into distinct eras (dispensations) and stress the distinction between Israel and the church.
• Methodist and Holiness: The Wesleyan theological tradition emphasizes both the overall course of history and the way of salvation by which the individual attains holiness.

Through-the-Bible reading materials and Bible study courses across denominations also widely guide readers through Scripture along a storyline that runs from creation to the new heaven and new earth.