THE STORY OF THE BIBLE

The Bible is the story of God’s love for men and women and of His desire to redeem them from bondage to sin and restore them to fellowship with Himself. And the story begins with God. In the beginning God created . . . (Genesis 1:1).

The story of the Bible is first and foremost the story of God. The Bible teaches us that before anything else existed God existed. When He created the universe, He created it out of nothing. Therefore, He is separate from what He created; He transcends nature. God and nature cannot be mixed; the worship of anything in nature or any created object is idolatry.¹

At the apex of God’s creation is man. In particular, God created men and women in his own image (Genesis 1:27); He created them to be like Him, to have fellowship with Him, to be loved by Him and to love Him in return.

God also created men and women as free and independent beings; this implies that He created them with the capacity to sin, even to rebel against Him, their Creator. Why would God do this? Why didn’t He just program man to be pure and sinless?

One reason can be suggested. God could easily have created men and women to be like robots—programmed—with no independence and no free will. But would He have enjoyed true fellowship with such beings? Would He have taken pleasure in their worship and service? It’s unlikely. Throughout the Bible, God has called on men and women to seek Him and to love Him with all their heart; only free beings can do this. It is a much greater act of creation to create a truly independent being than to create a robot.

The Bible tells us the consequence of God’s choice: the very first man and woman fell into SIN (Genesis 3:1-6). They lost their intimate fellowship with God and were driven from His presence. Their descendants followed their example; mankind became sinful and forfeited the blessings and fellowship of a holy God.

This situation grieved God’s heart. Because God is holy and righteous, He could not ignore man’s sin. Therefore God determined to redeem mankind, to show mankind a way to escape the effects of sin and to live righteously before God.

The Old and New Testaments tell the story of God’s REDEMPTION of fallen mankind. He has redeemed us because He loves us. He loves us as a father loves his child, as a husband loves his wife. God loves us so much that in order to finally free us from the power of sin and SATAN, He sent His own Son to earth to take upon Himself the punishment for our sin. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

In carrying out His redemptive plan, God did not force His will on anyone. Instead, He chose to work through individuals who, though imperfect, sought to live righteously and who placed their trust in Him. God chose Noah and his family to build an ark, so that the entire human race would not be destroyed in the Flood. God chose ABRAHAM and his descendants, the Israelites, to form a new nation that would be characterized by RIGHTEOUSNESS. God chose MOSES to lead them, and through Moses He gave them His LAW to enable them to avoid sin and thereby enjoy the blessings He desired to give them. He made a COVENANT with them, agreeing to be their God and making them His people—as long as they kept His commands. This was the “old covenant” (Exodus 19:3-8).

However, most of God’s people did not keep His commands; they did not truly trust Him. He had promised them great blessings if they obeyed Him, but they chose instead to go their own way. And because of their rebellion, their sin, their idolatry, they came under God’s judgment. However, a small number of Israelites—a “remnant”—did trust God; and throughout ancient Israel’s history, God protected this remnant.

From the beginning, God was concerned with much more than just ISRAEL; He had chosen Abraham to be a blessing to all peoples on earth (Genesis 12:1-3). God did not protect the “remnant” simply for the remnant’s sake; rather, He planned—through the remnant—to bring righteousness and blessing to all peoples.

It was through this “remnant” of Israel that God intended to send His Son Jesus into the world (Matthew 1:1-17). It was through Jesus that God intended to establish a “new covenant” that would replace the old. This new covenant did not oppose or contradict the old covenant, but it included something new that made the old covenant obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). What was new was the sending of the HOLY SPIRIT to regenerate people and thereby enable them to live according to God’s will. The coming of the Spirit was made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection. Through Christ’s death the sins of believers were taken away, and through His resurrection believers received the Spirit’s power to obey God’s law. God’s law was now “written” on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). God’s people were now forgiven and cleansed; as a result, their fellowship with God was restored.

One might ask: Why did God allow fourteen centuries to pass between the making of the old covenant and the making of the new? The old covenant didn’t seem to be “working”; why, then, the delay?

Two practical reasons can be suggested. First, Israel’s long history clearly demonstrated the power of sin, and God’s repeated punishment of His rebellious people demonstrated to all mankind that God would not tolerate sin.

Second, without the fourteen centuries of Israel’s history, it would have been hard to explain why Jesus had to die, why a new covenant was even needed. With the Old Testament in hand, the early Christians were able to present the Gospel more clearly and to persuade people more effectively that the only way to escape God’s wrath and gain eternal life was by believing in Jesus and accepting Him as Lord and Savior. If this was true for the early church, it is no less true for us today.

God’s overriding desire is that as many people as possible freely turn to Him in FAITH and enter into fellowship with Him; this was His very purpose for creating mankind in the beginning. By waiting until the right time to send Jesus, many more people have now had the chance to come into the kingdom of God. And God has used the lessons of Old Testament history to help make this possible.

One final thing needs to be said about the story of the Bible: it hasn’t ended yet. Something needs to happen before the end can come: the gospel of the kingdom must be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matthew 24:14). And the “beginning of the end” will come when Jesus returns to earth. Both the Old and New Testaments look forward to that day. When Jesus comes again, many more people will come into God’s kingdom—including the repentant people of Israel. And at the very close of earth’s history, a final judgment will take place (Revelation 20:11-15), and those who have placed their faith in God and in His Son will be ushered into a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-4). Jesus said: “Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:1-2).

How can people believe such promises, such prophecies? First, by believing in Jesus Himself; when Jesus comes into a person’s life, that person will no longer doubt that Jesus word is true.

But in addition to that, we can believe these prophecies by reading the story of the Bible. Already scores of Old Testament prophecies have come true in history—often with astounding accuracy. If so many prophecies have already come true, we can be assured that the prophecies yet to be fulfilled will come true also. Yes, the day of the LORD is indeed coming (Joel 1:15; 2:28-32; Mark 13:26-27). But no one knows the day or hour (Mark 13:32-33). Meanwhile, we are to keep watch and to live holy and godly lives as we look forward to the day of God (Mark 13:35-37; 2 Peter 3:11-14).

Jesus said: “I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20).

If Jesus came today, what would He find us doing?

¹ Only the followers of the three major monotheistic religions—Islam, Judaism and Christianity—worship a Creator God who is distinct from His creation. Note that these three religions all have their origin in the Abraham of the Old Testament. They are therefore rooted in history.

Virtually all other religious traditions blur the distinction between the Creator and creation, between the divine and the natural; this results in various forms of pantheism and polytheism. These religions offer no answer to man’s basic problem, the problem of evil, because they offer nothing beyond the naturalistic universe that can overcome evil and change man’s basic nature.