The One Epic Story of the Bible
Have you ever ever put your music on “shuffle”? Shuffle mode is nice for music as a result of more often than not, except you’re listening to a Broadway musical or one thing, songs are self-contained. Meaning you may leap from monitor 3 to trace 17 to a complete completely different album and never miss something. However think about taking your favourite film, breaking it into minute-long sections, after which taking part in the film on shuffle—sixty seconds from the center, then sixty from the top, then sixty from the opening credit. That results in nothing however chaos! However why? Properly, it’s as a result of a film isn’t only a assortment of unrelated bits. It’s a story. It begins, develops, and at last resolves. Themes are developed, characters are launched, and their lives are traced, and the result’s that one minute follows after one other till you might have a totally developed story.
The Bible is like that. It’s not a random anthology of inspiring bits you could learn in any order. It’s a single, sweeping narrative about how the dwelling God makes and retains his guarantees to avoid wasting sinners. And but the irony is that, for many Christians, the one means they’ve been taught to learn the Bible is by placing it on shuffle. They learn slightly bit at this time from the Outdated Testomony, after which slightly bit tomorrow from the New Testomony, and all the time tack on a bit from the Psalms or Proverbs on the finish of every day. I’m satisfied that’s a part of the explanation why so many Christians assume the Bible is opaque, or too troublesome, or have a troublesome time greedy its magnificence. It’s as a result of we learn it on shuffle relatively than as an epic story.
When you perceive, although, that the Bible is one grand story that runs from begin to end, particular person passages settle into place. The storyline runs from creation to new creation: God creates the world and places humanity over it, as his image-bearers, to rule underneath him (Gen. 1:26–28). People insurgent in opposition to God’s authority (Gen. 3). God guarantees a deliverer, a coming King who will someday crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). After which, via the remainder of the Bible, God works out that plan, selecting Abraham and promising blessing to all nations via his offspring (Gen. 12:1–3; 22:18), selecting Israel to be his folks and promising that an awesome King and Savior would stand up out of them. Then, in “the fullness of time,” that promised King arrives—Jesus the Messiah—who dies for his folks’s sins, rises from the useless, and guarantees to return to reign endlessly (Gal. 4:4; 1 Cor. 15:3–4; Rev. 11:15).
When you grasp that storyline, the Bible comes alive. It’s now not only a assortment of fables and knowledge sayings that may assist you might have a greater week. Rapidly, it’s the chronicle of God’s astonishing plan to avoid wasting the world from its rebel in opposition to him. Much more, inside that story, you may hint dozens of themes that develop because the story unfolds. I need to introduce you to 2 of them, two themes that run like golden threads from the very starting to the very finish of the biblical storyline: Kingship and Substitutionary Sacrifice.
The One Story Bible is a journey via the sweeping storyline of Scripture, with practically 900 notes that information readers to know how every passage of Scripture matches in with the entire Bible’s message and a foldout timeline within the again.
Kingship—Who Will Rule God’s World?
The Bible opens with God giving his newly created people a royal task. He tells them, “Allow us to make man in our picture . . . and allow them to have dominion” (Gen. 1:26). In different phrases, humanity is commissioned to rule underneath God, to replicate his character and lengthen his smart order via the created world. Subsequently, when Adam and Eve sin in opposition to God by breaking his legislation, that’s not simply breaking a rule; it’s an tried coup in opposition to the kingship and rule of God (Gen. 3). And so for the remainder of the Bible, the good query turns into, Who will rightly bear the crown?
God solutions that query, although considerably mysteriously, in Genesis 3:15. Chatting with the serpent, he guarantees, “I’ll put enmity between you and the lady, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and also you shall bruise his heel.” That’s a promise that reverberates with royal that means. In time, God would ship a brand new king, one who would do what Adam ought to have performed within the first place–destroy the serpent endlessly.
From that time, the promise of a saving king drives the story of the Bible. The guarantees slim first to an awesome household after which to a single tribe. So Jacob prophesies, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah . . . and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Gen. 49:10). Centuries later, the guarantees come to relaxation in a covenant that God makes with King David: “I’ll elevate up your offspring after you . . . and I’ll set up the throne of his kingdom endlessly” (2 Sam. 7:12–13). For the subsequent centuries, via heartbreak, rebel, and exile, the psalms and prophets hold that hope alive: “I’ve set my King on Zion” (Ps. 2:6); “Of the rise of his authorities and of peace there will probably be no finish . . . on the throne of David” (Isa. 9:7). Even when Israel’s monarchy collapses and the individuals are carried away into slavery, the promise doesn’t fail. The King continues to be coming—righteous, humble, and saving: “Behold, your king is coming to you” (Zech. 9:9).
Lastly, in a backwater city within the north of Israel, an angel proclaims that the time has come. Chatting with a younger virgin named Mary, he says, “And behold, you’ll conceive in your womb and bear a son, and also you shall name his title Jesus. He will probably be nice and will probably be known as the Son of the Most Excessive. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he’ll reign over the home of Jacob endlessly, and of his kingdom there will probably be no finish.”
When Jesus begins his public ministry, he proclaims, “The dominion of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). After which in his phrases and works God’s royal rule breaks in—the blind see, storms nonetheless, demons flee. He’s David’s better Son (Matt. 1:1), and but he doesn’t seize his kingship by drive. He obeys the place Adam and Israel failed. He’s humble the place they have been conceited. That paradox reaches its middle at Calvary when the governor fastens an indication to his cross that reads, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). After all, the governor meant his signal to be a mockery, however it really spoke the reality. Jesus was the king, and but he was dying.
The Bible tells us that on the third day after his crucifixion, Jesus rose from the useless and declared, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). Now not topic to human legal guidelines and violence, he ascended to not retire however to reign till the day when all his enemies—together with Devil, that serpent of outdated—will probably be put underneath his toes (Ps. 110:1; 1 Cor. 15:25). Thus the Bible’s story ends with the world brazenly acknowledging what’s already true of him: Jesus is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16).
Do you see the purpose right here? When you learn the Bible with this growing theme in thoughts, then the kings and kingdoms you meet are now not remoted episodes. Saul’s peak, David’s coronary heart, Solomon’s failure, the fracture of the dominion, the ache of exile—all of it pushes the query ahead: The place is the promised King? The reply is Jesus, and each royal scene is both making ready for him or contrasting with him. Both means, the entire Bible speaks of him.
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Substitutionary Sacrifice—How Can Rebels Be Redeemed?
If the theme of kingship solutions the query of who will rule, the theme of sacrifice solutions the query, How, although, can responsible folks be forgiven and included in that rule as a substitute of crushed by it? The sample begins early. After Adam and Eve sin in opposition to him, God garments them with “clothes of skins” (Gen. 3:21). For the very first time, a creature with the breath of life in its lungs dies in order that the responsible could also be lined.
We see the identical sample on Mount Moriah, when Abraham presents Isaac however God supplies “a ram . . . as a substitute of his son” (Gen. 22:13). In Egypt, judgment falls on the land, however wherever the blood of the spotless lamb marks the door, the angel of loss of life passes over: “Once I see the blood, I’ll cross over you” (Ex. 12:13).
As soon as God constitutes the nation of Israel, he additionally institutes a sacrificial system that dramatizes this similar logic. Sin deserves loss of life, however it doesn’t need to be the sinner who dies. God accepts a substitute. So the priest lays palms on the animal, symbolically transferring guilt, and blood is shed in order that sinners might stay close to to the presence of God (Lev. 1:4–5; 16:21–22). That system, although, was additionally restricted by design. It needed to be repeated yearly, again and again. As Hebrews says, “It’s unimaginable for the blood of bulls and goats to remove sins” (Heb. 10:4). Even so, these ceremonies taught Israel little by little the significance of substitutionary atonement.
That theme develops and expands all through the remainder of the storyline of the Bible. Isaiah speaks of the Servant who will probably be “pierced for our transgressions” and upon whom “the Lord has laid . . . the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5–6). When John the Baptist sees Jesus, he factors and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus himself explains his mission in substitutionary phrases: “The Son of Man got here . . . to provide his life as a ransom for a lot of” (Mark 10:45). The apostles interpret the cross the identical means. Paul mentioned, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, in order that in him we would turn out to be the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). And Peter put it like this: “Christ additionally suffered as soon as for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he may carry us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).
All of the strands of the sacrificial thread are gathered up by the e-book of Hebrews. Jesus, our excessive priest, enters the holy place “by way of his personal blood, thus securing an everlasting redemption” (Heb. 9:12). His providing, not like that of the clergymen, is “as soon as for all” (Heb. 10:10). And thus the shadows give method to the truth. Substitution isn’t a late concept; it’s the Bible’s constant reply to how a simply God can justify the ungodly (Rom. 3:26).
Pulling the Threads Collectively
The Bible’s unity, the truth that it’s one epic story from starting to finish, exhibits up no extra gloriously than within the intersection of those two themes: The King is the substitute. And maybe no biblical textual content brings this residence extra superbly than Revelation. John hears a voice declaring within the throne room of heaven, “Weep no extra; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah . . . has conquered.” However then he seems to be and sees not a resplendent king, however “a Lamb standing, as if it had been slain” (Rev. 5:5–6). The King is the substitute. The Lion is the Lamb. The royal victory comes by sacrificial loss of life.
When you perceive this, it resolves the 2 deepest issues launched in Genesis 3. Humanity’s rebel created a governmental disaster—Who rightly guidelines?—and a ethical disaster—How can the responsible be forgiven? A mere strongman can be inadequate to repair the second downside, and a mere sacrifice can’t resolve the primary. However in Jesus, God supplies each. The crucified and risen King is himself the very one who bears sin, dies within the place of his folks, and restores rule.
That’s the reason the cross stands—and should all the time stand—on the middle of the dominion message relatively than off to the aspect. If the dominion had come with out atonement, it will be dangerous information for us rebels. However as a result of Jesus isn’t just King however the struggling King (as a result of he dies as a sacrifice within the place of sinners), the approaching of the dominion is certainly excellent news. We’re provided forgiveness and new life underneath a righteous and ever-living Ruler.
The King is the substitute. The Lion is the Lamb. The royal victory comes by sacrificial loss of life.
How This Modifications On a regular basis Bible Studying
1. Learn in sequence, not on shuffle.
There may be worth in memorizing particular person verses, however don’t prepare your self to listen to the Bible as disconnected tales and sayings. Hold asking, The place am I within the story? Hold a roadmap of the story in thoughts: creation (Gen. 1–2), fall (Gen. 3), promise (Gen. 12), exodus and covenant (Ex. 19–24), kingdom and temple (2 Sam. 7; 1 Kings 8), exile (2 Kings 25), promise of restoration (Isa. 40–66), the King’s arrival (Gospels), the church’s mission (Acts), life underneath the King (Epistles), and last renewal (Revelation).
2. Observe the crown.
When a king seems within the Outdated Testomony, don’t simply ask whether or not he’s “good” or “dangerous” and subsequently search for “life classes” from him. Ask how he pertains to the promise to David (2 Sam. 7). What’s he instructing us about God or his promised King? Let Psalm 2 and Isaiah 9 tune your expectations. Within the Gospels, pay attention for Jesus’s royal claims (“The dominion . . . is at hand,” Mark 1:15; “All authority . . .” Matt. 28:18). In Acts and the Epistles, discover how the apostles preach the risen Christ because the enthroned Lord (Acts 2:36). In Revelation, watch the crown gentle totally and endlessly on the forehead of Jesus (Rev. 11:15).
3. Observe the temple.
Once you examine sacrifices, ask what they are saying about sin and beauty. Passover proclaims safety by blood (Ex. 12:13). Leviticus exhibits guilt transferred and cleansed (Lev. 16:21–22). Isaiah 53 interprets the Servant’s struggling as substitution. The Gospels current Jesus’s loss of life because the achievement of these patterns (Mark 10:45). Hebrews ties the bow (Heb. 9–10).
4. Maintain the threads collectively.
When you hint kingship with out the cross, chances are you’ll shrink the gospel to energy politics. When you hint the substitution with out the crown, chances are you’ll shrink it to a personal transaction. Scripture refuses each reductions. The King died, and the Lamb reigns.
Let me say it yet one more time: don’t learn the Bible on shuffle. It’s a narrative—one story—about God’s promise to place the world proper via his King who provides his life for sinners. Hold the 2 threads of kingship and substitution in view, and all of the components will click on into the entire. You’ll see why Judah’s “scepter” issues (Gen. 49:10), how David’s covenant shapes the unfolding plot (2 Sam. 7:12–13), why Isaiah’s servant needed to be “pierced for our transgressions” (Isa. 53:5), why Jesus might say each “the dominion . . . is at hand” (Mark 1:15) and that he had come “to provide his life as a ransom for a lot of” (Mark 10:45). You’ll perceive why the track in heaven celebrates the Lamb who ransomed a folks in order that “they shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:9–10).
Finally, that’s the Bible’s epic story—standing astride historical past, centered on Christ, and transferring unstoppably towards the day when each knee will bow and each mouth will confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord” (Phil. 2:11).
Greg Gilbert is the writer of The One Story Bible: Tracing the Thread of Redemption By means of God’s Phrase.
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