The Story of God and Man

 

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:1-8 ESV).

 

There is a temptation to think that using the word “story” when talking about God and the things He has said and done might be interpreted to mean “fable.” Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe all the Scripture is inspired (breathed) by God and absolutely true and without error. By using the word “story” I merely want to convey the scope and depth of what God has done in life. In fact, He has been working good for us before life began and will still be working good long after our lives are spent on this earth.

 

So, we can unapologetically say that the Bible is not simply a book that includes a lot of stories but that the whole Bible itself is one big story. It’s the story of what God has done in creation, what we did to sabotage his efforts, and what God is doing now in his vast, eternal plan to fix what we ruined. The main character is always God.

 

This is important. Christianity is the only faith in which God is the one who does the heavy lifting. Every other religion, including atheism, ultimately comes down to a set of instructions for what people need to do to make things better. In the history-spanning drama that brings the Christian gospel to the world, however, God is the main actor, and we play only supporting roles. Jesus Christ entered our world and carried the burden of everything that had gone wrong.

 

So, the Bible is the account of what God has done. It’s a grand story with supporting materials. While it includes plenty of foundational doctrines and important ethical teachings, the most important thing about the Bible is that it tells us what God has done. That makes it a story, the greatest story of all time. When you read the Bible, I encourage you to read it as a book of what God has done, not a book about what you should do.