B2. An Overview of The Bible

Trying to understand different parts of the Bible with out understanding the big picture could be like picking up a piece of a jigsaw puzzel without knowing the whole picture - it helps to understand the overall story to understand how each piece fits.

The Bible is one story … it’s our story! It’s the story of God’s relationship with humanity.

Many see the old and the new testaments as telling the story of two very different aspects of God, or even showing how God changed from the O.T. to the N.T. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, the unity throughout the Bible borders on being unbelievable, except that God is the ultimate author of it all.

Simply put, the Bible is about God’s interaction with man and the unveiling of Jesus Christ. The first three chapters speak of God’s creation of the universe and man and then how man turned his back on God separating himself from his creator and the sustainer of life. The rest of the Old Testament is about God preparing humanity for redemption through Jesus Christ and our eternal state, which is explained in the New Testament.

God’s purpose is consistent throughout the bible. He created man for His glory (Isaiah 43:7) and then reconciled man for His glory (Roman 8:30) as humanity lives in relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ. As Christians, we now reveal God’s glory to others (2 Corinthians 3:18) for their reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

There could be several ways of summarising the Bible. Below are a couple of examples showing the consistent flow throughout.

Creation

↓

Fall

↓

Preparation for Redemption

↓

Redemption

↓

Eternal State

or

Creation

↓

Fall

↓

Flood

↓

Promise

↓

Law & Prophets

↓

Christ

↓

Church

↓

Christ’s Return

The Bible is one continual story. It’s the story of his relationship with humanity.

GETTING PERSPECTIVE

Below is a little more details to this summary to give you a better perspective on whichever part of the bible that you may be reading or studying. These points are all unpacked over the following pages, but this may give an overview to show how each aspect fits into the entire story:

CREATION

God created man in relationship with Him.

• Man was created in the image of God, sourcing life from Him.

• God’s commission was: “Be fruitful, have dominion & multiply”.

FALL

Man lost relationship with God & God’s rescue plan of redemption.

• Through deception, man was disobedient, not trusting in God’s command.

• Man became separated from God so couldn’t source life from God .

• Man now had knowledge of good & evil.
  

PREPARATION FOR REDEMPTION

Flood

God Intervened to protect His rescue plan of redemption.

• Knowing good & evil, man’s heart became inclined only towards evil.

• Nephilim infiltrated humanity causing a hybrid race.

• God started again with humanity through Noah, a righteous man.

Promise

God promises to use Abram’s lineage to bless the nations i.e. redemption.

• Humanity tried to live in the futility of self-effort culminating with the Tower of Babel.

• God chose Abram who would believe Him.

• Because Abram believed, God gave him the promise of what He would do.

• God promised: “I will …” do better than what man tried to do at Babel - blessing, children, land and descendants.

• Regarding descendants, God would use Abram’s lineage to bless the nations.

Law & Prophets

Abram’s lineage needed supervision until Christ came to fulfil the promise.

• Israel’s lineage (Abram’s grandson) would be God’s people through whom He would bless the nations.

• God raised Moses to deliver them from slavery in Egypt, but they wouldn’t live trusting God.

• So God gave them a set of laws to live by to show them how to live, to help them realise that they are separated from God and lead them to Christ who would be the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham.

• God gave a system to cover the consequences of their sin until justification would come by faith and prophets to encourage and warn them along the way.
  

REDEMPTION

Christ

Jesus became our sin and our death on our behalf for our reconciliation and redemption.

• Jesus Christ came, fulfilling the law, prophecies and to make a way to fulfil the promise, bringing humanity back into right relationship with God and enabling us to source life from Him again.

• By God’s grace we enter into our redemption through our faith

Church

Having been reconciled with God, our lives together testify to Christ. We are now the spiritual descendants of Abram through which the nations will be blessed.

• Jesus’ act of salvation brings those who believe into God’s family/household the church.

• As Christ’s ambassadors, the church is central to bringing the message of salvation to the world as we live by faith in Christ, sourcing our lives from God.

• Through the Holy Spirit, God has gifted us to function as His body, the church (for our common good), acting out of the love that He has given us.
  

ETERNAL STATE

Christ’s Return

Jesus will return to fully redeem us, giving us spiritual bodies and living in relationship with Him eternally.

• We will eternally be with God (or separated from Him)

• New heaven and new earth.

• No more evil (or only evil).