God's story in 10 minutes
Many people today think that the Bible is a religious book with beautiful stories about God and Jesus. Ancient and inspiring stories of how people have lived with God. They are all people's opinions captured in a variety of literary styles. They are the stories of people with their God. Just like everyone today has his or her own story with God. God writes His story in the lives of each of us individually. That's what people often think these days.
The common view is that the Bible is not one big story. There are wonderful things in it from which you can draw hope. But what to do with all the misery in the book? A God who kills people and a Satan who tempts people and wants to destroy them. As a person in the 21st century you can't do anything with that anymore, can you?
Yet more than ever, the Bible is God's story for people.
THE BIBLE SHOWS WHO GOD IS AND HOW HE VIEWS US PEOPLE AND OUR WORLD.
It is the story of God's rescue plan. It is a book that is extremely topical, given the state of the world as well as the needs of every person.
The creature
In the beginning of man's story, the earth was "desolate and empty"; she was under the dominion of Satan, God's supreme creature, who has rebelled against God. Then God arranged the earth and made man to dwell on it. He was given the assignment to 'subdue' the earth and bring it under the dominion of Christ.
The Fall
Man had been given tremendous abilities and tremendous freedom from God to carry out the command. There was only one thing he was not allowed to do: eat from 'the tree of good and evil'. Because man listened to Satan, it went wrong on that very point. Man has forfeited what was entrusted to him and handed it over to Satan, the prince of darkness. This is how all the misery on this earth began for humans.
God is a holy God, but also merciful and gracious. He goes on with man and provides Himself with 'covering clothing', with which the sinner can live for Him. Furthermore, God promises that in the future there will come another man, the 'offspring of the woman', who will crush Satan's head.
Noah and the Flood
After that, more and more people populate the earth. But more and more people wanted nothing more to do with the God of Adam. There was a large-scale mixing of people with angels from the invisible world. The people went further than Adam ever did, and the result is now that God "repented that He made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart." He decides to destroy all that He has made from the earth. Only Noah and his family are saved through the Flood for the judgment of God on apostate mankind. The angels who did this, by the way, will be judged by God.
The people of Israel
After the Flood, the weather is not good. At some point, God has to drive people apart because they rebel against Him as one. God gives them different languages so that they no longer understand each other. In this way He divides them all over the earth .
Then God calls Abram and promises to make him a great nation and through him to bless all the nations of the earth. That is the beginning of the people of Israel, God's people on earth.
But Israel's story is not one of roses and moons. The history of Israel is full of drama. A succession of sins and failures, but also in between, again and again, God's grace and His mercy on the people, so that He helps them further.
God intended that they should honor Him and dwell with them; first in a tent in the desert and later in the temple in Jerusalem. But time and again things go wrong and the end of the story is that they fall into idolatry and don't want to turn away from it. Before they came to the land of Canaan, God had already warned them of the result: He would drive them out of the land that God had given them. And so it happens: they are exiled to the land of Babylon; the judgment of God over their great sin, idolatry.
It seems as if God has failed: beautiful plans to rid the earth of the power of Satan. Despite God's goodness and grace, man would not cooperate. What's to come of it?
Fortunately, the prophets have not only always warned the people of Israel with God's words, but also often prophesied about the salvation that God Himself will eventually realize for His people. They prophesied of the Messiah whom God will send and who would redeem them from their sins.
Jesus Christ, His life and death
The New Testament begins with the four Gospels: the life of the Lord Jesus Christ from beginning to end. How the Son of God became man and showed Who He was in all that He did. He came to His people Israel, but they received Him not. On the contrary they have cried: Away with Him, crucify Him! Thus He was crucified on Calvary Hill and died in the place of sinners.
He is risen, seen by many, and after some time ascended to heaven. The disciples saw Him go and when He was gone two angels came and assured them that He would return in the same way.
The work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, His death, is God's means of reconciling a sinful and corrupt world with Him, the holy God. It is the culmination of God's story, it shows the heart of God and will be sung for eternity! The invitation to every person is to confess their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you belong to the One who is also called 'the second Man, the man from heaven'.
The Church of Jesus Christ
The book of Acts continues the story of how God makes the Church, a community of people from both Jews and Gentiles. The story makes clear that the Church is essentially different from the people of Israel and also different from the world. It has a heavenly destiny, not an earthly one and no longer belongs to the atmosphere of the world in which Satan dominates. But the Church is the people who have been transferred by God into 'the kingdom of the Son of His love'; people who are in the world, 'but not of the world' . People who 'do the will of God'.
The Letters in the New Testament
What that will of God means to the one who believes in Christ is covered in the epistles that come after the book of Acts. They are writings of the same apostles who also spread the gospel to Jews and Gentiles in the book of Acts.
It begins with the letter to the Romans, in which it is once again clearly explained what the Gospel of God actually means. Paul says that God had already "promised this gospel through His prophets, in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son." The letter is essential for a healthy Christian life.
Then come the other letters, from the first letter to Corinth through the letter of Jude. All these epistles are directed to the things that can divert the believers from sound doctrine, that which they have learned from the apostles. That is why all these letters contain warnings – sometimes very vehement – on the one hand, and on the other hand you will find things concerning Christ and the gospel rephrased over and over again. In addition, God ordered Paul to make known things that God had not communicated until then, the so-called 'mysteries' . These are also described in the letters.
The message of the New Testament epistles is that the believers have a battle to fight; they are under constant pressure to give up what they have learned from the apostles. All kinds of possible ideas and practices enter the Church and the letters warn against them. This battle is analogous to the battle that the people of Israel had to wage. The Old Testament helps in understanding this struggle because it is the "picture book of the New Testament." The things of Israel "are examples and warnings to us," says Paul.
More on New Testament content and structure.
In this blog you will find more about the content and structure of the New Testament. In doing so, it also tells you all about Christ, Christian doctrine and the Christian life, but also about the threats to the Christian faith. Threats that come from beliefs practices from Judaism on the one hand and paganism on the other. Read about it here.
The last
The last book of the Bible is the book of judgments, you might say. But also of the future of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will come in the clouds to take up His Church into heaven. This is one of the "mysteries" that Paul made known in his letters. After this has happened, terrible things will happen on this earth: the judgments of God on the world, on the people of Israel and the rest of the nations. Finally, the book tells very briefly about the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ that will last 1000 years and the final judgment after that.
Finally, it becomes clear that the eternal situation will be one in which God has indeed accomplished His plan after all. All that is in the new heaven and on the new earth will be under the eternal dominion of Christ Jesus, and Him will be praised and honored for all eternity!
The Bible concludes with a solemn appeal to take seriously the words of this prophecy and not to add to or subtract from it . Finally, the Lord Jesus Himself promises 'Behold, I am coming soon' and our answer may be 'Amen. Yes, come Lord Jesus!'
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