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September 2, 2024

The Story of Scripture

by Jason Neill

Scripture reading: Genesis 1-3; Revelation 19-22

I have a confession to make. Are you ready for it? Here it is.

I am not a big fan of fiction. My apologies to those of you who do enjoy that genre. I do like the stories of Sherlock Holmes, however. Years ago, when I was in graduate school, I purchased the complete short stories and novels of Sherlock Holmes. I found them to be spellbinding. It was fascinating to read how Holmes could see all the same pieces of evidence that Inspector Lestrade saw, yet it was Holmes that solved the crime every time. Let’s face it, Holmes was a master of observation.

There is a perfect illustration of this in the short Sherlock Holmes story, A Scandal in Bohemia. Holmes asked Watson how many times he had seen the steps that led up to the room where they were presently occupied. “Hundreds of times,” replied Watson. “Then how many are there?” Unable to answer, Holmes tells Watson there are seventeen steps. The reason why he knows this fact is because while Watson has seen the steps, Holmes has both seen and observed.

There is a spiritual lesson here we could all learn. That is to say, the lesson of observation specifically as it relates to the story of the Bible. By doing so, we can become, in a sense, like Sherlock Holmes. We can become Biblical detectives. If you were asked by someone not familiar with the Bible, what is its main storyline, could you tell it? That’s what I would like us to observe in this post.

The Bible can be divided into four acts: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Let’s take each one in turn.

Act One: Creation (see Genesis 1-2). The opening pages of the Bible tell us about God, who always existed, who created the universe, the world we live in, all the animals, how He separated the land from water, and how He eventually created the first human beings Adam and Eve. The intent of creation was to reveal the nature of God. We can clearly deduce things about God from looking at nature. Our world is structured, suitable for life, and not least of all beautiful. From these deductions, we can reasonably say God is powerful because He created all things, He is orderly because the universe operates in an orderly fashion, and He is an artist because He has made a beautiful world with its mountains, valleys, flowers, and wildlife.

Not only was it God’s intention for nature to reveal Himself, but He also intended for Adam and Eve to rule over creation, multiply, be God’s representatives on earth, and be in fellowship with Him. Unfortunately, something went very wrong with God’s original design which leads us to Act Two: Fall.

Act Two: Fall (see Genesis 3). Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden. Amid the garden, there were two trees. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. God told our first parents that they were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil otherwise on the day they ate it, they would die. Satan, in the form of a snake, made an appearance in the garden to seduce Eve to eat the fruit and disobey God. Where Satan came from and why one of God’s creations would encourage Adam and Eve to disobey God is another story for another post. Eve, believing the lie that she would not die, took the fruit and ate it, then gave some to her husband. The moment they ate, they both died spiritually; in other words, they were separated from God. There was now a barrier between Him and the first couple. Sin by its very nature is a violation of the law of God in thought, word, and/or deed and now separated them. Humanity has suffered the consequences ever since.

Now, God could have wiped out Adam and Eve, Satan, the earth, and the universe consequently. He could have easily started over, but He implemented a rescue plan because He wanted to have a relationship with His creation. This leads us to Act Three: Redemption.

Act Three: Redemption (see Genesis 3-Acts). Much of the story of the Bible is God redeeming His creation so they can be made spiritually alive (i.e., receive everlasting life) and in fellowship with Him. Because the wage of sin is death (see Romans 6:23), or to say it another way sin earns a person death (both spiritual and physical) a sacrifice is required. Genesis 3:21 reads, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (NIV). God accepted the death of an animal in place of Adam and Eve’s physical death and used its skin to clothe them. This is the first time we see the concept of substitution in the Bible. He redeems Adam and Eve. Redemption means to “buy back.” The animal sacrifice was the price paid for their rebellion.

Fast forward a bit and you’ll see the Old Testament sacrificial system in Leviticus is descriptive and instructional for God’s people, namely Israel, regarding how they were to atone (i.e., atone means to “cover”) their sins. This sacrificial system was imperfect because it was temporary and because the death of an animal sacrifice could never permanently atone (i.e., “cover”) sin (see Hebrews 10:4). Those sacrifices were pointers to the ultimate sacrifice that would be made on our behalf by Jesus of Nazareth, God in the flesh (see Isaiah 53; Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

We, who have believed in Jesus for everlasting life, are ambassadors/representatives for God to share the good news (see 2 Corinthians 5:20). We share with others that we are all sinners (see Romans 3:23), that the punishment for sin is both physical and spiritual death which means separation from God forever (see Romans 6:23), we could not come to God so He came to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (see Philippians 2), lived a perfect life, died in our place as our substitute (see Romans 5:8), rose from the dead on the third day to prove He was God and made a sufficient payment for the sins of all humanity (see Psalm 16:10; John 20; Acts 2:22-36; 1 John 2:2), and if we place our trust in Jesus alone for everlasting life He gives us that life the moment we believe, and thus we are forever a child of God (see John 3:16-17, 36; 5:40; 6:40, 47; 11:25-26).

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us the story of Jesus and the price He paid to redeem humanity. The Book of Acts tells us the story of the early church and how they shared that good news with others. The New Testament letters (Romans through Jude) instruct us who have believed in Jesus alone for everlasting life on how to live the Christian life. In the interim we wait for His return, and this leads us to Act Four: Restoration.

Act Four: Restoration (see Revelation 19:11-22:21). Christ promised He would return. When Christ comes again, He will vanquish evil and set up His kingdom. We get a glimpse of this in Revelation 19-22. He takes away all pain, crying, and all the former things of our sin cursed world. We who have believed in Jesus alone for everlasting life will forever live with Christ while those who refused to believe will be eternally condemned (i.e., separated from God forever).

Because of these four acts, next time you are reading your Bible you can clearly identify what portion of scripture you are reading and where it falls within the story of the Bible. Is it the creation narrative, the story of the fall, the redemptive account, or the restoration chronicle? Recognizing the four acts will enable you to be a Biblical detective whereby you not only see but observe the Biblical story as well.