The Bible: A Redemptive Narrative

This blog is the first of three that I plan to publish related to the Bible. A survey from 2021 found that only 11% of people read the Bible daily. When you compare this to the fact that nearly 100% of those same people consume food daily, it places the importance of the Bible in the lives of people in perspective. To the people in the survey, food is obviously far more important.

Should the Bible have a place of great importance in our lives?

My answer to this question is a resounding yes! We desperately need the truths of the Bible in our lives. If fact, the Bible holds the keys to the future of our world. You have probably heard the expression "a brave new world." When you consider AI and the dazzling technological advances that now affect the lives of all people, a brave new world may be an accurate description. How will emerging AI and the continuing advance of technology affect our world? The influence that the Bible is allowed to exert in our hearts and lives will go a long way toward answering this question. I am convicted that the Bible rightly understood and applied always yields positive benefits. Yes, the Bible should have a place of great importance in our lives, but there is a second question that needs to be answered.

How should we view and understand the Bible?

This question is the essence of this blog, and the title of this blog encapsulates the answer. The Bible is comprised of two testaments and 66 books. It was written over a period of some 1500 years with 40 different authors. The Old Testament contains law, history, prophecy, wisdom literature and apocalyptic writings. The New Testament begins with the gospels followed by Acts which is the history of the early church. Following this crucial historical book, we have the epistles addressed to various bodies of believers. There are also letters written to individuals and groups of people. The New Testament ends with the apocalyptic book of Revelation which points us to the future when God will culminate human history as we know it.

Every verse and every part of the Bible is the inerrant word of God and has untold value for our lives. When we pick up a Bible or open its pages to read, we should treat it with the upmost reverence. To use it as a photo op or to draw attention to yourself is a grievous error. Showcasing the Bible for your own personal agenda has the same spiritual rewards afforded to the Pharisees when they prayed their prayers on street corners to be seen of men.

We should have great reverence for the Bible. The unique composition should be noted because it is proof that the Bible is not just another book written by men. The strategic variety of literature in God's word points to the unified purpose of the Bible.

The various types of literature in the Bible contributes each in its own unique was to the story. At all times as the story unfolds the redemptive purposes of God are advanced. In the end they are complete. We now await the final completion which will be set in motion by the return of the Lord Jesus.

Now I want to home in on the question of how we should view the Bible. Foremost of all, we need to recognize the Bible as a redemptive narrative. Beginning in the early chapters of the Bible, the redemptive plan of God is stated in the form of a promise. After the temptation and fall of man, God made a redemptive promise. Speaking to the serpent which had tempted Adam and Eve, God said, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel" (Genesis 3:16). The unfolding story of God's redemption and the fulfillment of God's promise follows and flows throughout scripture.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

Obviously, redemption is God's work of mercy, grace and love bestowed on us. We have to choose how we will respond to God's redemptive narrative. We can disbelieve it or outright reject it. On the other hand, we can receive God's wonderful gift of redemption. A positive response to God's redemption leads us to repent of our sins and place our faith in God's redemption work accomplished and completed by Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection. The Bible is crystal clear about God's will in our response to His redemptive work. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

If we miss out on understanding the Bible as the redemptive narrative of God, it will not matter what else we may know about the Bible. If we miss out on God's redemptive purposes, we have clearly never understood the word of God.

Some so-called scholars have spent years of their lives pursuing what they called higher criticism of the Bible. While many of them are dead, the Bible stands as the word of God yesterday, today and forever.

Some are carrying their Bibles around in some kind of display of piety. Listening to the things they say and watching their actions, one has to wonder if they have actually read anything the Bible has to say. Some of these Bible display folks do some hen-scratching, hen-pecking, cherry picking of Bible passages occasionally for the sake of ideological and political argument.

I'm glad that I have read and received the narrative of God's redemption. I praise the Lord and rejoice that I can declare with the song writer these wonderful words.

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child, and forever I am.

Redeemed, redeem, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed, redeemed, His child, and forever, I am.

I challenge you to read the Bible with a discipline, consistent effort. It is the greatest story that has ever been told because it tells the glorious story of redemption. My question to you in closing this blog is this, have you been redeemed?