Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible
So you’re struggling to see the bigger picture in your Bible reading. That actually makes a ton of sense. Depending on how you go about your Bible reading, it can be easy to jump into certain passages and just wonder why they are there or how they relate to each other. Some of the Bible is weird! And it can be really discouraging to do the work of reading your Bible only to find the text so cryptic that you can’t figure out how it applies to your life or faith.
Understanding the overarching meta-narrative of scripture can be really helpful for this exact issue. So let’s talk about that for a second.
The first thing we have to talk about is that the Bible isn’t a single book.
It’s easy to forget that because we get it as a single-bound volume, but the Bible is a collection of books written by dozens of authors & editors. Its writing spans thousands of years and multiple languages and cultures. I mean, just consider the idea that as much time passed between the time of Abraham and Jesus as between Jesus and now.
That’s a long span!
If you were handed a collection of books like the Bible you would expect disunity. You would expect to find dozens of different purposes and views on things like life, theology, and ethics. And yet, when one looks at the Bible, we find a surprisingly unified and beautiful meta-narrative. Even as the Bible’s individual narratives cross thousands of years and differing cultures, it tells a singular and powerful story.
So what is that story and how do the different parts of the Bible connect to it? While different theologians might use slightly different language or titles to divide up this meta-narrative, pretty much all discussions of it will fall under these five categories that I call: Creation, Sin, Promise, Christ, Forever. Lets walk through each one.
Creation - The Bible teaches us that God is the creator and sustainer of all reality. The Bible opens in Genesis 1 with the creation narrative, but God’s place and authority as creator is a unified theme throughout the whole of the scripture. Texts like the book of Job, several Psalms (ie - Ps 8, Ps 19, Ps 139), and New Testament passages Romans 1-3 & Colossians 1 all root the overarching narrative of scripture back to God’s role as creator and ours as his creation.
Sin - Sin (or rebellion against God’s design) enters the story in Genesis 3, but is also one of the primary unifying themes of the whole scripture. God designed all of reality perfectly and designed humans specifically to live in intimate and eternal relationship with him. The rebellion of sin, however, breaks that relationship and creates death. Rather than connecting with either God or our design we instead experience decay and death. Sin ruins what God created perfectly. This is seen starting in Genesis 3 and all the way through the scriptural narrative to famous passages like Romans 3:23 and 6:23. Sin is the primary problem of the human condition and it is the primary problem in the narrative of the Bible.
Promise - Sin ruined God’s perfect creation, but He is not a God who is content to allow sin the final word. Beginning in Genesis 3 and throughout scripture, we see over and over that God is a promise-making God. He promises things like care, blessing, and presence. Most of the historical narratives in the Old Testament center around promises and covenants God makes with creation. Each of these promises points in its own way to the ultimate promise God makes. He is going to fix what sin has broken. He is going to make a way for humanity to live in their design of relationship with him again.
Christ - Jesus is God’s promise fulfilled. His sinless life, unjust death to pay for sins, bodily resurrection, ascension to heaven, and eventual return to restore all things is God’s solution to the problem of Sin. Jesus’ death pays for our sins. His resurrection shows his authority over death. His perfect life grants the holiness that He gives to His followers. His eventual return will remove all remaining vestiges of death and the curse. While the four Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ life and ministry the whole Bible points to him. The Old Testament narratives point to aspects or types of Messiah. The prophets predicted his coming. The New Testament letters talk in detail about the life of following him.
Forever - The story didn’t end with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus ascended into heaven from which he’ll return and restore all things. God’s ultimate design for humanity is a perfect eternal life in relationship with Him. Jesus will one day return and establish this eternal perfect kingdom. The Old Testament prophets spell out the need of this eternal kingdom and predict it. Jesus himself speaks a lot about his design for forever. The New Testament letters talk about the life of following Jesus and preparing for his return. Revelation gives a prophetic picture of what that reality will eventually look like.
All of this is to say that the Bible tells a grand and unified story in spite of its eclectic origins. Christians believe that this is because even though the Bible was written over thousands of years by dozens of authors, it was ultimately guided, inspired, written, and preserved by the Holy Spirit of God. God has one cosmic story that He is telling across human history. Regardless of where you pick up in the Bible, you can identify where you are in God’s larger gospel story. You can find how each piece speaks into the life of faith here and now!
So dig in, see Jesus’ love for you on every page, and enjoy the greatest story ever told.
