GOD’S STORY
GOD’S STORY is an introduction to the overall story of the Bible. It is designed to convey and connect you to the loving message of God as recorded in the Bible from creation to new creation in 10 quick steps. It starts with a loving God who creates a people for himself and ends with a people with God forever.
1. Creation
God created the world and gave us life.
We belong to him and not to ourselves.
God, out of the abundance of his love, created the world and gave us life. We belong to him and not to ourselves. This does not imply a kind of slavery but is true freedom. This life is a life of relationship. Relationship with God, with others, and with the world. God created a perfect world with perfect relationships. A place where God is with his people, in his presence, experiencing his complete blessing. A picture of God’s perfect kingdom of love.
- Genesis 1:1,26
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…. Then God said “Let us make mankind in our image….”
2. Crisis
But we chose to use our God given freedom to reject God and become our own gods.
But God’s first created ones, Adam and Eve, chose to use their God given freedom to reject God, desiring to become their own gods. Down through history humanity has constantly turned towards the wickedness of their hearts, desiring to make their own name great instead of honouring and loving the true God. But God had other plans, he would restore the relationship with his people and restore his kingdom. He starts by calling a man named Abraham.
- Genesis 6:5
The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
3.Covenant
I will be their God, they will be my people, and I will dwell with them.
God always wanted to be with his people. The covenants of the Bible focus on the promise of God being with his people in the kingdom of God: “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing.” From one man, Abraham, God made a nation, Israel, through whom he would bless all nations. With the appointment of a king to represent God, and the construction of the temple as the house of God, God had completed his deliverance of his people out of slavery in Egypt and brought them under his loving kingdom rule and into all the blessings of a relationship with himself in the promised land.
- Leviticus 26:12
I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.
4. Captivity
The exile is a picture of what life without God is like. It is to remind the people that God is a holy and sovereign God.
Through constant sin and rebellion against God, Israel breaks the covenant, and the united kingdom of Israel is divided and eventually sent into captivity. The city of Jerusalem and the temple, the dwelling place of God, is destroyed. It now seems the people of God do not have a place, are not experiencing God’s blessing and presence, and are not under his rule. The exile is a picture of what life without God is like. It is to remind them that God is a holy and sovereign God. But God through his prophets sends a message of renewed hope. He announces a return to the land, a return of blessing, and the fulfilment of the covenant promises through the coming of a Messiah.
- Ezekiel 16:59
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant.”
5. Christ
Christ the Messiah comes to live among his people. All the promises of the kingdom are fulfilled in him.
Christ the Messiah, the Son of God, comes to live among his people. And with his coming all the promises of the kingdom of God are fulfilled in him: he is God’s people, God’s place, and God’s rule and blessing. In Christ, all who live by faith are God’s people. In Christ, God was with us, and is with all who believe by the Spirit of Christ. Through Christ, heaven comes to earth, and he establishes his loving kingdom rule through which we will experience all the blessings of life with God. Paradoxically this new kingdom life comes through God giving his one and only Son out of love for us.
- Mark 1:15
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
6. Cross
Through Christ’s death and resurrection we have received forgiveness of our sins and eternal life with God.
In sending his Son as the Messiah into the world God did what he had always promised. Through Jesus, God set up his kingdom and invites us into a new covenant relationship with him. Christ was crucified in weakness, but on the third day he rose from the dead in glorious power, confirming he was the Messiah. Life defeated death. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have received forgiveness of our sins and eternal life with God. What happened to Jesus will also happen to us. His bodily resurrection is the guarantee of our future resurrection and a sign that the new kingdom of God has come. We have eternal life in his everlasting kingdom now.
- 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
7. Church
Christ formed a new community of believers called the church in which God now dwells by his Spirit.
God called people into a relationship with himself through a new covenant made possible through the death and resurrection of Christ. This formed a new community of believers called the church in which God now dwells by his Spirit. Now all those of faith, throughout all of history, both Jew and gentile, are part of the people of God, and will inherit the kingdom of God. While awaiting the return of Christ the church lives to worship and glorify God by obeying the Great Commandment - living in unity through loving one another, and carrying out the Great Commission - making disciples through being witnesses to his reconciling love for the world, and thereby blessing all nations.
- 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
8. Commission
Christ’s love compels us, and the Holy Spirit enable us, to announce and demonstrate God’s love to all.
In their mission into the world, the first disciples are not left on their own. Christ promised to be with them until he returned. They shared in his authority and received the Holy Spirit to empower them. As witnesses of the resurrection of Christ they proclaimed the kingdom of God and told the people that Jesus truly is the Messiah, the risen Lord of this world. As we participate in God’s mission, we join the triune God in his loving plan for this world. The same power, authority, and Holy Spirit presence that was given to the first disciples also works in and through us. Christ’s love compels us and the Holy Spirit enables us to announce and demonstrate God’s love to all.
- Matthew 28:18-19
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations….”
9. Coming
As sure as Jesus came the first time, he will come again. His enemies will be cast from his presence, but his people will live forever with him.
As sure as Jesus came the first time, he will also come a second time. When Christ comes in glory and power, no one will be able to ignore his appearing. Christ will bring about the final victory over Satan, sin, and death. God will be the righteous judge of all creation. His enemies will be cast from his presence, but his people will live forever with him in his kingdom in perfect loving communion as the bride of Christ.
- Revelation 22:12
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”
10. Culmination
God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule, enjoying God’s blessing and presence in the new creation, forever.
The Bible begins with a picture of a perfect creation where his created ones enjoyed perfect harmony and relationship with a loving God, with each other, and with the created order. The fall destroyed that harmony. Through God’s loving reconciling work in sending Christ, he restored our relationship with him. However, the restoration and renewal of the whole of God’s creation is still to come. We now wait for the final fulfilment and culmination of the promised kingdom of God: God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule, enjoying God’s blessing and presence in the new creation, forever. This is what God always wanted. This is God’s story.
- Revelation 21:3
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”