The main highway and goal of the Bible's story.
Despite Maria's refrain in 'do re me,' the beginning is not always the best place to start. When reading a map we commonly look to our destination first and then plot the route from our start point. So it is with the Bible.
We are fortunate to live AD. We know where God's great salvation plan is heading. He has already plotted the route to redemption. We are just retracing it. With one day until our reading plan begins I therefore thought it worth reminding us of our destination. This is helpful as it makes better sense of some of the landmarks we'll pass and the choices we'll see God made with respect to the route.
Essentially God's great goal can be summed up as "Christ over all." Paul puts this wonderfully in Ephesians 1v3-14. Read it here, noting especially v10.
Scholars have thought much about whether there is a key theme upon which the Bible's storyline can be hung. Paul's words here suggest that ‘the kingdom of God’ - more specifically ‘the reign of God in Christ’ would seem right. This is the goal of history when "the times reach their fulfilment" (v10). Jesus' gospel summary that "the kingdom of God is near" confirms this.
But there are many wonderful truths Paul weaves in. First, the eventual sphere of the kingdom of God is nothing less than all heaven and earth united under Christ. In other words, a universe where the hostility and disorder brought in through sin is finally no more. Second, this kingdom is not simply about rule but about relationships. Its subjects are also adopted (and forgiven) sons. They don't just serve the king, they know him. Here for both ladies and gents, "sons" implies "inheritors." Third, this leads to holiness. Later in the letter we learn this is essentially to "image" God (4v32-5v2). Our destiny is eventually to be like him: to be free from sin, serving and pleasing to him in every way. Fourth, this of course means blessing, which is to be granted joy by God. But note this is "every spiritual blessing." There is nothing that might bring joy from God that these sons haven't been given.
Perhaps the most striking detail however, is that the Lord is doing all this that these people might be "for the praise of his glory" (v12,14) and especially of his grace (v6). God's "glory" is the display of his excellence just as the glory of a view is its beauty on show. So God's purpose throughout is that his excellence is displayed. It is this truth, perhaps more than any other, which gives some explanation as to why history unfolds as it does.
We instinctively feel seeking one’s own glory is to rather lack the humility we see in Christ. However, we recognize that it is an injustice for someone's name to be defamed by the press. It is therefore a reflection of the fact that God only does what is right that he seeks his own glory. And we should remember that this is to our benefit.
We might therefore attempt to sum up God's great purpose in history as something like this: God's purpose in history is to glorify himself by displaying his character and grace in saving and blessing a people to image him in his world and know him through his Son.
In his excellent Bible overview "Gospel and Kingdom," Graeme Goldsworthy summed up the kingdom of God with the phrase “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.” In terms of God’s purpose however we can elaborate on that: God's purpose is to establish a people to live to his praise, enjoying his place, obeying his rule, and experience the blessing of his presence.
From Genesis to Revelation, it is these truths that are dominant. They are first evident in the perfect garden of Eden, where they are also lost because sin provokes judgment from God’s presence. Their restoration is then promised to Abraham, and seen to differing degrees throughout Old Testament history, before their final expression is predicted by the prophets, embodied in Jesus, tasted by the church, and gloriously pictured as the Bible ends.
The Bible’s story in Brief
The Bible is unlike the books of other religions in that it comprises 66 books, containing many different kinds of literature, written by around 40 authors over a period of about 1,500 years. Yet, because it is inspired by God, it contains one coherent message: the unfolding story of how God has made himself known in the history of Israel and ultimately in the person of Christ, with the purpose of gathering a people from all humanity who will be his forever.
Although its writings address the particular historical contexts in which they were written, their principles apply just as relevantly today. Christians throughout history bear testimony to their life-transforming power in bringing them to know and serve the God who the Bible reveals.
📖 Old Testament (39 books)
Law / Torah / Pentateuch / Books of Moses
1. Genesis
History begins with God as the generous creator of all things, and humanity bearing God’s image and commissioned to bring the world to flourishing. We read how humanity rebelled, bringing suffering and death, but also how God immediately promised one day to remedy this through a descendant of Eve. God chose Abraham and promised to restore everything to blessing through a nation that would come from him, live in Canaan (which became Israel), and lead to a particular king who would rule the world. This would be the promised one. The book ends with Abraham’s descendants in Egypt. They are named after Abraham’s grandson Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, which means “he struggles with God”.
2. Exodus
Now called Israel, Abraham’s descendants through Jacob are enslaved and threatened in Egypt. But God raises up Moses to bring them out through mighty miracles and tell them God’s special name: I AM WHO I AM. Moses leads them to Mount Sinai whilst God feeds them with water from rock, manna from the ground, and quail from the sky. There they formally become a nation as God enters into a covenant with them, gives them his laws, establishes a priesthood and sacrificial system, and promises to live among them and bless them if only they will love and obey him. God’s concern is that the nations would witness his dealings with Israel and know that he is the one true God. The culmination of the book is the construction of a tent called the tabernacle where priests would offer sacrifices to atone for sin so that God could live with the people. And so, the book ends with God’s presence descending to inhabit the tabernacle, and the nation setting out for the land of Canaan through the desert, led by God in a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
3. Leviticus
This book records further laws given to Israel. It shows how a holy and utterly pure God can dwell among a sinful people only if there is the priesthood to teach what is acceptable to him and to make sacrifices to pay the penalty for sin. It also details various offerings and festivals of devotion and remembrance of God.
4. Numbers
Numbers tells the story of Israel’s journey through the wilderness, recording how readily the people grumbled and forgot what God had done for them, and how graciously he continued to provide for them. When they reached the edge of Canaan, they lacked faith to enter, and so, as punishment, they had to remain in the desert for forty years until that generation died.
5. Deuteronomy
This records Moses’ teaching on the edge of Canaan, in which God’s law is reiterated with a particular focus on life in the land they were about to enter. It reaffirms God’s intent that Israel lives with such a distinctiveness that the onlooking nations want to know about their God.
History Books
6. Joshua
The book of Joshua details how God fulfilled his promise of the land by enabling Israel to enter it, bring judgment on the peoples who lived there for their appalling wickedness, and then settle.
7-12. Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings
These books record Israel’s subsequent history, first under judges and then under kings. Throughout, we see Israel’s unfaithfulness to the Lord and his grace in patiently persevering with them. The high point comes under Kings David and Solomon. God promises David that the long-awaited king will come from his line. And Solomon builds a permanent temple for the Lord, to replace the moveable tabernacle. Yet both David and Solomon commit serious sin, and after Solomon’s reign God divides the kingdom into a northern kingdom of ten tribes (from then known as Israel) and a southern kingdom of two (Judah), which would be ruled by David’s descendants.
Despite a few faithful exceptions in the south, subsequent kings prove unfaithful, and the people follow them. They ignore the prophets God sends to warn them that unless they repent, they will lose the land as a severe judgment. This eventually happens: The northern kingdom is conquered and exiled by Assyria in 722 BC, and the southern kingdom by Babylon between 605–586 BC, with many Jews taken into exile, and Jerusalem and the temple itself destroyed. It seemed that all was lost and God had forsaken Israel because of her persistent sin.
13-14. 1–2 Chronicles
These retell the story of Israel’s kings with a particular focus on the temple, the priesthood, and Israel’s worship.
15-16. Ezra & Nehemiah
In 539BC Persia conquered Babylon. These books record how God in his kindness then brought his people back from the Babylonian exile in three waves between 538–444 BC: under Zerubbabel (who rebuilt the temple), Ezra (who re-established worship and teaching of the law), and Nehemiah (who rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls).
17. Esther
The book of Esther tells how God placed Esther as queen of the Persian empire in order to protect the Jewish people from destruction.
Poetry & Wisdom Literature
18. Job
A profound and beautiful poem that explores why the righteous suffer, affirming God’s wisdom and showing how believers should respond to suffering.
19. Psalms
This compilation of songs and prayers teach how to relate to God honestly through the ups and downs of life.
20. Proverbs
Wisdom sayings that teach how to live well in God’s world.
21. Ecclesiastes
Reflections on the meaning of life “under the sun,” showing the vanity of much human endeavour in the light of chance, injustice, death and God’s final judgment.
22. Song of Songs
A poem celebrating the goodness and joy of marital love.
Major Prophets
23–27. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
The prophetic books contain God’s warnings about Israel and Judah’s sin through the time of the later kings and how the people should respond. They predict the coming exile but also proclaim hope: God promises to restore his people to their land and send the long-awaited king first promised at the start of the book of Genesis. He would be “God with us,” judge the earth with justice, and bring about a universal kingdom of righteousness and peace, eventually restoring the entire world to what it was meant to be.
The prophets reveal that this king would be a servant who suffers punishment in the place of sinners, is raised from the dead, and pours out God’s Spirit to change hearts so that people mourn their sin and love, obey, and serve God. Israel had failed to be the light to the nations she was to be. But when renewed in this way, God’s people would finally show the nations the worthiness of their God.
Lamentations is a poetic lament from Jeremiah over the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. And Daniel records the faithfulness of Daniel and three friends serving under exile in the Babylonian government. By God’s Spirit, Daniel interprets dreams and events which reveal the coming of the Persian, Greek and then Roman empires, who would terribly oppress the Jews, but after which God’s kingdom would be established through one termed “the Son of Man.”
Minor Prophets
28–36. Hosea to Zephaniah
These shorter prophetic books address Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations in the lead up to the exile. Like the major prophets, they speak of judgment for sin but also of hope: God will one day fulfil his promises not only for Israel but for the whole world.
37-38. Haggai and Zechariah
These were the oracles that encouraged the returned exiles to rebuild the temple and point forward to a greater fulfilment of God dwelling with his people.
39. Malachi
Malachi was written around 450 BC. It closes the Old Testament by rebuking ongoing sin in the re-established nation and promising that God himself will come, bringing both judgment and purification so the people will finally be a people that honours him.
✝️ New Testament (27 books)
Gospels
40–42. Matthew, Mark, Luke
Written in the 60s AD, these three gospels record the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Matthew and John were apostles. Mark wrote his Gospel based on Peter’s testimony. Luke carefully investigated all the eyewitness accounts. They clearly use similar sources, and show how Christ’s fulfilment of prophecy, teaching and miracles prove he is the long-awaited king known as the Messiah (Christ, in Greek). They focus on what he said about the promised Kingdom of God, which he inaugurated as the realm of God’s restorative rule. But they focus especially on Jesus’ death and resurrection as the means by which those who repent can receive forgiveness, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and entry into that kingdom.
43. John
John’s Gospel is more reflective, structured around key miracle-signs that reveal who Jesus is, and emphasises faith and eternal life.
History
44. Acts
Acts records how the risen Jesus ascended to heaven, and how the Holy Spirit was poured out and enabled the apostles to spread the gospel from Jerusalem to the wider world. As we read, we witness the growth of the early church amid persecution and how the message reached the major centres such as Athens and Rome. The book shows how God’s promises through the prophets are fulfilled in the church as it displays the new life Christ gives and tells the nations of him, so bringing them to God.
Paul’s Letters
45–57. Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon
These are letters sent to individuals, or to churches mentioned in the book of Acts. In them, the writers apply the gospel to the various circumstances being faced. They explain salvation through Christ, instruct believers in Christian living, and guide churches in their life together. Paul, their author, was once of a Jewish party known as the Pharisees and persecuted Christians, but was transformed by an encounter with the risen Christ and made a central apostle of the early church.
General Letters
58–65. Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, Jude
Written by other early Christian leaders, these letters encourage perseverance, faithful living, and right belief. Peter and John were two of Jesus’ key apostles. James and Jude were his brothers. The author of Hebrews is unknown. It richly explains how Jesus fulfils the Old Testament sacrifices, priesthood, and covenant. All of these writings are consistent with the apostles’ teaching as Christ’s authorised witnesses.
Prophecy
66. Revelation
This famous book is a vision given to the apostle John, revealing the struggles the church and world will face before Christ’s return, but also the certainty of God’s final victory. It ends with Christ’s return to earth in judgment, resurrection of the vast multitude of believers from all nations, and life for them forever with God in a renewed creation. And so, through the king first promised in the book of Genesis, what was lost in the beginning is much more than restored.