A big, beautiful, sometimes messy, complicated, yet simple, unified story

As a pastor, one of my principle tasks each week is to preach. My weeks are never the same, but one constant, unchanging duty is devoting myself to the repetitive study of God’s Word in order to preach from God’s Word on Sunday mornings.

I’ll never forget the moment in seminary when my view of the Bible changed. I entered seminary believing all the orthodox doctrines of inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible, and I still do without any reservation whatsoever. But what changed for me in seminary (for the better I will say) was coming to see the Bible as one unified story, made up of lots of individual yet interwoven stories.

Let me explain what I mean. Let’s take the story of David and Goliath as an example. At one level, the story of David and Goliath has elements of courage and bravery and facing your fears; all things David possessed or needed to do. Yet, is the story simply about trusting God to “kill the giants in your life?” No, there’s much more to it than that.

David and Goliath fits into the bigger story of God’s redemptive plan for the entire universe. The Bible is clear that God created everything perfect, that man chose to rebel against God, that sin entered the world because of man’s rebellion, and that God has taken the initiative upon himself to pay the price for sin and purchase redemption for humanity that humanity could not acquire on their own.

So, back to David and Goliath; much more than being about overcoming fears or being brave, the story is about God keeping his promises. In Genesis 3, right after humanity’s fall into sin, God promised Adam and Eve that one of their descendants would one day crush the head of the serpent (Satan) once and for all.

When God gave David victory over Goliath two things happened. God delivered his people Israel from their physical enemies, the Philistines; and, he preserved the promised line of his coming Messiah (Jesus, a descendant of David) who would be born to deliver all people from their real enemy: sin.

Much more than just being a compilation of moralistic stories that make us feel good, the Bible, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 is one unified story that tells us about how a good and just God has taken the initiative to save people who are totally unworthy of being saved.

The culmination of this is expressed when God’s own Son, Jesus, died on the cross for the sins of the world, was buried, and then was raised to life because death had no claim on him. All the little stories of the Bible flow into the main story of God’s redemption of his people through his Son Jesus.

So, the next time you pick up your Bible and read a story from Judges (do it, I dare you) or a passage from 1 Corinthians, think about how the passage you’re reading fits into the big story of redemption which God has accomplished for all who would repent and believe in his Son, King Jesus.

Brandon Herron is lead pastor at First Baptist Church in Sandpoint. He can be reached at brandon@sandpointfbc.org.