Biblical Ground-Motive: The Bible's Big Story (a Repost from Nov. 2009)

The Bible’s Big Story

Without a firm grasp on the Bible’s Big Story, its grand meta-narrative, our understanding of the smaller stories and even the Gospel is hindered. Moreover, given how fast our culture is moving from the Christian heritage to crass secularization, those with whom we would share the Gospel haven’t the necessary historical context to make the Gospel meaningful. What follows is just one suggestion to help improve these conditions.

Systematic-Theologically Stated

In essence, the Bible’s Big Story can be summed up in God creating and redeeming a humanity to dwell among, so that throughout the Story we hear the promising refrain that is finally and fully realized in Rev 21:3, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Systematically stated, this Big Story or meta-narrative is an organic unity that unfolds through four major divisions: (1) Creation, (2) rebellion, (3) redemption, and (4) consummation or new creation. Thus, (1) God creates the universe and man. Originally, the creation and humanity were “very good” in God’s evaluation, by virtue of the entire created order, especially man, who, as prophet, priest, and king over creation, is in a proper relationship with the Creator God, evil being the contrary of this “very good” relationship.

Soon, though, (2) this sweet, loving, sustaining relationship was ruined by man’s rebellion against God. Because God is infinitely just and cannot lie, he was true to his word and decree, and thus brought man and his world under the judgment and curse promised upon man’s disobedience. Thankfully, (3) God is also infinitely merciful, and with the punishment came the Promise—the first promise of redemption, the Gospel (Gen 3:15). The promised “Seed of the woman,” the Coming One, “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), Jesus Christ, stepped into history and accomplished that redemption through his incarnation, life, sacrificial-substitutionary death, resurrection from the dead, his exaltation to the right hand of the Father, and the sending of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (henceforth, these historical-redemptive events of Jesus’ sojourn on earth during his first coming will be called the Christ Event for convenience). We now live in the daily expectation of Christ’s return, when he will bring his redemptive work to a completion with his second coming, bring about a general resurrection of believers and unbelievers alike, and executing the final judgment, once for all to destroy all his enemies, Death and Hades, and the Adversary himself, that old serpent, Satan in the lake of fire. Only then, after the curse, evil, and death that was ushered in by man’s fall is finally destroyed, having been “put under Christ’s feet,” will (4) the new creation—the new heaven and new earth—be realized.

In the present, therefore, the whole creation in general (Rom 8:18f) and humanity in particular is living in the tension between Christ accomplishing redemption (his first coming) and his breaking into history to wrap up all things and bring that redemption to its completion in judgment on the wicked and salvation on the elect (his second coming). So “according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13). This hope is our salvation.

Lest it seem that we have gotten ahead of ourselves in neatly systematizing all the complex data from Scripture in the four-fold framework above (i.e., creation, rebellion, redemption, consummation or new creation; henceforth, CRRC), we should observe that within the Bible itself there is a similar structuring of the Plan of God, which also bears witness to the beautiful coherence of the Big Story.

Biblical-Theologically Stated

A quick caveat is in order at this point. We need to make clear what we mean when we distinguish between systematic and biblical theology. First, it is not as though systematic theology is unbiblical over against the other, the biblical theology. Rather the two could be fairly understood better as: systematic theology is deductive in drawing its conclusions, whereas the other, biblical theology, is an inductive process. Both, however, are biblical in the sense that each methodology, if done with integrity and fidelity to Christ, will reach ‘biblical’ conclusions.

Therefore, when coming to the biblical data, that is, what Scripture diachronically and organically reveals concerning the major turning points in the Big Story, we find the same categories, only framed a little differently.

There is a literary device known as an inclusio. An inclusio acts as bookends for the content of a given literary passage or even the entire work. That is to say, an author will include his central theme or thrust of a block of material at the beginning and a corresponding piece of the same at the end, thus emphasizing that he intends the reader to bear this central point in the fore of their thoughts while journeying from one bookend to another. One explicit example of the use of an inclusio would be John’s prologue to his gospel (1:1—18).

John’s prologue begins thus, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn 1:1). This last phrase univocally states the deity of the Word, Jesus. Likewise, the prologue ends by restating the same point(s), “No one has ever seen God; the only God [“the Word was God,” 1:1c], who is at the Father’s side [“with God,” 1:1b, 2], he has made him known” (ESV 1:18). John therefore wants the reader to understand clearly from the start that the One who the entire rest of this gospel is about is none other than God himself. By means of the inclusio, then, John emphasizes the deity of Jesus, and his exclusive ability to reveal the Father (1:18c), which is exactly what the rest of John’s gospel is about.

Similarly, and closer to the context now under consideration, we also find an inclusio being used in Genesis 1:1 and 2:4. Genesis 1:1 reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Similarly, Genesis 2:4 says, “These are the generations of the heavens and earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” These bookends are intended to stress that God, as Creator and Controller, is the absolute sovereign over everything that exists—everything. Such a concept would have stood in sharp contrast to every other prevailing pagan origins stories—whether they be in Moses’ day or our own! In addition, since Genesis 2:4 also serves as the introduction to the following section (2:4—24), they thus direct the reader toward harmonizing the two accounts. (It’s worth mentioning that these two examples are linked intentionally by John with the opening words: “In the beginning...” in a creational context [John 1:1—3]. To then discover that both introductions have a similar pattern with the rear bookend of the inclusio also preparing the reader for what follows is a literary jewel that shouldn’t be overlooked!)

Another strong feature in the Bible is known as chiasm. A chiasm begins and ends with the inclusio but also has more or less members between the bookends, which correspond respectively. For instance, it would follow a pattern similar to this: A-B-C-D-C’-B’-A’. Sometimes these members are comprised of single terms; sometimes they are constructed of larger concepts or thoughts.

With these illustrations of the inclusio and chiasm under our belt, we’re ready to move on and examine their function in the Big Story of creation, fall, redemption and consummation.

Granting, then, it’s overall unity, it should not surprise us that the Bible as a whole has this same features. The first three chapters (Gen 1 – 3) and the final three chapters (Rev 20 – 21) of the Bible have incredible correspondence to one another; so much so that there is sufficient reason to conclude that this pair of triplets form the inclusio that provides the bookends or framework for all the content between them; and the central thrust of the Big Story or meta-narrative, in terms of which all the little stories or micro-narratives make sense, not least the subject, object, and climax of the Big Story—the Christ Event. The Christ Event is the center or chi of the chiasm, making Jesus both the subject and object of all of history. As such, grasping the import of the centrality of the meanings of these member is essential for formulating a biblically robust doctrine of eschatology. This framework could be expressed as follows.


(A) Genesis 1:1—2:24 The Original “Very Good” Creation; God Dwelling with His People.

(A. 1) Gen 1:1—2:3 A general description of creation; God making all things from nothing

(A. 2. i) Gen 2:4—24 A particular description of creation; the dwelling place of God is with man contingently

(A. 2. ii) Gen 2:15—17 Life with God in the garden and access to the tree of life contingent upon trusting and obeying God, and thus keeping his Word.

(B) Genesis 3 The Fatal Fall of Man; God Judges Rebels; Death Enters

(B to X) Gen 3:15—Malachi The War Between the Two Seeds Begins (archetypically seen in Cain vs. Able in Gen 4)

(X) Matthew thru Acts 2; The Christ Event, Redemption Accomplished; the Inauguration of the Age to Come; the War Between the Seeds Settled in Principle; the Holy Spirit descends on the Church, God in flesh (Jn 1:14) and Spirit (Acts) dwelling with His People

(X to B′) Acts 2 – Rev 19 [actually to present] – The War Between the Two Seeds Continues (antitypically seen between those who are “born of God/or the Seed of the woman and those that are “of the evil one like Cain.” See esp. 1 John 3 and Revelation)

(B′) Revelation 20:7—15 The Final Fall of Man; General Resurrection; God Passes Final Judgment on Rebels; Death is Destroy

(A′) Revelation 21—22:5 The New Creation; God Eternally Dwelling with His People

(A′. 1) Rev 21:1—8 A general description of the new creation; Christ recreating all things anew

(A′. 2. i) Rev 21:9—22:5 A particular description of the new creation; God’s dwelling is with men eternally

(A′. 2. ii) Rev 22:6—21 Life with God and the Lamb in the garden and access to the tree of life are contingent upon trusting and obeying God and the Lamb, and thus keeping their Word.

This is only one of many ways that the Big Story can be framed. However this is done, though, it must capture the four elements of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, keeping them properly related to each other, in order to make sense of the Bible’s Big Story. And once this Big Story is clear in your mind, it will amaze you how much more some of the smaller stories make sense to you.

There’s an old axiom: “Nothing is meaningful without context.” Rapidly, our culture and even the Church is loosing the vision of the Big Story. And without the Big Story concretely in place, the climax of the Story, the Gospel of Jesus scarcely makes sense. As Paul said, to the Greeks, those without the Big Story, the “word of the cross is foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Therefore, for both our own understanding and our ability to make much of Jesus through sharing his Gospel with others, we need a thorough grasp of the Big Story of the Bible.

In Yeshua, YHWH Saves

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:[1] for (γαρ; grounds clause) he [himself][2] shall save his people from their sins (Matt. 1:21 KJV).

Here are some gleanings from my message prep for the Second Sunday in Epiphany (which is also Sanctity of Human Life Sunday).

Matt. 1:21 is the fulfillment of the promise of Is. 49:1d, “From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.” So, naturally, it has weighed in on my studies.

I’ve always found this verse to be one of the strongest indirect proofs for Jesus’ deity, similar to Matt. 11:27, St. Matthew’s so-called logion. And there is a transparent word play intended in Jesus’ name in Matt. 1:21 (see fn. 1).

The command to name the Messiah Jesus (Arm. Yesuah or Joshua) is premised or grounded on the fact that “he himself will save his people from their sins” (1:21b). I’ve always struggled to put Jesus’ deity from indirect texts into a sound and valid syllogism. For instance, consider the synthesis of the following verses.

St. John 1:9 calls Jesus “the true Light.” Likewise, in 1 Jn. 1:5 we learn that “God is light.” It seems that these two could be brought into a meaningful deductive relation.

1. Jesus is the true Light;

2. God is Light;

3. Therefore, Jesus is God.

The apparent problem with this is that it creates a formal fallacy, the undistributed middle. No manner of arrangement has proven to be free of either logical or theological fallacies, as far as I can tell. It is clearer when we use other subjects.

1. My Jeep is blue;

2. The sky is blue;

3. Therefore, my jeep is the sky.

Despite these past blunders in trying to create a cogent argument from indirect biblical data, a discussion with Beaner this morning revealed that Matt. 1:21 provides just such a possibility.

            1. Yeshua is Savior of Israel (Matt. 1:21)

            2. The only Savior of Israel is YHWH (Is. 43:11; 45:15, 21, etc.)

            3. Therefore, Yeshua is YHWH.

As far as I can see, this argument is both sound and valid; it is free from logical fallacies. Additionally, it is perfectly consistent with the NT authors’ regular attribution of kurios to Jesus, which are in their OT contexts attributed to YHWH.

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[1] NAS text note: Jesus is the Gk form of the Hb name “Joshua,” which = “The Lord saves” or “Yahweh saves.”

[2] NAS text note: Lit. He Himself.  

Protoevangelium per The Scots' Confession (1560)

This, methinks, is a beautiful expression of the orthodox view on Genesis 3:15, the Protoevangelium, the first promise of the gospel--Jesus and his saving work.  Despite its brevity, it is clearly founded upon covenant theology, and engenders a redemptive-historical reading of the one Story of the one Way of salvation, centering of the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ!

Article IV--The Revelation of the Promise

We constantly believe that God, after the fearful and horrible departure of man from his obedience, did seek Adam again, call upon him, rebuke and convict him of his sin, and in the end made unto him a most joyful promise, that "the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent," that is, that he should destroy the works of the devil. This promise was repeated and made clearer from time to time; it was embraced with joy, and most constantly received by all the faithful from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, from Abraham to David, and so onwards to the incarnation of Christ Jesus; all (we mean the believing fathers) under the law did see the joyful day of Christ Jesus, and did rejoice.

From the Scots' Confession

O Fools, and Slow of Heart to Believe All that the Prophets have Spoken

Yesterday, Justin Taylor posted two bits from recent antiquity on seeing Jesus in all of the Scripture on his GC blog, showing that it is not a Johnny-come-lately fad.  The first was from the 1878 Niagara Creed and the second was from Calvin.  Oddly, last night, as I was reading Ryle’s Knots Untied on the Kindle, I found the same beautiful expression of Christ as the hermeneutical key to all of Scripture.  Ryle put it like this.

But one golden chain runs through the whole volume (of the Canon): no salvation excepting by Jesus Christ.  The bruising of the serpent’s head foretold in the day of the fall; the clothing of our first parents with skins; the sacrifices of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the Passover, and all the particulars of the Jewish law—the high priests, the alter, the daily offering of the lamb, the holy of holies entered only by blood, the scape-goat, the cities of refuge—all are so many witnesses to the truth set forth in the text (of Acts 4:12).  All preach with one voice, salvation only by Christ. 

In fact, this truth appears to be the grand object of the Bible, and all the different parts and portions of the book are meant to pour light upon it.  I can gather from it no ideas of pardon and peace with God excepting in connection with this truth (loc. 621—630). 

In the section wherein this portion is found, Ryle has been arguing for the exclusivity of Christ as the only means of salvation; this quote is part of his third premise.  No compromising position is safe in his survey, as everything from Romanism to less-than-pure Protestantism comes into his crosshairs.  Ryle’s thesis is as simple as it is pure truth.  In his opening, he says he could cut short this section with one simple argument: Only in Christ is there salvation, because “God says so!” (loc. 563).  However, in concession to the critical reader, Ryle premises his argument on three supporting points (which is simply another way of saying, "God says so!" which I love!).

The doctrine of exclusivity, as declared by St. Peter in Acts 4:12, must be true, because...

            1. Man is what man is (i.e., from total depravity)

            2. God is what God is (i.e., from God’s omnipotence, holiness, and justice)

3. The Bible is what the Bible is (e.g., if we take not this text’s truth, the Bible must be disregarded altogether, as it points decisively to the truth of this doctrine from cover to cover, as the quotation above argues)

PSALM 24 IN REDEMPTIVE-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

PSALM 24 (AT)

The whole earth is YHWH’s,                                       1a

    and the fullness of it;                                                    b

the habitable world [is YHWH’s],                                      c

   and they that inhabit it.                                                        d

For he founded it upon the seas,                                 2a

   and established it upon the moving waters.                   b

Who shall go up into the mountain of YHWH?           3a

   Who shall stand up in his holy place?                           b

He who has innocent hands, and a clean heart;         4a

   who does not lift up his soul to vain things,                   b

   and he who does not swear deceitfully.                            c

He shall lift up a blessing from YHWH;                      5a

   righteousness from the God of his salvation.                 b

Such is the generation of them that seek him, 6a

   that seek his presence—[even] Jacob.  Selah.               b

Lift up your heads, O gates;                                        7a

   lift up, O eternal doors,                                                 b

   that the King of glory might come in.                               c

Who is this King of glory?                                           8a

YHWH, strong and mighty;                                              b

   YHWH, mighty in battle.                                                  c

Lift up your heads, O gates;                                        9a

   lift up, O eternal doors,                                                 b

   that the King of glory might come in.                               c

Who is this King of glory?                                           10a

YHWH of Hosts,                                                                 b

   he is the King of glory. Selah.                                           c

In Psalm 24, there are a number of eschatological trajectories that find their termini in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

The provisional piety that this psalm lays much stress on is high indeed, but it is just that, provisional.  The psalm intimates that the worshipper with “innocent hands” and a “clean heart” may enter in to the “holy place,” seeking the Presence of YHWH.   Who, though, really seeks the presence of the living God, who is a consuming fire?  None; no, not one (Rom 3:10—12).  David’s son himself rhetorically asks, “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin’”? (Prov 20:9).  And, again, the answer is none; no, not one.  Something must happen in salvation history, if the communion between God and his people will be accomplished in the grandiose, eschatological intimacy foreshadowed in Psalm 24.  And it has.

           

Second Samuel 6 is the primary background that is commemorated in this psalm.  YHWH comes into Jerusalem, enthroned on the Ark between the cherubim.  This event, however, was only a type or foreshadow of the good things to come, then and now. 

           

In Matt 21, the type finds its antitype in the Person of Jesus.  In this pericope, Jesus himself fulfills the post-exilic promise of YHWH’s return to Jerusalem (Is 62:11; Zech 9:9; Matt 21:5).  With a mighty procession, preceding and following him (21:9a), Jesus rides into Jerusalem enthroned, as it were, sitting on the donkey with her colt as his footstool—an Ark (v 7).  As Jesus entered, the whole city was stirred, asking, “Who is this [King of glory]?” (Ps 24:8, 10 // Matt 21:10, brackets added).  Jesus is YHWH; Jesus is the King of glory, returning to Jerusalem, humble and gentle, enthroned on the Ark. 

           

Jerusalem did not know the time of their visitation, however (Lk 19:44); and they murdered the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8).  In this abortion of justice is precisely where Jesus, YHWH of Hosts, would show himself “strong and mighty, mighty in battle” (Ps 24:8b, c).  Taking the King of glory down from his cross of glory (think Johannine theology of the cross), they placed him in the true Ark, Jesus’ tomb.  On that first Easter morning, Mary peered into the Ark and lived (contra. 1 Sam 6:19)! 

           

Mary looked into the tomb and saw the true Ark.  “And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying” (Jn 20:12, italics added).  All that the Ark had been looking toward had been fulfilled in Mary’s sight.  The slab of the sepulcher of Jesus was flanked by two cherubim, one on each end; the slab is the true mercy seat, where the once-for-all atonement was made for God’s people.  The Father set forth Jesus as a propitiation, a hilasmos, for the sins of the world (Rom 3:25, Heb 2:17; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10).^[1]  Paul, by applying this title to Christ in Rom 3:25, assures us that Christ was the true mercy seat, the reality of the cover of the Ark of the covenant (Heb 9:5).

           

Psalm 24:3b asks, Who shall stand up in his holy place?   The writer to the Hebrews answers; it is only Jesus who can stand up in the true holy place.  “[Jesus] entered the holy place once for all, having appointed eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12 NASBU).  Christ, however, “did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one,” as under the old covenant, “but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us!” (9:24 NASBU). 

           

How are we to apprehend the requisite righteousness from the God of [our] salvation (Ps 24:5b)?  By throwing ourselves on the Mercy Seat of God, God’s hilasmos, Jesus Christ, who with innocent hands and pure heart became sin for us, “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21; cf. 1 Pet 2:24).  In him, we will stand in the Most Holy Place,^[2] in the unmediated Presence of God.  We will ascend unto the true City of God, the new Jerusalem, where the gates are always open (Rev 21:25)!

           

This is just one of the many trajectories that are satisfied in Christ.  Another interesting one would be David, who was king of Israel, wearing the ephod, offering sacrifices, and pronouncing blessings over the people (2 Sam 6), thus blurring the strict distinctions between kingship and priesthood in Torah.  This would lead us straightway to the Melchizedekian motif of Ps 110, which too finds its fulfillment in the Priest-Kingship of Jesus (Heb 7, etc.).  

                

The purpose of Ps 24 is to point the people of God back to the future.  It points back to a most momentous event in salvation history, when both YHWH’s and David’s thrones were established in Jerusalem, bringing the Presence of God and peace with all of Israel’s surrounding enemies.  Likewise, it looks to the future, to a time when YHWH would return enthroned on the Ark to Jerusalem; therefore, it looked to the Messiah; it looked, though unwittingly, to the death, resurrection, and heavenly session of Jesus, the Lord of glory in his glory!  Looking still future, it points to the age to come, when, because of Christ our righteousness, all of the elect will enjoy and relish in the unmediated Presence of God in the new creation, the new Jerusalem.

           

Psalm 24 also quickens the heart and mind of the worshipper to the gravity and weightiness of his calling.  Whether then, for those who do not lift up their hearts to vain things or swear deceitfully (Ps 24:4b, c), now (Matt 5; 2 Cor 7:1), or future (Rev 21:27), this psalm stresses that there is a requisite holiness for the people of God, “without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14)!

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[1] I am indebted to Israel Stevenson, my daughter (16 years), for her observation of the likely Ark/mercy seat imagery (antitype?) in Jn 20, in Jesus’ tomb, having the angels flank the slab as cherubim flanked the mercy seat.    

[2] The description of the new creation as a cube, since “its length and height and width are equal” (Rev 21:16), is surely an allusion to the temple’s Holy of Holies (1 Kings 6:20).