The Bible (part 3)

All Scripture comes from God’s mouth and is useful for teaching, identifying error, correcting, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).

Many people think of the Bible as a history book. It’s true, much of the Bible is a narrative of past events. But it is history with a purpose. The Bible gives us select events from the past to show how much we need God, and what He’s done for us.

The Book of Genesis shows us why we need God—left to our own devices, we are quick to choose the wrong path. We listen to Satan and believe his lies, with the result that we disobey God and make Him angry. Cain murdered his brother. Noah passed out from too much wine. Abraham and Jacob told lies. Joseph bragged about himself. Throughout every historical book, we see men and women who act irresponsibly and deserve to be punished.

But right from the start, God also showed His merciful side—although He cursed sin with death and hell, God also promised to send someone very special to fix things. God would send a personal representative who would end the curse of sin, offering life after death and heaven instead of hell.

The next few books give us more than a bunch of miracles and a listing of the Ten Commandments. God lays out rituals that help us understand how He forgives sin—our guilt must be transferred to a substitute that is punished in our place. But the books covering Israel’s history show us just how easy it is to take God’s undeserved mercy for granted.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called the four Gospels. They focus on God’s Chosen One, Jesus Christ. But they are more sermon than history. Matthew arranges Jesus’ words by topic; his writes mainly for Jewish readers. Luke explains Jesus to those who don’t understand Jewish culture. Mark spends less time on Jesus’ words and more on what He did. John is the philosopher of the group; He makes us think about Jesus’ teachings. But all four Gospel writers have this in common—each gives considerable space to Jesus’ suffering and death, by which He adopts us as God’s forgiven children.