THE THEME OF SCRIPTURE

The Bible is the Word of God. It is not merely great literature or a collection of inspiring religious stories. Scripture is the breathed-out Word of God that reveals His character, work, and will, as well as our nature, corruption, and redemption (see 2 Tim. 3:16). The whole Bible, all sixty-six books and letters, written by over forty authors over a span of approximately 1,400 years, is a unified and inspired whole that declares who God is, who we are, and what the purpose of creation is. Scripture is a perfect revelation, meaning that what it reveals is absolutely true, though not exhaustive. We cannot know everything about God, who is infinite, but He has revealed what we need to know about Him.

Unfortunately, it is not just the world that often misunderstands what the Bible really is. Christians too often hold wrong ideas of the Bible's nature, purpose, and usefulness. For instance, many believe the Bible is a kind of moral dictionary that answers every conceivable cultural question with perfect clarity. Others see the Bible as the roadmap to a fruitful spiritual life. Many churches today teach that the Bible is fundamentally about us and they promote the idea that in the sacred pages of Scripture are stories and truths designed to show us how we can be the heroes of our own lives. The Bible does reveal moral truth, spur spiritual growth, and includes us as participants in the story, but it is more than a moral dictionary. And it is not really about us.

The Bible, in all its parts, is one unified story of God's love for and salvation of sinners through His Son. From the opening pages of Genesis to the conclusion of Revelation, we discover the unfolding plan of God's work to redeem a people for His own possession through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the hero of Scripture, the full revelation of God, and the one to whom all Scripture points. Jesus is, as theologian Joel Beeke puts it, "the supreme focus, prism, and goal of God's revelation."

CREATION AND COVENANT

The Bible begins with the creation of humanity as people made in God's image and for fellowship with Him. Bearing the image of God means that, in some ways, we look like God. Our innate sense of right and wrong, our capacity to rule well, to love, and to create — those are just a few of the ways we reflect God.

Not only that, we were made to live in communion with Him. We were created to love God and all His ways, to worship and obey Him. We were designed to have a relationship grounded in a covenant with God.

Covenants not only mark the movement of the history of redemption, but have always been the context for our relationship with God. What exactly is a covenant? In his book The Covenant of Works: Its Confessional and Scriptural Basis, pastor and author Richard Barcellos explains,

A divine covenant with man may be very briefly defined as a divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship. In this sense, covenants come from God to man. They are not contracts between equal business partners. They are not up for negotiation.

In the first chapters of Genesis, we learn that God created man and immediately established a covenant between Himself and us. He placed Adam and Eve in the garden and called them to be fruitful and to multiply, to maintain the garden, and to rule righteously over the world they inhabited. The one explicit prohibition given to Adam and Eve was not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He gave them a warning, saying, "For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:15–17). Obedience would yield blessing and life (Gen. 2:9; 3:22); disobedience would yield punishment and death.

This covenant God made with Adam applied not only to him, but also to all humanity, as he was our first parent and our representative. Adam represented all humanity and was responsible for all humanity (Rom. 5:12–14). This was the beginning. It was marked by innocence and righteousness. But things did not remain this way for long.

THE SIN OF MAN

We do not know how long paradise lasted, but three chapters into the first book of the Bible, something catastrophic happens. Satan enters that perfect place and tempts Eve, the first woman, to disobey her God by eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan, masquerading as a serpent, assured Eve that not only would she live, but that in eating of that tree she would also become like God.

Eve caved and ate the forbidden fruit, and Adam quickly followed. In that first act of treason, the first humans did not simply break a rule; they rejected the will of God and His place of supremacy in their lives. The covenant was broken.

This first sin not only disrupted fellowship between God and our first parents. It opened a fissure between God and all of humanity, destroying our communion with Him. People originally created to be children of God became children of God's wrath (Eph. 2:1–3). Instead of resting in Gods love, they fell into His judgment. In Adam, our representative, we all sinned and therefore became guilty of his transgression (Rom. 5:12).

From this point on in Scripture, the story is not only of mans sin, but of God's patience with and love for sinners. We broke our covenant with Him in the garden, but God held out another covenant though which sinners could be saved.

THE PROMISE OF SALVATION

Sin and judgment came quickly into the world, but the promise of deliverance came even quicker. The first "good news" sinners ever heard was offered to Adam and Eve just after their rebellion. We find it in the middle of God's judgment on their actions.

God cursed Adam, telling him that as a result of his disobedience, work would be marked by pain and toil (Gen. 3:17–18). Not only that, he would return to the ground from where he was taken (Gen. 3:19). In short, the world would never be the same for Adam in his vocation, recreation, and relationships.

Then God cursed Eve, telling her that the pain of childbearing would be multiplied and that her "desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you" (Gen. 3:16). Eve, too, saw that not only was her relationship with God now broken, but so was her relationship with her husband and the rest of creation.

So far, the picture looks grim. But as God curses the Serpent, we find mercy and hope:

Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall...