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The Bible The word “Bible” means “book.” The “Holy Bible” is the book of books. That is the meaning of “holy.” It is separated from all other books. The Bible is inspired of God, II Timothy 3:16,17. It is our standard to determine truth from error, righteousness from sin. The Bible Story The message God has for us is in the form of a story of salvation from sin, often called the Gospel, or good news. The gospel has little meaning unless we understand our need for it. Sin is transgression of the law, I John 4:3, and we have all sinned, Romans 3:10. Even if we are the best of good people, we are still sinners before God, John 3:18. Jesus is our savior. He came to save us from sin, Luke 19:10. We cannot remove our sin ourselves. We are still subject to penalty, or punishment. If God had been just alone, he could have destroyed all of us for sinning, as he had the right to do. Divine love, grace, and mercy were combined with the righteousness and justice of God, so deep In the eternal and ancient past, and in his infinite wisdom, and in the seeds of divine thought, of provision of man, yet to be created in his own image, Genesis 1:26. He finally determined to send his own son Jesus Christ from Heaven to remove our sins by accepting our punishment himself, II Corinthians 5:19-21. So before God created the world, he knew man would sin and he knew well in advance how he would bring man back to him. The following Bible statements reveal this truth. Christ glorified before the world began, John 17: 24 Christ was to be slain from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13: 8. This was the mystery - “unto obedience of faith,” Romans 16:25-26 Christ was foreseen as the means of our acceptance, chosen in him. Ephesians 1 :4-5 Christ was the place of divine creation for us from the beginning of the world, Ephesians 3:9-10 Christ in us is the revelation of the mystery, from ages and generations, Colossians 1:26-27 Christ is our salvation, not by our own works, but by his grace, before the World began, II Timothy I : 9-10 Christ promised before the world began, Tits 1:3 Christ was for know before foundation of world, to be made known to us, I Peter 1:20. Read these verses slowly and carefully. From them we are taught that God not only foresaw our sin and rebellion against him, and lost condition due to our sin, but devised a way he could be just in declaring us guilty and worthy of eternal death, but merciful in declaring us free of guilt, and righteousness in receiving us as righteous unto him, II Corinthians 5:19-21. He did this by sending part of himself to the earth, in his son Jesus Christ, Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:2 1, Luke 19: 10. In this redemptive word we are saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2:8. The entire Old Testament is an unfolding of this story of redemption, a story of divine mercy and love that could be expressed on behalf of man, only by Jehovah God. This story had to be told as it was, to give mankind the understanding of the salvation God wanted him to have. The history of religion is initially the history of God’s planning on man’s behalf. From all eternity, this was expressive of God’s love for mankind. The sad, tragic story of man’s rebellion and departure from God begins with God’s blessings of love on his behalf Acts 14:15-17, Romans 1:18-23. Unfortunately, and tragically, man generally has always chosen the course of his own wisdom rather than God’s. The remarkable, incredible reality of God’s planning for man is that he knew from the beginning that no more than a few, a “handful” in any age would benefit from his work and share the blessings and rewards he purposed -- yet he planned! God’s advance knowledge that man would sin did not cause his sin. God still left man free to choose. He created man for his glory, a creature to honor, reverence, and glorify him, Isaiah 43:5-7, Revelation 4:11. This was the perfect, ideal relationship he envisioned. For it to be so, man was to be entirely free to choose, and. he was. The Story Begins After the creation in Genesis I and 2, and after God’s assignments and instructions to Adam and Eve, they ate the forbidden fruit and God drove them from the garden, Genesis 3:15. From here the story continues through the evil (The declaration of penalty against Satan was the promise of the “seed”) of Cain and righteousness of Abel, I John 3:12, then Seth, Genesis 4:26. The seed was identified as Christ in Galatians, 3:16). More generations bring us to Noah in Genesis 6:8,22, who found grace in the eyes of God, but he obeyed. The wickedness and violence of Noah’s time brought the flood as punishment. The prophecy of Noah, then, of his three sons, Japheth in particular, that he would dwell in the tents of Shem. Genesis 9:27. Jesus declared this statement, prophecy, as soon to be fulfilled, to the Samaritan woman, John 4:22. This is seen further in Romans 1:16 and 3:1-2 As our story continues, Jacob, on his dying bed reveals the fortune of his sons that “the scripture (rule) shall not depart from Judah...till Shiloh (Christ) come,” Genesis 49:10. God, faithful always to his promises, retained the Messianic royal lineage in the dynasty of the Judean kings until the very last king, Coniah, after whom none of his earthly seed would reign in Judah, Jeremiah 22:30. All this succession was confirmed and fulfilled in Matthew 1 when Jesus was born, Matthew 1:2 1, in the fullness of times, Galatians 4:4, as king of the Jews, Matthew 2:2, and of course of the tribe of Judab, Hebrews 7:14. God preached the Gospel to Abraham, Galatians 3:8. After God’s promise to Abraham, Genesis 12: 1-7, the rest of Genesis is the story of his Sons and the eventual nation of Israel, as the book of Exodus opens. The story still continues as they journey to Sinai to receive God’s law, and confirm their covenant with God, then eventually on to Canaan where they possessed the land promised of God and were identified as a nation among the nations of the land. After a series of events, covering many centuries, their judges, kings, and fall into idol worship as there neighboring nations, the prophets of God came to warn them of impending judgments and their final, fall into captivity if they didn't repent. After a captivity of seventy years, they were returned to their homeland in Canaan, and the royal lineage was thus preserved and brought them to Christ. Galatians 4:4. According to prophecy, Duteronomy 18:15 and Jeremiah 31:31, Jesus took away the old law to one nation, Colossians 2:14, Hebrews 8:7-13, and gave one for all nations, Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 1:16. Frank Driver
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