What Story Are We Living In?
By Christopher Reese
By Christopher Reese
One way to think about the Christian worldview is to think about it as a story that answers our biggest questions—why the universe exists, why we’re here in it, how we should live, and many others. We find this story in Scripture and accept its narrative because it is the authoritative account of the True Story of the World. This is a foundational Christian belief, but I was reminded of the importance of it while reading Christopher J. H. Wright’s recent book “Here Are Your Gods”: Faithful Discipleship in Idolatrous Times.
The overarching story of Scripture—sometimes called the Bible’s metanarrative—is often broken into four parts: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. In keeping with the story metaphor, Wright expands this somewhat into seven acts. It’s a helpful summary, so I’ll reproduce it below.
Act 1: Creation. God created the heavens and earth, and placed human beings, made in his own image, on the earth to rule and serve there, in a triangle of creational relationships between God, humanity, and the earth.
Act 2: Rebellion. We chose to disobey God's instructions and to choose for ourselves what we think is good and evil. We brought sin, death, and division into human life, and brokenness into creation itself.
Act 3: Old Testament promise. God promised that he would bring blessing and salvation where we had brought curse and death. Through Abraham he launched the people, Israel, through whom the good news of that blessing would ultimately embrace all nations on earth. The Old Testament story is constantly moving forward toward the fulfillment of that promise, with all the expectations and hopes that are generated within that part of the story.
Act 4: Christ. The central act of the whole Bible story is what we read in the gospel according to the first four books of the New Testament, about Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah and Lord: his incarnation, his life and teaching, his atoning death, his victorious resurrection, and his ascension to glory and cosmic government. This is the central act, the heartbeat and core of the biblical gospel.
Act 5: New Testament mission. The drama continues with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the launch of the mission of the church, comprising both believing Jews and Gentiles, to the ends of the earth. This part of the biblical story stretches from the day of Pentecost to the return of Christ.
Act 6: Final judgment. The good news is that evil will not have the last word and God will ultimately put all things right (which is what judgment means in the Bible) by dealing with and destroying all that is wrong and evil. Act 6 is the completion of God's answer to act 2 and of all that was accomplished in act 4. It will be the final rectification—the putting right of all that has been so disastrously wrong.
Act 7: New creation. The Bible drama ends with a dramatic new beginning! After putting all things right, God will make all things new and will come to dwell with redeemed humanity, in our resurrection bodies like Christ's, in God's reconciled creation. The creational triangle will be restored in glory: God dwelling with redeemed humanity in a reunited new heaven and earth. Then forever we will enjoy the presence of God with us (“Immanuel”) and the absence of all that has spoiled, corrupted, and inflicted pain and suffering in the present fallen world. (pp. 113-114)
Wright notes that it is “this biblical story that gives us our identity and our mission as the people of God for the sake of God's mission. It is this story that tells us how we are to live in that part of the great drama where we find ourselves now [i.e., Act 5]” (p. 114).
He also observes that rather than asking how we can apply the Bible to our lives, it’s better to ask how we can apply our lives to the Bible. The first question “sounds fine but actually assumes that my life is the center of reality, to which the Bible has to be somehow fitted . . .” (p. 112). The second question, on the other hand, helps us think through the heart of the matter: “How can I live in such a way as to fit into this story, to participate in what God is doing, and prepare for all he plans for the future?” (p. 115).
With so many competing stories of reality, it can be easy to lose the plot and forget why we’re here and what we were created, and redeemed, for. Occasionally reminding ourselves of the story we’re living in can encourage us, reorient us, and prevent us from being distracted from what truly matters.
—Christopher Reese is the editor-in-chief of The Worldview Bulletin, co-founder of the Christian Apologetics Alliance, and a general editor of The Dictionary of Christianity and Science (Zondervan, 2017) and Three Views on Christianity and Science (Zondervan, 2021).
Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
Recommended Resource
One primary goal we have as Christians is to understand the Bible in order to grasp what God has communicated to us through it. This is challenging, however, because we are separated from Scripture’s authors by language, culture, and time. Thus, much in Scripture can appear to us to be confusing, mysterious, or even contradictory. That’s why a volume like Murray Harris’s Navigating Tough Texts: A Guide to Problem Passages in the New Testament is so useful.
Harris, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis and Theology at Trinity Evangelical Theological School, draws on a lifetime of expertise to clarify and explain dozens of challenging passages throughout the New Testament. A few examples include:
What Jesus meant when he said, “the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it” (Matt. 11:12).
What he meant by “binding and loosing” on earth and in heaven (Matt. 16:19).
The meaning of Paul’s reference to those “who are baptized for the dead” (1 Cor. 15:29).
How we should understand Paul’s attitude toward slavery as expressed in the book of Philemon, and many more. This segment is excerpted below.
PAUL AND SLAVERY (Phlm 15–16)
Onesimus was a slave of Philemon in Colossae who had not only run away from his master (Phlm 15–16) but had also absconded with some of Philemon’s money or possessions (vv. 18–19). Attracted by the anonymity and excitement of a large metropolis, he traveled furtively to Rome, where somehow he met the imprisoned Paul, who led him to faith in Christ (v. 10). Paul soon discovered him to be an able and willing helper as well as a Christian companion (vv. 11–13, 16). Other considerations apart, Paul would have liked to keep Onesimus at his side (v. 13), but he felt compelled to send him back to Colossae so that Philemon, the legal owner of Onesimus (v. 16), might himself have the opportunity of receiving him back as a Christian brother (v. 16) and of possibly releasing him for further service to Paul (vv. 14, 20–21). Accordingly, Onesimus returned to Philemon with this letter.
Although this letter is not an essay on slavery, from it we may deduce Paul’s attitude to slavery. To begin with, Paul apparently accepted slavery as an inevitable part of the social, economic, and legal status quo, without questioning or trying to justify its existence. But acceptance of the status quo should not be equated with endorsement of the status quo. Toleration is not the same as approval. Paul did not object to slave ownership within Christian ranks, but he encouraged masters to reward slaves suitably for honest work, to desist from threatening them (Eph 6:8–9), and to give them just and equitable treatment (Col 4:1). He elevated the status of slaves by addressing them as persons and as moral agents who were responsible, and ought to be responsive, to their earthly masters as well as to their heavenly Lord (Eph 6:5–8; Col 3:22).
Further, when Paul emphasizes Onesimus’s true identity as a dearly loved Christian brother (v. 16), he sets the master-slave relation on a new footing. “It may be that he (Onesimus) was separated from you (Philemon) for a short time precisely so that you may have him back permanently, no longer regarded as merely a slave (hōs doulon) but as more than a slave—as a dear brother” (vv. 15–16). Paul is undermining the discrimination that is at the heart of slavery and sounding its death knell. In this letter, Paul, a highly educated Roman citizen, is championing the cause of a destitute runaway slave whose life was potentially forfeit because of his flight and his theft (vv. 17–19).
Did Paul advocate freeing slaves? When he expresses his confidence that Philemon would obey him and accept Onesimus back and forgive him (v. 21a), he adds that he knows Philemon “will do even more than I ask” (v. 21b). That undefined additional element could well be the setting free of Onesimus for Christian service either at Colossae or at Rome with Paul. When he is discussing possible changes of status for believers (including slaves) in 1 Corinthians 7:17–24, his general advice is “remain as you were when God called you” (see 1 Cor 7:17, 20, 24). But in 1 Corinthians 7:21b, he parenthetically states an exception to the general principle: “But if you are actually able (kai dynasai) to gain your freedom, seize it all the more.”
It is fair to conclude that by his teaching and his example, Paul was laying one of the explosive charges that would one day—although sadly, belatedly—detonate and destroy the institution of slavery.
Find Navigating Tough Texts: A Guide to Problem Passages in the New Testament at Lexham Press or Amazon.
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