The Bible: Fake News or Good News?预览

What Makes It Special? 

The Bible is a story that leads to Jesus and invites us to become like Jesus. We’ll talk more in detail about the story that the Bible is telling in the days to come, but for now, let’s talk about one of the most unique and powerful aspects of the Bible. 

The Bible is a story, written by people and inspired by God, that leads to Jesus and invites us to become like Jesus. 

This isn’t like any other book. The Bible wasn’t solely formed by human hands, and God didn’t put it together in isolation. Instead, God worked through people to bring these words together into the collection of ancient writings we have today. 

Sometimes, people will overemphasize the humanity of the Bible, and underemphasize the divinity of the Bible. When this happens, the temptation is to set the Bible aside as an outdated book with laws that are no longer relevant and teachings that may be helpful, but aren’t necessary. Without recognizing the divinity of the Bible, we will not go into it looking to encounter the presence of God. 

On the flipside, sometimes people will overemphasize the divinity of the Bible and underemphasize the humanity of the Bible. When this happens, it can be easy to forget that every single book of the Bible was written by people living in a specific time and place and to people living in a specific time and place. Without recognizing the humanity of the Bible, we won’t do the necessary work of discovering what the words of Scripture would have meant to the people back then, which is imperative if we want to know what those words are supposed to mean to us now. 

But when we begin to see the Bible as the work of human authors writing with divine inspiration, we can begin to approach it on its own terms. We position ourselves to see the Bible as a book that invites our questions, stimulates our curiosity, and brings us into the presence of God.

None of this should surprise us. Because this is the way God has always worked. And this is what the story of the Bible is all about. The joining together of heaven and earth. The partnership of God and His people. 

The story of the Bible begins with God creating the heavens and the earth. Then He creates human beings to serve as His partners by forming us from the dust of the ground and breathing His divine spirit into us. We rebel against God. Heaven and earth get pulled apart. Our relationship with God is severed. But God is not okay with that. So what does He do? He enacts a plan to restore what was broken and bring us back to Him. Here’s the piece we can’t miss: God’s plan always includes partnership with people. Because that’s how God operates. His desire is to be in relationship with His people, to bring dirt and the divine together. And through these partnerships, God’s plan is carried out. Until eventually, this plan arrives at the moment when God Himself becomes a human being in the person of Jesus, to rescue us from sin and restore creation.  

The Bible tells the story of the joining together of heaven and earth, God and humanity, dirt and the divine. And the way the Bible tells that story is through the joining together of human hands and divine inspiration! 

The Bible is a story, written by people and inspired by God, that leads to Jesus and invites us to become like Jesus.