The Full Story

Knowing our story matters | Witnesses to the true story of the world.

The Triune God speaks! He speaks the world into existence; He speaks words of love and instruction. He speaks the truth. One way to understand history, then, is to see it as the story God Himself is telling. History is His-story. As His-story, time is not only meaningful, but has a telos1, a destination. This means the passage of time — and our participation in it is a gift to be received and not simply an evil to be endured.

Knowing our story matters, but knowing the full story matters even more.

Imagine only knowing half of your story? Not knowing who your parents are or where you came from. How much pain, confusion, and frustration could arise from that unknowing? Imagine how easy it would be for you to be manipulated or deceived.

A Half Story | Fall and Redemption

Sometimes Christians can get so excited about the redemption Jesus brings that they fail to tell any other part of the Biblical story. We rightly rejoice that our sins are forgiven; this truly is great news! However, if this is the only part of the story you know — or if you mistake this part as being the whole story — it is easy to end up with a fragmented or even reduced view of the gospel.

A Christian who only knows this part of the story may begin to prioritize justification over, and even against, sanctification and glorification, which creates an artificial divide between “being saved” and “being a disciple.” As if salvation is necessary, but discipleship is optional. This artificial divide leads many to believe that “spiritual” things are of tremendous importance to God, but “earthly” or “physical” things, such as working, playing, eating, sleeping, procreating, exercising, governing, voting, farming, banking, economics, etc., are not. Tragically, this has led to a stunted view of the mission of the church. The Bible, however, does not allow for that option; it boldly proclaims that history and salvation are grounded in creation, incarnation, resurrection, ascension, and return!

We can understand the full Biblical story in four movements: Creation -Fall - Redemption - Restoration

 1, télos - a Greek word meaning “reaching the end (aim)” - Mt.10:22; 24:13-14; Rom 10:4; 1 Cor. 15:24; Phil 3:19

The Full Story | Creation

In the beginning God. With great clarity, these three Hebrew words boldly declare that before anything existed - cows, cucumbers, lions, mountains, algebra, music, butterflies, and supernovas - there was the Triune God, eternally joyful within His triune Self 2. Christians boldly confess: God is One, but He is also Three. Why does this matter? If God were only One and not also Three, then before creation, that would mean that God would have been completely alone, needing creation to experience love, productivity, honor, and glory. The Christian claim, however, is that the reason there is something rather than nothing is sheer gift! The Triune God didn’t gain anything by creating; rather, He chose to share the joy, love, life, and glory He had within Himself. This is why you and I were made. 

The Biblical account opens by describing the stage where the story of history will unfold: the heavens and the earth. Scriptures repeatedly describe them as a three-tiered house or tent 3, even having foundations and pillars 4. Scripture uses architectural imagery not because the ancients lacked scientific sophistication, but to tell us what the cosmos is for. It is our home, built for us by our loving Father. It is the place where we are meant to enjoy God and glorify Him forever. All three Persons of the Triune God worked together over six days to build this good and glorious cosmic house (Gen. 1:1-2:3). At the pinnacle of the creation week, God creates humanity, male and female, in “His image and likeness,” to not only live in this cosmic house but to work in it and care for it 5. As such, humans were made to be a royal priesthood who would worship God and govern the world (Psalm 8). 

The Full Story | Fall

When Adam rebelled against his Creator by believing the lie of the serpent over the Word of his Heavenly Father, humanity became sick with sin and death. That sin-sickness affected not only us personally, but also everything under our stewardship (Gen. 3:17-19; Romans 5, 8). The image of God remained in humanity, but to some extent, it became clouded and distorted as a result of sin. As such, every relationship a man had, either with God, with others, with himself, or with creation became twisted, disfigured, and broken, leading not to life but death (Gen 3:17-19; Isa. 24:1-6; Rom 5:12). Adam was kicked out of the garden, and cherubim were placed on the east-side blocking his return, but God promised to send the “seed of the woman,” who would be born to crush the head of the serpent and led His people back to Paradise (Gen 3:15). The rest of the Old Testament tells. 
The story of God preparing the world for the coming of the Seed of the Woman, 6 (Gal 4:4-5; Luke 24:25-27).

2, John 17:4-5, 24; Ephesians 1:4; Titus 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:9 2

3, The three tiers are: Heavens above - Earth/Land - Waters below - Ex 20:4; Psalm 77:17-19; Phil 2:10; Rev 5:3 are a few examples. 

4, 2 Samuel 22:16; Job 9:6; 26:11; 38:4-7; Psalm 75:3; 104:5 

5, Work and Keep - These words are used to describe both the priest’s work in the tabernacle (Numbers 3:7,8; 4:23) and God’s command to Israel to “keep” the covenant, commandments, and feasts. (Ex 12:17; 16:28;19:5). Notice these words are also used in the negative, as Israel would serve other gods (Judges 2:13). 

The Full Story | Redemption

At the pinnacle of world history, God sent His only begotten Son, the promised Seed of the Woman, the last Adam, to save humanity from their spiritual sin-sickness and their oppression by the devil (John 1:14; 3:16; 1 John 3:8). Christ came as the Last Adam, to undo the damage brought by the first Adam (Gen 3:15; 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom 5:15-19). Jesus is the One who remedies humanity’s broken relationship with God, with others, with ourselves, and with creation. Through the person and work of Jesus Christ, we are offered full reconciliation: justification, sanctification, and ultimately glorification. He is the One through whom the House of God, both the Temple and Cosmos, is and will be rebuilt, 7. In Christ, we once again have access to the garden and are called once again to work and keep the household of God. 

In Christ we really are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), because we have been recreated in God’s image (Eph 4:24; Col. 3:10). Salvation, then, restores humanity to its original purpose. We might say that the work of Jesus is to remake human beings; it is “not a dehumanizing but a re-humanizing enterprise.” 8 The early church theologian Irenaeus was right when he said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

The church, then, is humanity saved. As such, it strives to be a real-life model of a truly human society (an ecclesia; an embodiment of God’s kingdom on earth, 9) that reflects what the will of God means not only for a renewed relationship with God, but for education, art, politics, work, play, worship, family life, friendship, marriage, economics, etc., and what all of human life should look like when it is submitted to God’s reign, i.e., righteous, orderly, reasonable, wise, holy, patient, etc. 

The Bible presents salvation in terms of what David Chilton calls the definitive-progressive-final structure. Salvation was definitively accomplished in the perfect work of Jesus Christ; it is progressively working itself in our lives, and it will be finally achieved when Jesus returns. We have been saved (2 Tim 1:9), and we are being saved now (Phil 2:12-13), and we will be saved (1 Pet 1:9). As the church, we live in between the definitive and final.

As such, we must form our expectations around this reality (Gal. 5). We must maintain this tension to ensure we 
fall neither into triumphalism that forgets we are not yet glorified, nor into quiet defeatism that forgets Christ is 
already reigning. 

6, For further study, reference George Faull’s class on the “eternal struggle.” 

7, John 1:14; 2:21-22; 2 Peter 3:1-13; Rev. 21:5 7

8, David Naugle, 2003 

9, Note the following quote from Jack Cottrell, “Certainly in one way the entire world is the kingdom over which God reigns (Ps 103:19). He is God of all the kingdoms of the earth (Is 37:16). However, in the old creation, ‘this present evil age’ (Gal 1:4), not everyone acknowledges the kingship of God. The spirit of rebellion is prevalent (Ps 2:1-3; Lk 19:12). Therefore, God plans to construct a new creation in the midst of the old, a kingdom in which all the citizens are willing subjects who serve the King from their hearts. This is exactly what the church is meant to be. Being a part of the church [ecclesia] means being a part of the kingdom of God.” 

The Full Story | Restoration

The story arc of the Scriptures moves towards this end: Christ is making all things new (Rev. 21:5). Christ is not making all new things, but all things new. Through Jesus Christ, God is reconciling all things to Himself (Col 1:19-20). God does not create junk, nor does He intend to junk that which He creates. The Scriptures do not end with souls escaping to heaven, but with heaven coming to earth! God dwelling with His people in a renewed creation (Rev. 21:1-3). There, the royal priesthood, the bride of Christ, will bear the image of God without 
distortion, reigning with Christ over a glorified world!

Lesslie Newbigin, the great theologian and missionary, wrote, “To be human is to be a part of a story, and to be fully human as God intends is to be part of the true story and to understand its beginning and its ending. The true story is one of which the central clues are given in the Bible, and the hinge of the story on which all its 
meaning turns is the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the message we are entrusted with, and we owe it to all people to share it." 10

If we find ourselves within the full Biblical story, it gives us new hearts and minds, renewed senses, and a sanctified imagination so that we may live in the midst of history as a witness to the true story of the world!

10, Newbigin, Word in Season, 118.