Telling God's Story
Summarizing the unifying story of the Bible
Premise #1
The Bible tells one unified story of God’s promise to redeem a people for Himself and renew His creation. This story follows God’s ever narrowing selection of representatives from Abraham’s family line, many of whom acted as down payments on that promise, but none of whom fully delivered, until it was narrowed down to one man, Jesus (the faithful Israelite), who came and reversed the narrowing, opening wide the blessing to all peoples for whomever would understand His story and faithfully shape their lives around its implications.
Premise #2
We cannot fully understand or appreciate the gospel and its implications, nor can we fully use it for solving problems or addressing issues in particular cultural situations, until we understand the growing context and significance developed across the narrative books and writings of the OT, of which, the gospel is then the prism that reveals Christ’s plan and expanding representative family; and out of which, Jesus’ Spirit selected apostolic-leaders to implement His unique “household” plan in such a way that it could continue to unfold perpetually until He returns. This means that we also need to understand the unique role of Paul as the one to reveal and implement Christ’s grand strategy, and how he and the other apostles shaped their work around this plan, which is foundationally represented by the patterns, processes, and principles found in the book of Acts, clarified through Paul’s letters to specific situations (as establishing tools) and the rest of the espistles and then (after much theological reflection) is reinforced by the gospel writers who shaped their accounts after a global movement of mature churches had been well established.
So here’s my summary of God’s Story
Genesis 12:1-3 (the 1st great commission - “leave this place and go where I will show you”) summarizes the entire story of the bible in a way that allows us to unpack the details of the story across the history of Israel by following the promise to Abraham (descendants, land, blessing) and explains how Jesus is the singular fulfillment of the promised seed, and His church is His plan for this age, allowing us to recognize what is happening in the world around us (Israel & the nations), until Jesus returns to once and for all deal with evil, fully establish His kingdom, and settle faithful Israel in the promised land.
God promised Israel (through Moses) to treat them as His son, and offered them the opportunity to stand in-between Him and the nations as a holy kingdom of priests, but they rejected this role out of fear, so God explained to them that they would not be able to fully obey Him until a future time when He promised to send a prophet in the style of Moses (Jesus - Matt 3:13-8:1) who would reintroduce the idea of a mediatorial people (the church) and who would explain everything to them in a way they could understand so that their eyes would be opened and their hearts changed, and they would one day finally choose to follow Him fully. 1
God rejected King David’s offer to build Him a permanent house, promising instead to build David’s house through one of his direct descendants who would in turn build God’s permanent house (global household or kingdom). This descendant would bless all nations by ruling over them forever with justice and mercy (throne), which would be a perpetual honor to David’s name. In the interim, God would continue to deal with Israel’s unfaithfulness with fatherly correction (rod & stripes), but never by abandoning them.
Jesus came from Galilee as God’s Son (the faithful Israelite), to initiate the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, Moses, and David via the promised New Covenant. His arrival was announced by John, and He went about doing good and healing the sick as a proof of his identity, and to orient them to the fact that God’s kingdom was finally arriving. Ultimately He was rejected by the leaders of Israel, and took on the suffering (rods and stripes) on behalf of Israel for their ongoing unfaithfulness even to the point of being openly killed on a cross, but God did not abandon him, and instead raised him up three days later, after which Jesus appeared to His disciples numerous times before returning to the Father (from the Mount of Olives), explaining everything to them so that their eyes were opened to what God was doing, and they could follow Him with all their hearts and be sent out by Him to finally become the representative people of God to the nations, sharing His story.
God’s eternal plan is revealed as the emphasis of the second great commission (the first is in Gen 12:1-3) which Luke intentionally unfolded in Acts as Jesus’ exponential expansion plan, beginning in Jerusalem (zeroing in on the Jewish people) then out to Judea/Samaria, through a Spirit directed expansion fueled by persecution (extending to the Jewish-adjacent peoples), and eventually to all nations (a purposeful, strategic sending out of qualified leaders to proclaim the gospel and establish networks of churches among the Gentiles), all of whom were being instructed (a New Covenant requires new first principles), strengthened, and formed into churches with qualified leaders, through whose combined efforts2 God’s Spirit would continue to add to the number of gatherings and multiply them throughout the whole earth.
Christ’s grand strategy3 makes it clear that the church4 is Jesus’ singular, perpetual plan for His new covenant and that no power can keep Him from building it. However, that new covenant comes with a warning not to follow in Israel’s footsteps (by replacing God’s plan with their own inferior plans), but instead to grow up and build carefully according to His plan. Whatever is built on the foundation of Jesus’ plan[5] will last forever, but anything built on any other foundation will eventually be demolished and tossed out on the trash heap to smolder and burn.
Understanding the last things requires us to realize that the nation of Israel still has a future in God’s/Christ’s plan (per His unconditional promises to Abraham), and that the fates of Israel and the church are tied up together with the certainty that both will end up being hated by the nations, who will seek to destroy them. The signs of Christ’s return are connected to Israel’s history, namely that they will be left desolate, hated by all nations, that wars and natural catastrophes will increase throughout the earth, and that Israel will be scattered around the world after Jerusalem is destroyed (70 AD), and in the future the hatred of Israel will be concentrated into a single world leader who will unite the world leaders against Israel and in an attempt to completely destroy them, and who would be successful, except that Jesus will return just in time, in power (to the Mount of Olives), where He will gather all His people to defeat Israel’s enemies and establish His throne forever, bringing peace and rest; ultimately Israel will have their eyes opened and will turn en-masse and follow Him, becoming part of the church… His household. Our job is to proclaim this story, carrying out His plan to the ends of the earth, since He will not return until the gospel has gone out throughout the whole earth.
God provided, for Israel, a set of first principles (ten commandments) and a national charter to live in a way that would set them apart as people of justice and mercy, but they were never able to live by this charter and often looked just like the nations around them, or worse, but one day Israel will have their eyes opened and will understand and turn en-masse to follow Jesus.
Combined efforts, in the sense that teams of qualified, commissioned apostolic leaders go out and work together within and across networks of churches.
This Grand Strategy is what Jesus commissioned Paul to make known and set in perpetual motion through a traditioning process of elder-led churches and gifted, apostolic-type leaders.
The Church: I define as the global movement of gatherings of His new family, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers, who devote themselves to one another, the apostle’s teaching, sharing meals, praying together, engaging in good deeds in their cities, and are networked together by apostolic-type leaders.
Scott Canion is based out of the NYC area and is part of the METRO equipping team, a network of global leaders who are establishing churches that are families, patterning themselves after Acts.