Just What is the Bible?

We were discussing this topic last night in our regular kingdom get-together. I believe that our expectations of the Bible, as well as our preconceived notions of what it is, bind us to particular interpretations and understandings of scripture that are often waaaay off the mark.

So just what is the Bible? For what should we use it?

Wright says it so well in a lecture entitled "The Bible and Christian Imagination". Emphases are mine.

"I hope when you read the Bible that you are aware that it is a single great enormous story, a great epic running from that original creation in the garden to the final New Creation when God brings earth and heaven together finally and forever — with the climax of that story being Jesus dying on the cross and rising again as we were just singing. And then the work of implementing that achievement being given to us.

We live between the moment of New Creation when Jesus came out of the tomb on Easter morning and the ultimate moment of New Creation when in Revelation 21 God says, 'Behold, I make all things new.' We are to be making new people, living on the basis of God's making new all things in Christ and looking toward the making new of all things in the resurrection."

The Bible is not a book of anecdotes to be dipped into when you need an emotional lift, or even when you need to give one to someone else. It's not a collection of wise sayings (like a bag of fortune cookies, or even a spiritual "promise box"). It's not a user guide or technical manual for humans.

Rather, it is a grand metanarrative, an overarching story that gives explanation of where we came from, where we're going, and what we're to be up to in the meantime.

So consider Wright's statement when you have some quiet time. Let it broaden your understanding and pry the crust from your current thinking. The implications are enormous.