Bible in a blog

There is a lot to get through so lets keep the intro short: This is the Bible and God’s plan for the world rolled into one big blog. Begin:

‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth’… we’ve all heard this bit. God made earth perfect and without sin. He also made man and woman (that’s us guys). He made us with freewill because He loves us. Now Adam and Eve had it all going for them; they were perfect and they lived in the Garden of Eden, but they didn’t realise they had it so good because they allowed themselves to be deceived by that big snake that is the devil, therefore bringing sin into the world.

Now, a quick intro to the devil: The devil was formerly God’s most powerful and beautiful angel called Lucifer who became proud and thought he could be God. As a result God cast Lucifer out of heaven to earth. [SPOILER ALERT: God’s won. Jesus beat satan on his death at Calvary, but until Jesus comes again the devil is still on this earth and he is determined to spread evil as much as he can (and he’s doing a pretty good job)].

Back to the history lesson: At one perfect time, God walked with Adam and Eve, but by bringing sin into the world, man became separated from God. God is perfect therefore it is impossible for Him to be in the presence of sin.

Adam and Eve multiplied and worked for their living, as God instructed them to do, and the world grew. Based on the ages of people mentioned in the Bible, by about 1,000 years later the world was a pretty messed up place. It was rife with sin, injustice and evil and God was sad. Enough was enough he thought, so he brought judgment upon man by flooding the earth. Every living thing died except for Noah, his family and a whole lot of animals all afloat on a boat. After this the world was re-populated by Noah’s three sons; Ham; Shem and; Japeth.

Now God wasn’t happy that he couldn’t have a relationship with man because of sin. He wanted a peoples for himself, therefore he chose a man called Abram (later renamed Abraham). Abraham was a faithful man and God made him a promise that he would become the father of a nation (Israel) and that God would make that nation very prosperous and never forsake them. The Jews would be God’s people on the land. God would love the Jews.

Low and behold, Abraham’s wife Sarai, who was thought to be barren, gave birth to a son (Isaac). Isaac gave birth to Jacob. These three guys are known as the ‘Patriarchs of the faith’. Their lives are a mirror for God’s coming salvation, but I will tell you about that in another blog. Jacob (later renamed Israel) gave birth to twelve sons. (I won’t name them all).

The 12 sons were the start of the 12 tribes of Israel. (Jesus was a direct descendant from Judah). Now we all know the story of Joseph, sold into Egypt as a slave. When Joseph had become an important man in Egypt there was a famine in Israel. Joseph invited his brothers and Jacob to come and live in Egypt.

Jump forward: Egypt has taken the Jews into captivity as slaves. For 400 years the Jews are slaves in Egypt, until one man Moses frees the Israelites. Moses leads the Israelites into the Wilderness towards the Promised Land. He commands the Israelites to take back the land that is rightfully theirs, but the Israelites get cold feet and disobey God yet again. As a punishment the Jews are destined to walk in the wilderness for 40 years.

During this time, God gives a great gift to his people, the 10 commandments. The 10 commandments are God’s standard of perfection.

10 commandments:

Do not put anything before God

Do not bow down to any graven image

Do not blaspheme (use God’s name as a swear word)

Honour the Sabbath

Respect your parents

Do not murder

Do not commit adultery

Do not steal

Do not lie

Do not covet

These 10 commandments represent God’s first covenant with the Jews. If you read the commandments you will see that it is impossible for you to keep them. That is the whole idea. God showed the Jews his standard of perfection to illustrate the fact that nobody can earn their way into God’s favour through good works. No matter how many good works somebody did, they were never met the standard God required. The 10 commandments were there to show us that we cannot do anything in our own strength; we need a saviour – somebody to put our faith in who is able to meet the requirements that God demands.

For the next 3,000 years or so, the nation of Israel is experiencing ups and downs depending on whether they are putting their faith in God or if they have turned their back on Him. God is incredibly patient with the Israelites and has mercy on them many times.

The Saviour:

The beginning of the New Testament represents the second covenant between God and man; the spiritual and stronger covenant that comes about through Jesus Christ. As nobody could live up to God’s requirements God, in all His love, sent His son, Jesus to live a natural life weak to all the temptations that we are weak to and vulnerable to all the problems that come with life. Despite this Jesus lived a perfect life. Jesus is the saviour that was able to keep the 10 commandments. He is the person that we must put our faith in, because we cannot meet God’s requirements in our own strength.

Whilst the first four books of the NT (the gospels) are an account of Jesus’ physical life, the whole Bible concerns Jesus. The OT is a complete mirror of God’s plan for salvation and an illustration of Jesus. Over 400 prophecies made in the OT about the coming Messiah were fulfilled by Jesus concerning every detail of his life.

Jesus was sacrificed for our sins, killed upon the cross. In doing so he took the punishment for our sins upon His shoulders. As Jesus was perfect and had no sin, he was a sufficient sacrifice for all sin. Through His death He defeated sin. The Bible tells us that Christ who knew no sin became sin for you; and that he died once for all sins, past present and future. If we recognise what Christ has done and put our faith in Him, through Him we will be able to meet the standard God requires. This is grace.

Now because the Jews rejected Christ, in doing so salvation became available to the whole world. This in no way means that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people. The Jews are still God’s people, rather as explained in Romans 9 – 11, Gentiles have been ‘grafted in’ to God’s new covenant. Through Christ all may be saved. God’s promises to the Jews still stand and will be fulfilled upon Christ’s return. The Jews will return to God one day. It is on this day that Christ will return.

If you accept Christ as your saviour, the Bible gives you instructions on how to live your life to the greatest benefit. Everything recorded is for your benefit. As BAC we should turn from everything which is against God, that is sin. Through accepting Christ as our saviour we will not become perfect. We will still make mistakes, however when we die and stand before God we will be justified through Christ and be able to enter heaven.

In a nutshell: God created this world and us guys to live and to have a relationship with Him. Through man’s stupidity we became separated from God. The whole Bible is an explanation of how God has made it possible for us to be brought back to Him if we want and how He will one day, through Christ, remove sin and evil from the earth altogether. Who will be saved? – those who have put their trust in Jesus because He is the only one who is able to live a perfect life. Who will be lost? Those who do not put their trust in Jesus, because as already stated: the 10 commandments are Gods standard of perfection; we cannot keep the law and are imperfect; because God is perfect he cannot be in the presence of somebody sinful. Woe to those who do not accept Christ because they sure as heck can’t live up to God’s standards in their own strength.

-BACChristian