What is the Bible?
Living Out God’s Story
What exactly is the Bible?
That’s a big question and could have many answers. The Bible is really a collection of many books, written across many years by many authors. However, for followers of Jesus, it’s much more than that. Let me start with a story.
In the year 1791, Mozart was asked to compose a requiem—which is basically a piece of music for someone’s funeral. For some reason, Mozart began saying strange things as he wrote it. The legend says that he came to believe that he was actually composing this piece for his own funeral.
Wherever Mozart got that idea, we may never know. But whatever the case, Mozart never did get a chance to finish it. You see, he passed away a few months after starting the work, leaving the requiem unfinished.
However, one of Mozart’s students completed the work, so today we can listen to the Requiem in D minor in it’s entirety. It’s an amazing piece of music. But what’s fascinating is that this student did such a great job that it’s not exactly clear where Mozart’s work ends and his work begins. See, he had to carefully study the themes of the score, but he also had to understand his teacher’s heart in order to complete this unfinished work.
Today, we’re talking about scripture. Through the ages, Christians have agreed that God has spoken through the Bible. It’s our guiding word and it should instruct our lives and inform all that we do.
But how exactly does that work? For many people, it’s just a strange, ancient document. It might be kinda boring, a little weird, and a lot intimidating.
But today, I wanna suggest that Scripture is like a great, unfinished work. Instead of a requiem, it’s like an unfolding drama that tells the story of God and his people. The Bible is our script that shows us the beginning, and it shows us how things end, but today we are living out the middle section. This story isn’t unfinished because God just gave up. It’s because God is still writing. And like Mozart’s student, our work is to complete the story by carefully studying the themes of the script and by understanding our master’s heart.
The analogy isn’t perfect. God is still writing, and he is the one who empowers us to complete this work. And it’s not like we are adding to the Bible—but we are living out the story that it tells.
Christians are actors in God’s great drama, and the Bible is our script.
When an actor is preparing for a role, h or she will live and breathe the script. They take the words on the page and embody them by bringing them to life. That’s how we should be with Scripture. It is our script, but in this case, the drama is not fiction: it’s real life!
So you see, Scripture is not just something we read, study, or dissect. As Christians, it is the very air we breathe. We must take upon ourselves this story—with all its twists, and turns—because it is the story that we are living out today.
So how does this story go? Let’s take a deep dive into the 4 “acts” of the drama of scripture.
We could call Act 1 “creation.” We read about this in Genesis 1-2. An all-powerful, loving God forms the universe. He then places his image bearers inside this world to represent him, and he calls it “very good.”
Act 2 is called The Fall. This happens in Genesis 3, and it keeps getting worse, all the way through chapter 11. It’s where God’s people stop trying to reflect God and instead try to be God. All of creation is now broken, and things start to fall apart.
Act 3 is Redemption. It starts in Genesis 12, where God puts his rescue plan into action. He begins by calling Abraham and his descendants to show the world how He made them to live. It leads us to one Israelite named Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection show us how everything can get back on track.
Finally, we have act 4, which is called Completion. We read about this in the book of Revelation. It’s where God will one day make all things right again, and we will live with Him, and nothing will get in the way.
Now, the key is to remember that today, we’re still living out act 3. God’s mission of redemption is still taking place. Jesus has come, and he sent the Holy Spirit to fill us—which means that today, we’re completing the story with Jesus as he brings redemption to the whole world.
The outcome for this chapter is to develop a meaningful rhythm of scripture reading and study. Why is this important? Because just as an actor must know their script in order to become their character, followers of Jesus must know scripture in order to become like Jesus. Scripture is the surest way to know the character and will of the one that we follow.
In what comes next, we’ll take a deep dive into the four “acts” of the drama of scripture. But for now, just remember: you and I are actors in God’s great drama, and the Bible is our script.
What does it mean for the Bible to be your “script?”
How does understanding the Bible as a script differ from seeing it as an instruction manual?
What other scripts are you tempted to live out instead of scripture?
What does your relationship with the Bible look like now, and how would you like it to look in the future?