Reality as we know it is the result of a creator god bringing into being a world that is other than himself, and yet which is full of his glory. It was always the intention of this god that creation should one day be flooded with his own life, in a way for which it was prepared from the beginning. As part of the means to this end, the creator brought into being a creature which, by bearing the creator's image, would bring his wise and loving care to bring upon the creation. By a tragic irony, the creature in question has rebelled against this intention. But the creator has solved this problem in principle in an entirely appropriate way, and as a result is now moving creation once more towards its originally intended goal. The implementation of this solution now involves the indwelling of this god within his human creatures and ultimately within the whole creation, transforming it into that for which it was made in the beginning.
[NT Wright, NTPG, 97-8]
One thing I like to do with groups who want a Bible overview is to get them to describe what they think the big story (metanarrative) of the Bible is in five or six sentences. It is always really interesting to see what they come out with. (Wright is deliberate here in not mentioning Jesus only because the next two books in the series are on the subject and he didn't want to preempt himself.) It is a good excercise to do. Of course for Wright, as for many Christians, the metanarrative of the Bible describes reality itself and our own personal stories find their true context and meaning only within that. I quite like Wright's summary (apart from the ommission of Jesus and his unqualified use of the male third person pronoun for God), it is concise and simple and effectively highlights three of the most important characters of the biblical story, God, creation, and humanity. What I think is missing from this summary is God's people, but then it is only a summary, you can't include everything. Interesting, too, how in a six sentence summary the first four of those sentences cover Genesis 1-11 while the last two cover Gen 12 -Rev 22!!
Why don't you have a go? Let me know what you think :-)
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