How Do You Read The Bible?

Last summer I finished reading through the Bible chronologically, marking two-and-a-half times that I'd read the Bible cover-to-cover. As I shared at the beginning of the read, I used The Chronological Study Bible published by Thomas Nelson.

As I’ve explained before, for me reading through the Bible all started in January 2011, when I read the New Testament in 30 days with my church. It was the catalyst for me then reading through the Old Testament and completing my first full read. Through it I gained greater perspective about God’s Word that really deepened my understanding of Him and our relationship. After it I decided to continue reading through the Bible in various ways perpetually. The experience truly has revolutionized how I consume Scripture.

The Story

Studying God's Word chronologically this read around really illuminated once again that the Bible is The Greatest Story ever told. I'll recount it, in a nutshell. It begins in Genesis with the true tale of the triune God of the Universe, in His boundless creativity, making a beautiful world and everything in it, including forming humanity in His image by one man and giving him the privilege of fellowship with God, just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit shared. God gave man the Garden of Eden as his dwelling place and responsibility. Then, knowing just what man was missing, God created for him a suitable helper (ladies, haaay!). In His omniscience, He also set boundaries of protection to maximize man (and woman)'s enjoyment of Him and His creation. Yet also in His love, God gave them the choice to obey His boundaries, or disobey.

Then the sunny story turns dark, with man deciding to cross the boundaries that God set by eating from the only tree in Eden that He had told them not to, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result, man faced the devastating effects of sin, including separation from God and banishment from Eden.

Man's sin sets off the rest of Scripture, which highlights God's love affair with a wayward humanity. Although man and woman would suffer consequences of sin, God promised a Savior. Each verse, chapter and book of the Bible knits the story of God reaching down to rescue and restore mankind to a relationship with Him, the Creator. His redemptive plan plays out in Scripture as humans like you and I underscore our need for salvation throughout it.

We witness it in the Old Testament, where God’s chosen people Israel consistently disobey His commands despite His warnings that the people’s lives would go well if they only followed them. They rejected God’s warnings by committing offenses such as not listening to God’s instructions in battles with other nations, whoring after other gods, envying other nations, ignoring and abusing the prophets God sent to call them to repentance when they strayed, and completely forgetting – even for a time losing – His laws. We see Israel (and Judah) suffer the consequences of those sins, at times in brutal ways. Yet through it all, God shows them mercy by holding back His wrath repeatedly, relenting in many cases. And when He does punish His people, it is to discipline and guide them in the right direction, as a loving Father would.

The Old Testament also highlights God's holiness. He is far greater than us and cannot look on sin. For His people, He instituted a high priest that could go into the Holy of Holies once a year in the temple, where He appeared, to offer sacrifices to atone for their sins. This ritual was a glimpse of the atonement that the sinless Messiah would bring when He came to earth to be the Ultimate sacrifice. We also see God use and deliver foreign nations as part of His redemptive plan.

The Promised Messiah Jesus is experienced in the New Testament, where He introduces a New Covenant. His life, ministry, death and resurrection, chronicled in The Gospels, finally bring the long-awaited way for man to freely access God and restore the relationship with Him that was lost at Eden.

While on earth, Jesus picks and trains a group of 12 ordinary men – including one who would betray Him – teaches them and tells them of the greater things that they would do when He goes and sends His Spirit. After He is victorious over death, suffering in our place, He leaves, returning to be with the Father.

As promised, the Holy Spirit arrives, on the Day of Pentecost. The church launches, ushering an Age that we are still part of today. His disciples start spreading the good news that Jesus died, buried, and rose again – not only to Jews, but also to Gentiles. Many Gentiles hear and receive the message, and The Gospel starts reaching the ends of the earth, as Jesus promised it would.

And, as presented in Acts, God calls and makes an apostle to the Gentiles out of Saul, a Pharisee who was previously breathing out murderous threats against God’s people and even participated in the first martyrdom of a Christian.

Saved by Grace

The introduction of Saul turned Paul in the New Testament – and the books he wrote by divine inspiration – highlight one of the greatest reminders that I got from this read – that I – and all believers – are predestined! In Ephesians 1:3-6, Paul writes to the church in Ephesus:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

Further, Paul’s letters most often begin with the phrase “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” He consistently proclaimed that, but for God choosing Him, he would have continued persecuting God’s people with misguided zeal. The more I study God’s Word, the more I am convinced that God chose me – not because of anything great I’ve done, but because of His grace. God choosing – adopting – believers is something to celebrate!

One of the best parts of The Greatest Story Ever Told is the ending. In Revelation (and in other parts of Scripture, such as Daniel 9 and 1 Thessalonians 4), we learn about the end times and how Jesus will come back and establish a new heaven and a new earth, one that believers will reign with Him on, and how sin and Satan will ultimately be defeated. Through Revelation we are reminded that while God chose a specific time in history to reveal His word, it is a timeless revelation that speaks not only up to our present, but also the future. Further, it tells us about a God who is outside time and has a definite plan to overcome the world – including evil. His Word ends with the ultimate hope: that He will come again, and those who know Him will be with Him forever, just as intended in Eden. Amen – come, Lord Jesus!

Reading

Question: how do you read the Bible? Do you read it as a critic picking out select phrases to bolster a negative opinion about it? Do you only read all or part of the Old or New Testament and discount the rest? Do read it just out of duty, to check a box? Do you see it just as a “good book” with positive sayings for life but not as God’s very Word? If we do not see it as primarily a love story, from Genesis to Revelation, we have missed the point. I like how Mark Driscoll puts it in his newest book, A Call to Resurgence: Will Christianity Have a Funeral of A Future?, particularly in reference to reading Scripture out of religious duty:

The Bible must not be read as a job description for motivated, self-disciplined, devoutly religious people to be their own heroes and saviors of their souls. It must be read as the story of guilty sinners and self-righteous hypocrites, visited by a perfect God who lived the life they haven’t, died the death they should have, and rose to give the gift they could not earn. The Bible is good news about what Jesus has done before it is good advice about what we should do. The Bible tells us how God serves us before it asks us to serve Him (pgs. 145-146).

Reading through the Bible chronologically (and perpetually) has made me much more mindful of the main purpose of God’s word as I read it each day, even in the times when I may not be particularly excited to do so. Now, every time I open it, I’m reminded that each verse – and passage – is an opportunity for me not just to complete a daily ritual or even gain wisdom for living, but, must importantly, to experience His love. I am so thankful for how God has revolutionized my time in His word through reading the whole story!

On that note, my perpetual read must go on! Right now I’m on day 176 of The Lookout Bible Reading Plan, available on YouVersion. The one year, six-day-a-week plan assigns a daily reading from the Gospels, another New Testament book, a Wisdom book (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) and another Old Testament book. The daily “big picture” it provides of the whole Bible has been another great way to mediate on The Story.

Whether you profess a personal relationship with Jesus Christ or not, I challenge you to read God’s Word as a complete story, cover to cover. It is living and active, and has the power to change not just your life, but your destiny. If you know Jesus, be reminded of His love whenever you open it up, even in the times when doing so seems mundane. After all, it’s God’s very words, and that’s how He wants us to read it. And in the process, we can't help but be changed.