The following excerpt from Learning God’s Story of Grace outlines the “story of grace” the Bible tells:
The Gospel story sings a song of redemption in four parts:
- Creation tells us who we are, male and female, created in the image of God.
The “chapter” of Creation is characterized by “shalom,” peace, wholeness, harmony – everything is “the way it ought to be.”
- The Fall tells us why we struggle with sin and live in frustration.
The chapter of the Fall is characterized by wrecked shalom, sin has divided what was meant to be together; it has distorted beauty; it has deconstructed wholeness.
We may also describe a second Fall in which we multiply sin as we try to restore shalom by turning to people, places, or things that make us feel significant – what the Bible calls idols.
- Redemption tells of a sinless Savior who rescued us from sin and death by living, dying and rising. This wild story of God’s grace means that anyone who trusts in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for their salvation is transformed to live the free life we were made to live.
In this chapter of the story, shalom is partially restored: relocation, reconciliation, and re-creation characterize our lives, even though we await the final day when restoration will be complete.
- Consummation, the ‘grand finale’ of the story, tells us that all our endings are transformed into the beginning of an unending story.
Scripture shows us that our stories matter. We all have stories that follow the rhythm of God’s story of grace: a period of shalom, the wrecking or unraveling of shalom, further deconstruction as we attempt to restore shalom on our own terms, rescue and partial restoration of shalom with full restoration awaiting the final Chapter.
