Communicating the Big Picture: Reading the Bible Missionally
It is vital to communicate and teach the grand story of the Scriptures. This is the beginning of a realignment with God. But we have to go deeper. As Christ followers it is vital that we understand the big picture: Creation - Fall - Israel - Jesus the Messiah - Church - New Creation. The next challenge is to begin working through individual passages and books to study them in depth. The true Biblicist is able to gravitate between an eagle’s eye view of the broad shape of the Scriptures and the ground level investigation of its smallest pieces. Both are essential. Without the big picture, we run the danger of atomizing the biblical text into isolated, unrelated fragments. Without the ground level view, we risk missing the discrete witness of individual texts and proclaiming an ideological or theological system instead of the full counsel of God’s Word.
The goal of the Bible is the conversion of its readers and hearers. The Scriptures call for a (re)alignment with God’s creational intentions in light of the life, death, and resurrection as the climactic moment of the biblical narrative. This (re)alignment is a conversion to our true humanity as a missional community that reflects God’s character in Creation, for Creation, and to Creation.
I believe that biblical interpretation must take seriously the overarching missional framework of the Scriptures. This framework does not dictate the meaning of any individual passage, but it is vital for understanding the function of an individual text within the Bible as a whole.
As reflect on a method for reading the Scriptures wisely, we need to remind ourselves of the contours of the Scriptures. The Bible tells God’s story and invites humanity into a dynamic and saving relationship with God of the Scriptures. It is a saving relationship between God and humanity. A review of the Scriptural story demonstrates that humanity is lost apart from the mission of God to deliver women and men from their fallenness. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is the culmination of God’s work. But our reconciliation with God is merely the doorway of God’s vision for life. We are saved from lostness, but profoundly we are saved for God. Before sin entered the world, humanity lived as the imago dei before Creation. The saving work of Jesus recreates this reality. Our salvation in Christ ushers us into a new dynamic life.
What do you think?
© 2009 Brian D Russell