We have started our time in Avenue Kids with a 5-week study unpacking the idea that Scripture is one coherent story of the Gospel with basic themes/concepts running throughout it. (Creation, Fall, Promise, Redemption, Restoration). The reason we have started here is that I believe the Bible is one big story about God and that this truth has the potential to radically transform how we and our children read and understand Scripture.
The Bible is One Big Story…
Earlier this week someone told me that, while talking with their Sunday school class about the story of David and Goliath, the kids asked why it was ok for David to kill Goliath since we aren’t supposed to kill people. When kids first ask questions like this, they may seem silly…but think about it. This question is one that we all have wrestled with at one time or another, namely, how do the stories in the Bible fit together? Or, put another way, “how do we understand confusing parts or reconcile seemingly contradictory passages?” I believe that part of the answer is to view and interpret the Bible as one big story about God and the good news of His gospel. The entire Old Testament paints a picture of expectant waiting for the One who will crush the power of sin and death. The New Testament unpacks the implication of Christ’s incarnation while simultaneously looking forward to the ultimate culmination of His second return.
The fact that the Bible is a story determines the way in which we interpret it. When we teach our children that the Bible is one story they are learning to read the Bible in context and not just proof text passages. “But Robert isn’t understanding and reading the Bible as one big story too complicated for my kids to get?” I don’t think so. I think that viewing the Bible as one story provides the key we need to properly interpret those hard passages, context. When we view Bible stories as stand alone, we read them in a way they weren’t intended to be read.
Take a novel you have read recently. what would you say if I picked it up, never having read it before, and skipped to chapter seven? When I finish that section, I then read chapter three. Upon finding seemingly incompatible statements or themes I say that it is a terrible book that makes no sense. Obviously, you would say I was doing it wrong. That simply isn’t how one is supposed to read a story. Things happen in a certain order for a reason….and that is exactly my point. When we teach our children to read the Bible stories together, asking how one story builds on the next, we teach them to read the Bible as a whole. In fact, I think it helps our children understand the Bible better.
The Bible is One Big Story about God…
I grew up in the church. In fact, we were one of those families that were ALWAYS at church, whenever the doors were opened. My dad was my Sunday School teacher and every year, without fail, he would move up with me. (oh yes….I wasn’t bothered by that in the least). As I was thinking back to the things I learned about God in our church between the ages of four and nine, some of them stick out.
- I disobeyed God and so I was destined for hell
- Jesus died so I could go to heaven
- As a Christian, I should obey God.
All of these statements are true, but something it missing. Although I didn’t realize it, the way I was being taught the Bible was laying the foundation for how I viewed the world. As you were reading those three statements, you might have noticed that they are very “me centered” (Jesus died so I could go to heaven). I was learning to read the Bible looking for how it impacted/applied to me. How it could change MY life. Don’t get me wrong, I think that the Bible does impact us, in fact, I think God intended His word to produce in us transformation. But here’s the thing, the Bible is NOT about me, or you, or your kids; It is about GOD. The Bible is God revealing Himself to us. Unfortunately, as a child, I was being taught that each Bible story had truths that I needed to learn but not that they were all part of a “bigger picture.” This lead to me reading each passage and then asking how it applied to me…without ever bothering to ask what it taught me about God or if maybe, just maybe, that all of history is working toward to revelation and ultimate victory of God, in His Son. Yes, this story – the Bible – will radically transform my life but it is His story, not mine.
Just to be clear, I love it when we talk with kids about how Bible passages apply to them. We need to be doers of the word and not merely hearers (James 1:22). My concern is that at times all we do with bible passages is moralize them. We say, “Don’t be like evil king Ahab, be like Elijah.” When ultimately that is not the point of any Bible story. I would argue that no Bible story is primarily about us and how we live. They are all about the good news of Jesus. In all these stories our starting point should be who God is and what He has done. In other words, the Bible is about the Gospel.
When we teach our children that the Bible is one story about God and that every story in the Bible is centered on Christ, we are teaching them to read the Bible not looking for what it tells them about themselves but what God has revealed about Himself through His Son. When our children are brought face to face with the gospel and the glory of God in Christ, that is life changing. They don’t need more moral truths, as good as those may be. They need to be confronted with the God who is the center of all things. A God who loved them when they were His enemies. A God who sent His only Son to die that they might have life. When we teach our children to read Scripture as God revealing himself, we teach them that knowing God is more important than just trying to be good. When we keep Christ at the center, we guard against our children becoming self-absorbed as they read. Simply put, we train them to come God’s Word as the living revelation of the almighty God who they ought to be captivated by and whom they must obey.
All that to say, I think our kids need to know that the Bible fits together as a story about God. As we continue our study we will move on to different parts of Scripture but we will always come back and ask how this story fits in the Great Story of the gospel.