The Bible begins with a prepositional phrase: “in the beginning.” The next word gives us the subject of the sentence; “God.” Then follows the predicate which goes on to tell us what the subject did: “created the heavens and the earth.” We can learn a lot about God by studying what He created. Everything in the world shouts out the greatness of God. It’s obvious that if God is the cause of everything that exists, He’s greater than what He created and everything just “declares” His glory as the Psalmist says. Although we can see the glory and majesty of God in the creation we can only learn about his character, his nature, his interests and his dealings with both the created order and mankind from the Bible. The Bible was written to teach us about God. God is not only the subject of the first sentence of the Bible, He’s the subject of the whole Bible.

To a large extent churches miss this truth and reduce the Bible to a selection of self-help practices. We hear sermons on Joseph teaching us how to manage our affairs. Abraham teaches us that we must surrender even our most precious things to God. The prayer of Jabez becomes a step by step process of how we can get God to increase our influence in life. Jonah becomes a story about the futility of running from God and resisting God’s call on our lives. David’s victory of Goliath becomes a series of lessons on how we too can fell the giants in our own lives. Bryan Yawn writes, “Fact is, the same sort of life lessons could be derived from any contemporary biography or history. The meanings and applications we’ve given these events have nothing at all to do with what’s going on in the true story.” Bryan is absolutely right!

Only the Bible can teach us about God! It’s about God’s love for His people and His divine redemption of them through His one and only son Jesus Christ. It’s not about what man has done to impress God. It’s about what God has done for man. The Bible is not about how God would occasionally step into time to applaud the faith of a few individuals. It’s not at all about how we can learn to become better people! It’s about our failure to be the people we should be and how God loves us and sends His son to die for us anyway. Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrates His love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Trying to live up to the standards of Biblical figures drives me to the realization that I fall way short. I don’t need an example to follow. When I’m drowning I don’t need a man standing on the dock making swimming motions and yelling, “go like this!” I don’t need someone to throw me a life saver either. I need someone to jump into the ocean of my sin and save me! Guess what! That’s what the Bible is about: Jesus!