This is the third in a four-part series on the value and beauty of the Bible. The longest chapter in Scripture is a love poem, but its theme isn’t romance or sex or adventure or nature…it’s the Bible itself. The writer of Psalm 119 understood that the greatest beauty in the world is God’s Word. (Be sure to go back and read Part 1: “The Bible Is Revelation from God, Not Enlightened Thoughts About God” and Part 2: “The Bible Is Life-Giving Law” …and to read our conclusion in Part 4: “The Bible Has More Value Than Life Itself.”)
As a young boy, I often thought of the Bible as a book of heroes for me to emulate. I don’t think I was alone in this. Many of us were given the same moralistic lessons, especially from the Old Testament: “Slay the Goliaths in your life, like David! Dare to be a Daniel!”
Supplementing the book-of-heroes idea, I also thought of the Bible as a book of rules to obey. There are, by most estimates, 1,663 commandments in the Bible. Not that it would be appreciably easier if there were only, say, ten, but the sheer number 1,663 is staggering. I frequently felt like reading the Bible was a game of spiritual whack-a-mole: every time I successfully accomplished some command, I’d notice another three pop up.
As I got older, I tended to see Scripture as a book of practical advice. You know the type, because they make for such popular sermons and books. “Five steps to a better marriage,” or “Seven ways to overcome your fear” or even “The Jesus Diet: Losing weight like Jesus” (I wish I were kidding).
The Bible is, of course, full of heroes, and rules, and practical advice. But that’s not the main point. If we approach the Bible looking primarily for action steps, we’re never going to delight in it. The Bible is, first and foremost, a story. And as much as it bothers our 21st-century minds, it’s not a story about us.
Not all about us, I mean. Because yes, we do feature in it. But we simply aren’t the main characters. In the movie that is our life, we generally assume center stage. After all, the camera never cuts away from our perspective, so it’s easy to think that we literally are the central character in the drama of our own lives. The Bible tells us that’s not so. We want to be Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope. Instead, we find that we’re Biggs Darklighter, X-Wing Fighter 3, who gets blown up shielding Luke.
But learning that the Bible isn’t all about us is ironically empowering. If I’m the main character in the story of my life, then my life won’t make sense—and the Bible certainly won’t. But if I recognize that I’m simply part of a bigger story, suddenly things start to come together. The story of Scripture is so big, so captivating, that when we finally learn it, the rest of our lives start to make sense again. In other words, we might just be “X-Wing Fighter 3,” but we’re also remarkably significant in the bigger story.
As G. K. Chesterton once said, “How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it!”
So if you’re going to read the Bible as a book of heroes and rules and advice, at least get it straight: it’s a story of one Hero who came to rescue us after we had broken the rules and rejected his advice. The message of the Bible is not, “Here are some practical tools that can fix your life.” It is, “Fix your eyes on Jesus.”
The Bible is not a book of duties we need to do for God; it is the story of God’s love for us. It is the universe’s greatest love letter. I wonder, how many of us have read it that way? When my wife and I were dating, I lived in Southeast Asia. We wrote each other all the time—sappy love letters that I now keep under lock and key. But how would I have felt if, when I returned to the U.S., I found boxes of those letters unopened? What if she said, “Well, I knew you loved me, so I didn’t read them”? How would I feel?
How does God feel when you know the Bible is his love letter, but you’ve never read Hosea, talking about the lengths he would go in his love for you? Or Habakkuk, where he describes how his love comes to you in pain? There is no greater truth in the world than the simple message, God loves you. But it is a truth so rich, so magnificent, so deep, that we should revel and bask in it every day.
