Around the Bible in 80 Days

The Story of God from Creation to New Creation

John Mark Hicks

• Publisher: Leafwood Publishers
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781684264612
• eBook ISBN: 9781684269310

Scripture shares a basic story, from God's first creative act in the beginning to its final scene—the renewal of all creation as a new heaven and earth. Around the Bible in 80 Days offers you an accessible guide to the Bible's high points that can enrich your faith and help you better understand God's overall redemptive story. On this 80-day excursion, join master teacher John Mark as he encourages you to reflect deeply on specific Scriptures and what they say about God's unfolding drama. Each short section ends with prayer and meditative questions that can help you better understand God and yourself.

THE FIVE ACTS OF THE THEODRAMA

TEXT: ROMANS 16:25–27

Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

The Bible tells the story of God. There are many threads within that story and many rabbit trails one might pursue, but there is one overarching plot to the drama. There is, in essence, one story in five acts.

Act One—Creation
Act Two—Israel
Act Three—Messiah
Act Four—Church
Act Five—New Creation

This story has an arc that begins with creation and moves to new creation, the goal of the drama. The arc has a climax, but the climax is found in the middle. That climax is Jesus the Messiah, who is God in the flesh. The same one who was present at the beginning and through whom God created all things is also the same one God raised from the dead as the beginning of new creation. The first and final acts of the drama are performed in the person of Jesus. He, then, is the pinnacle of the arc, the one in whom both the beginning and the end find their meaning.

Between creation and Jesus lies the story of Abraham’s descendants, Israel. They are the people of God whom God led into a new Eden, but they did not embrace God’s mission. God invested the hope of the nations in Israel, but they did not pursue this hope. Nevertheless, God pursued them and accomplished that hope in Jesus the Messiah.

Jesus, the instrument of God’s creative work in the beginning and now the reality of new creation at the right hand of God, descended from Abraham. Jesus was a Jew, and through him, God chose to bless and give hope to all nations. Jesus invites the nations into the community of Israel.

The fourth act is the church, which is the renewal of Israel’s identity and vocation in the world. Moreover, it is the renewal of human identity and vocation. God recreates humanity in order to give the world hope. Through the church, God will bless all nations.

This divine drama, which has five acts, has a beginning, a goal, and a climax. Creation is the beginning, the first act of God. New creation, the new heaven and the new Earth, is the goal, the fifth act of God. Jesus the Messiah is the climax in whom all things are fulfilled, which is the story’s third act. Between the first and third acts and between the third and fifth acts, God creates community. The second act is the story of Israel, and the fourth act is the story of the church that is renewed Israel, by which God invites all peoples into the life of Israel.

These are the five acts. I call them a theodrama because, taken together, they are God’s story. The theodrama is the story of God’s work, God’s acts. God creates a good world, God elects Israel as a people for the sake of the nations, God becomes human for our salvation, God calls the nations into the life of Israel in the church, and God renews the creation.

In the coming pages, I will retell this story. Through the theodrama, God invites us to make it our own and participate in the life and mission of God—the one who created us, loves us, and redeems us.

QUESTION: How does it change your reading of the Bible to ask what God is doing rather than first asking what we are required to do in response to the story?

PRAYER: God, open our eyes to see what you have done in the world for the sake of the world and what you are now doing to bring the world to the goal you intend for it.

WHY DID GOD CREATE THE WORLD?

TEXT: JOHN 17:24–26

[Jesus prayed]: “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Why did God create the world? This question stretches across all age groups, from toddlers to graduate students. To be sure, it is precarious, even presumptive, to answer. We cannot get into God’s head and identify motives. However, the theodrama does not leave us clueless about God’s purpose and intent. But before we enter the world of the drama, let’s consider a few thoughts.

On one hand, some suggest God was needy. In other words, maybe there was a hole in God’s psyche. Perhaps God was lonely or needed companionship—a playmate, or worse, someone to control. I remember my daughter, for example, wanted my wife and me to have another child because she wanted someone to boss around. In effect, this sort of God is codependent, a God who needs the divine ego stroked or a deficiency filled. In this scenario, creation arises out of self-interest rather than being a gracious gift.

On the other hand, some suggest God acted arbitrarily. God had no reason to create. It was a bare assertion of sovereign power or ego. Sometimes people worship God simply because God is powerful. In that case, God may be worshiped but not adored because terror drives that worship.

Reading the whole story, from beginning to end, suggests an answer to the question. While creation was the first act of God, we learn something about God’s intent by reading the rest of the story.

Christians confess that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not lonely. Rather, God enjoys a communion of love within the triune community. God does not need someone to love because, as Jesus prayed, the Father already loved the Son and the Son already loved the Father, even before the creation of the world.

Further, the purpose of redemption suggests the purpose of creation. Jesus prayed that his disciples would come to know God so that the love with which God loves the Son might be in them. In other words, God acts, whether in creation or redemption, to include us within the orbit of God’s own communal love. God created a people to share God’s own loving communion, a community that predates creation itself.

Perhaps an analogy might help. Why do we have children? There is no economic benefit, and it does not relieve family stress. However, in the best of circumstances, we have children because we want to share our love with them. We want to include others in the orbit of the family’s love. We love and, therefore, we choose to create.

In a similar way, God does not create because God is lonely or needy. God creates to include others in the communion of God’s own loving family. God loves, and God chooses to create.

QUESTION: In what way does God’s love move God to create? How do you understand that?

PRAYER: God of love, thank you for creating us and drawing us into your circle of love; pour your love into our hearts that we might love others like you love us.

GOD BUILDS A HOUSE

TEXT: ISAIAH 66:1–2

Thus says the LORD:
Heaven is my throne
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is my resting place?
All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things are mine,
says the LORD.
But this is the one to whom I will look,
to the humble and contrite in spirit,
who trembles at my word.

When Israel agonized over what sort of house or temple they should build for God, God clarified something for them: “Thus says the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.”

The God of Israel announced some fundamental truths about creation. It is the house God built, it belongs to God, and God lives in it.

The divine hand made everything. This echoes Genesis 2, where it says that God rested from all that God had made. Everything between Genesis 1:1 and God’s rest in Genesis 2 is the object of God’s creating and making. Everything in the universe—including the cosmos itself—is the product of God’s loving power. Whatever began to exist, God made it.

Moreover, God is enthroned within the heavens and the Earth. The “heavens” do not refer to some celestial divine sanctuary beyond the glimpse of the Hubble Telescope or to a dwelling place outside the cosmos. God did not construct a house out of brick and mortar but out of Earth and sky. The sky is God’s throne, and the Earth is God’s footstool. The cosmos is God’s palace or temple, a cathedral of God’s own making. It is God’s house.

God dwells in that house. It is the place where God came to rest. This is temple language, as we know from Israel’s history. When God came to dwell in the temple in Israel, it was called God’s resting place (Ps. 132:14). The temple is where God dwells, and creation is God’s temple. When I say God rested within the temple, I do not mean God became a couch potato or a passive observer. Instead, God dwells within the creation in order to enjoy it and share life with it.

While God was graciously present in the earthly temple in Jerusalem, God does not dwell in houses made by human hands because God dwells within the cosmos itself. God is so present in the creation that every breath is the movement of God’s Spirit and every breath is communion with God. Though, as Creator, God is transcendent to the creation and is not dependent upon it, God is nevertheless graciously and immanently present within the creation to sustain life and commune with and enjoy it. God loves the creation.

Perhaps we should remember that we live in God’s house and, therefore, we should treat the creation with respect and care. At the same time, God invites us to commune with the divine through the creation and revel in its joy and beauty.

Perhaps God is like an Airbnb owner who says, “Enjoy my resting place, but don’t trash it.” The cosmos is God’s temple, so let us enjoy it with reverence and respect.

QUESTION: When we recognize creation as a cathedral of praise, in what ways does this open our eyes to see God in creation and invite our response?

PRAYER: God, maker of heaven and Earth, we praise your great love and power!

FROM “EMPTY AND VOID” TO “VERY GOOD”

TEXT: GENESIS 1:1–2, 31

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while [the Spirit of God] swept over the face of the waters. . . . God saw everyt...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface: A Theodrama
• Day 1 The Five Acts of the Theodrama
• Act One: Creation
• Act Two: Israel
• Act Three: Messiah
• Act Four: Church
• Act Five: New Creation