{"id":1503,"date":"2011-03-04T13:44:02","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T19:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/?p=1503"},"modified":"2011-03-04T13:44:02","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T19:44:02","slug":"the-message-of-the-bible-in-one-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/the-message-of-the-bible-in-one-sentence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Message of the Bible in One Sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Dane Ortlund<\/a> asked a group of pastors and biblical scholars to\u00c2\u00a0summarize\u00c2\u00a0the message of the Bible in one sentence<\/a> and posted the answers at his blog<\/a>. The purpose of this\u00c2\u00a0exercise, of course, was not to be comprehensive, but, as Dane wrote, “to refocus and recenter on the heart of the book that is the greatest earthly treasure to fallen human beings outside of God himself.”<\/p>\n

Here’s what Dane collected from these faithful men:<\/p>\n

Greg Beale<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The OT storyline appears best to be summarized as: the historical story of God who progressively reestablishes his new creational kingdom out of chaos over a sinful people by his word and Spirit through promise, covenant, and redemption, resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to extend that new creation rule and resulting in judgment for the unfaithful (defeat and exile), all of which issues into his glory; the NT storyline can be summarized as: Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 life of covenantal obedience, trials, judgmental death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit has launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already-and-not-yet promised new creation reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to extend this new creation rule and resulting in judgment for the unfaithful, unto God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glory.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Dan Block<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God was so covenantally committed to the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him may have eternal life!<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Craig Blomberg<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God is in the process of recreating the universe which has been corrupted by sin and has made it possible for all those and only those who follow Jesus to be a part of the magnificent, eternal community that will result.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Darrell Bock<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The Bible tells how the loving Creator God restored a lost humanity and cosmos through reestablishing his rule through Jesus Christ and the provision of life to His honor.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Dever<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God has made promises to bring His people to Himself and He is fulfilling them all through Christ.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin DeYoung<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0A holy God sends his righteous Son to die for unrighteous sinners so we can be holy and live happily with God forever.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Zack Eswine<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0Apprenticing with Jesus to become human again.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

John Frame<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God glorifies himself in the redemption of sinners.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Scott Hafemann<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The Triune God is the beginning, middle, and end of everything, ‘for from him (as Creator) and through him (as Sustainer and Redeemer) and to him (as Judge) are all things’ (Rom 11:36).
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

David Helm<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0Jesus is the promised Savior-King.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Paul House<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The movement in history from creation to new creation through the redemptive work of Father, Son, and Spirit who saves and changes corrupted people and places for his glory and their good.<\/p>\n

Gordon Hugenberger<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The message of the Bible in one sentence is that genuine truth, unlike every human philosophy, is far too luxuriant, too enthralling, too personal, too all-encompassing, too sovereign, and too life-changing to be reducible to one sentence (or, as Einstein once put it, the challenge is to ‘make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler’).
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Kent Hughes<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God is redeeming his creation by bringing it under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Andreas Kostenberger<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0‘God so loved the world that the gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Phil Long<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God, who made us and everything else, loves us and gave himself for us that we might live forever with him as new creatures in a new creation\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe news is good!<\/p>\n

Sean Lucas<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The message of the Bible is the transforming grace of God displayed preeminently in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Ray Ortlund<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The Lover of our souls won’t let the romance die, but is rekindling it forever.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Grant Osborne<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God created mankind in order to love them, but we all rejected his love, so God sent His Son to bear our sins on the cross in order that by believing in His sacrificial atonement, we might have life.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

George Robertson<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The Bible is the record of God’s promise of and deliverance through Jesus Christ.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Leland Ryken<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The message of the Bible is twofold: to show how people can be saved from their sins through faith in Christ’s atonement AND how to live all of life as a follower of God.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Tom Schreiner<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0God reigns over all things for his glory, but we will only enjoy his saving reign in the new heavens and the new earth if we repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the crucified and risen Lord and who gave himself on the cross for our salvation.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Mark Seifrid<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0Verbum caro factum est.<\/p>\n

Jay Sklar<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The first sentence that comes to mind is that of my colleague Michael D. Williams, who describes the Bible’s story about the world as follows: God made it, we broke it, Jesus fixes it!
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Erik Thoennes<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0The main message of the Bible is that the one true God is displaying his glory primarily in redeeming and restoring his fallen creation by fulfilling his covenant promises and commands through the glorious person and atoning work of Christ.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Doug Wilson<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0Scripture tells us the story of how a Garden is transformed into a Garden City, but only after a dragon had turned that Garden into a howling wilderness, a haunt of owls and jackals, which lasted until an appointed warrior came to slay the dragon, giving up his life in the process, but with his blood effecting the transformation of the wilderness into the Garden City.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Yarbrough<\/a>:\u00c2\u00a0He\u00e2\u20ac\u201dGod in Christ\u00e2\u20ac\u201dshall reign forever and ever; so today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart but believing the good news take up your cross and follow Jesus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dane Ortlund is the Senior Editor in the Bible division at Crossway Books<\/a> and writes daily at Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, Dane Ortlund asked a group of pastors and biblical scholars to\u00c2\u00a0summarize\u00c2\u00a0the message of the Bible in… Continue Reading ›<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1503"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1510,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1503\/revisions\/1510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}