Our student ministry just completed a new event called Cover to Cover, where we traced the theme of God’s Kingdom from Genesis to Revelation. Students and their parents came to hear how Scripture is one unified story of God redeeming a people for himself, to dwell with him under his rule. That was the repeated phrase of Cover to Cover, originally from Graham Goldsworthy: “God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule.”
Enjoy this short summary of the story of Scripture and a snapshot of what our students learned at Cover to Cover.
At the start of Scripture, we see God’s initial design for his creation. God’s people (Adam and Eve) are ruling with God (subduing creation – Genesis 1:28, 2:15) in God’s place (Garden of Eden) and under God’s rule as the Creator of the world (Genesis 1:1). However, things quickly take a turn when Adam and Eve rebel against God’s rule and fall for the temptation of the serpent (Genesis 3). Instead of ruling with God, Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit is their first attempt to rule apart from God. God’s people are then removed from God’s place, no longer able to rightly rule with God.
But God, in his grace, does not leave His people in their sin.
In the midst of humanity’s separation from God, God gives a promise: that there would come an offspring, a new kingly representative, who would save humanity from sin and death and restore God’s people, God’s place, and God’s rightful reign over creation (Genesis 3:15).
As the story continues, we see that humanity continues to reap the consequences of sin: death. Who is the offspring of the woman that will right what has been wronged? This hope is further clarified in the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12, 15, 17), where God promises to make a people for himself, bring them into a land where he will dwell with them and rule over them.
In Exodus, we see God deliver his people from the hand of another king, Pharaoh, and then give them the Mosaic Law. God’s people are on their way to God’s place, learning to live under God’s rule.
Despite seeing God’s miraculous salvation from Egypt, entering and conquering his promised place, and having God’s written law, the people still continue in rebellion. Ultimately, this repeating cycle of idolatry leads to their rejection of God, their divine king, in search of a human king that will rule like the surrounding nations (1 Samuel 8:5) . God’s people did not want a ruler set apart for God’s purposes; they wanted a king like the rest of the world.
But God, in his grace, does not leave His people in their rejection.
After allowing the people to have a king like the nations (Saul), God provides a king after his own heart, David. Through David, God promises to build a kingdom that will last forever (2 Samuel 7). The offspring that will crush the head of the serpent and bring God’s people back under God’s divine rule will come through the kingly line of David! Yet sin still continues in and through David, death still reigns, and the kingdom of Israel splits and spirals further into idolatry. We are left asking, “Who is the king who will reign perfectly and finally free God’s people from the reign of sin?”
Because God’s people do not obey God’s law, they are once again removed from God’s place. Both the northern and southern kingdoms are exiled and live under the rule of surrounding nations. They are experiencing the consequences of their rebellion and it seems that no matter how much they try, God’s people are not capable of submitting to God’s rule in their own strength.
But God, in his grace, does not leave His people in exile.
He promises a new covenant: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you…And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:26-28, emphasis added). God promises to put his Spirit within man to cause them to walk in his ways! He will not only continue to be faithful to His promise of an eternal Kingdom and perfect King, but he will be faithful to His people’s promise of obedience on their behalf!
The arrival of Christ, God in the flesh, is the fulfillment of the whole Old Testament. Jesus is the offspring of the woman (Genesis 3:15), the offspring of Abraham (Genesis 12; Galatians 3:16), the True King from the line of David (2 Samuel 7; Matthew 1:1), and ultimately, the Son of God (Luke 1:35). He perfectly fulfills the law (Matthew 5:17), both by living a sinless life and by dying as our perfect and final sacrifice on the cross for our sin.
But God, in his grace, does not leave His people with a dead Savior.
Christ also resurrected and conquered death! No longer are God’s people held captive by the sting of death. Through Christ’s death (conquering sin) and resurrection (conquering death), we too can be sure of eternal life through Christ Jesus when our faith is in him alone as Lord (Romans 10:9).
After Christ’s ascension, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in those who trust in Jesus and “cause them to walk in his” ways! God’s people are now the dwelling place of God (the Holy Spirit). God’s people now have the ability to submit to God’s rule. And now God’s people in Christ await his final return, when there will be a final end to sin, pain, and death: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4a). God’s people await God’s final place, where we will dwell with him forever under the reign of the triumphant King, Christ Jesus.
God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule: This is the hope we have in Christ Jesus our Lord! And this hope is so much sweeter when we see the hopelessness of ourselves apart from Christ through the story of the Bible, cover to cover.
