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Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story
Brookside Christian Reformed Church
Grand Rapids, Michigan
September 22-23, 2006

Second Plenary Address
Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story
The importance of understanding the authority of the Bible in terms of one unfolding story and what it means to find our place in that story.
Michael Goheen, Trinity Western University

Audio of this session will be made available at the Calvin Theological Seminary lecture archive.

Goheen began his second lecture by expanding on the idea of the Bible as one true story, the story of universal history. Too often, he said, Christians treat the Bible as a religious book. He quoted Hindu Scholar Chaturvedi Badrinath, who Goheen said seems to understand the true nature of the Bible better than many Christians do:

I can't understand why you missionaries present the Bible to us in India as a book of religion. It is not a book of religion.I find in your Bible a unique interpretation of universal history, the history of the whole of creation and the history of the human race. And therefore a unique interpretation of the human person as a responsible actor in history. That is unique. There is nothing in the whole religious literature of the world to put alongside it.

Goheen explained that what Badrinath is basically saying is that if we really believe what the Bible says, then we need to make its story central to our lives. We need to live out of its story. It is not meant to be kept quiet, nor is it a fantasy that requires the reader to abandon reality. It isn't, for example, Homer's Odyssey. It is a true story and we need to make it our own.

Goheen warned of the danger of "breaking up the Bible into little bits" and losing sight of the story it tells. He read an excerpt from his book, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story, which he co-authored with Craig Bartholomew.

If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is shaping our culture, and will thus cease to shape our lives as it should. Idolatry has twisted the dominant cultural story of the secular Western world. If as believers we allow this story.to become the foundation of our thought and action, then our lives will manifest not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an idolatrous culture. Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter: a fragmented Bible may actually produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshippers!

Goheen continued by laying out the biblical story in terms of a play. Act one is entitled God Establishes His Kingdom: Creation. Act two is Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall. Act three is The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated. Act four is The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished. Act Five is Spreading the News of the King: the Mission of the Church. This act is still going on. The final act is then entitled, The Return of the King: Redemption Completed.

Goheen reflected on the biblical story by pointing out that it is a story of God's activity, not of the activity of human beings. God "chooses and uses his people as his covenant partners and instruments of renewal, but he is the only 'hero' of this story."

Goheen concluded by more thoroughly explaining our place in the biblical story. He discussed the "already-not yet coming of the kingdom." The coming of the kingdom "does not happen all at once. Jesus spoke of both a present and future kingdom." In other words, the coming of God's kingdom began with Jesus' life on earth. His work was a "foretaste" or a "preview" of what the future kingdom would be like. He then commissioned his church and left his Spirit to continue this work. Thus, as Christians, we are to be a "preview" of God's coming kingdom with our witness to the gospel.

Goheen also said that we are to continue Jesus kingdom mission upon this earth. In John 20:21, Jesus says, "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Our lives take on significance, said Goheen, as "we find new cultural ways to express the gospel."

As we "witness to the gospel of the kingdom," said Goheen, we must remember that this witness is "as wide as creation." Although it can be important in spreading the gospel, we must not only "verbally hammer it home" to people. We must live it, embody it, demonstrate it.

The church must be the "glimmer of hope, justice, and knowledge of God in this world. Without this, our words are empty," said Goheen. After all, he said, "I could brag forever about being a world class trumpet player, but what good does that do if I can't actually play?"

-Lisa Bierma

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