Some time ago I tried to write my statement of faith as a narrative rather than a list of statements. I did this because most of the Bible is in narrative form and so I thought I’d give it a shot. I reviewed it today and fixed some typos. I kind of like this.

In the beginning was God (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1), eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; The one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 45:21) existing in an eternal, glorious communion of three. He lacks nothing (Acts 17:25). As a trinity, he has fellowship and perfect love. His knowledge and power is limitless (Matthew 19:26, Jeremiah 32:27, Psalm 147:5, Acts 15:18). He is timeless and since he is perfect, he is unchanging (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17) for any change would only be decrease. God created everything there is out of nothing (Hebrews 11:3). He made the spiritual beings called ‘angels’ and he created the heavens and the earth (Nehemiah 9:6) not because he was lonely but in order to demonstrate more fully his glory and in order that others might also enjoy it.

Some of his angels decided to rebel against him and became his enemies (Ezekiel 28:11-19). They were not more powerful than God or even his equal, but they work to frustrate his purposes in creation. In order to one day deal with these rebels God created hell, a place where his anger will be on them forever (Matthew 25:41). They haven’t been locked there yet, but a day is coming when they will be.

God created all there is in the universe: light, darkness, plants, animals, air, water, sun, moon and stars. He did this through Jesus, his Son, and for Jesus (Colossians 1:16). The greatest part of his creation was man and women, created to represent him in creation and so he give them charge over the earth (Genesis 1:26-30). When God had created man and women, he announced that everything was very good and then he rested from his work (Genesis 1:31, 2:1-3). One day the greatest of the rebel angels deceived the woman (Genesis 3:1-5, 1 Timothy 2:13-14) and she broke the one rule that God had given to her husband: she ate from the only tree they were forbidden to eat from. To make matters worse she gave some of the fruit to her husband who was there and he ate it too even though he wasn’t confused by Satan’s lies. Through the first man’s rebellion against God, sin and death and decay entered God’s beautiful creation and it spread to all people (Romans 5:12). Everybody since that first couple are now born rebels against God (Romans 3:9-18). Every aspect of us is affected by sin; our emotions, our wills, our reasoning, our desires, all of us.

As bad as this was, it this wasn’t Satan’s victory over God; it was actually the beginning of Satan’s ultimate defeat! In pronouncing his judgments, God promised that someone would come who would defeat Satan (Genesis 3:15). As time went on, God made covenants with some of the people he’d created. In these covenants he explained more and more about that one who would eventually undo the damage Satan incited. Through the Holy Spirit, God communicated occasionally with our rebellious race. He has spoken in various ways at various times, through dreams or visions (Hebrews 1:1, 2 Peter 1:21). Even better, he lead some people to write down what he had to say to everyone who would follow him. These writings, like God’s covenants, tell the story of the coming of the one he promised would defeat Satan. They have been collected for us in the 66 books of the Bible.

In the fullness of time, as God had ruled over human history and human sin, he brought about all the promises he had made (Galatians 3:16, 4:4) when Jesus, his only son, took on a human nature (Philippians 2:6-7) and was born to a virgin girl (Matthew 1:18). The promise had come! This Jesus would save his people (Matthew 1:21). Unlike the rest of humanity, Jesus didn’t sin (Hebrews 4:15). He lived the perfect life that the rest of mankind wouldn’t and couldn’t. In the final years of his life, Jesus began to preach and teach about God’s kingdom and what it meant to live like God had intended. He healed people of sickness and infirmities, delivered them from demons, raised a few from death and trained twelve to be his apostles. When the religious rulers of his day couldn’t stand his teaching any longer, they had him arrested on false charges (Matthew 26:59-61) and handed him over to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, for execution (Luke 23:1-3). That fulfilled all the predictions of his coming that God had told his people through the prophets, Jesus was executed on a Roman cross (Psalms 22:16, Luke 24:38-40) and was buried in a borrowed tomb (Isaiah 53:9, Matthew 27:57-60). Again, it looked like Satan had won, the one who was supposed to defeat him and undo the damage he’d done lay dead in the grave. But on the third day, some women came to the tomb and found it empty. Jesus had risen from the dead (Matthew 28:1-10) and defeated sin and death and Satan! God won.

Jesus appeared to people (1 Corinthians 15:3-7) and showed some his wounds to prove that it was him (John 20:24-29). He ate with his apostles to show them that he wasn’t a ghost (Luke 24:41-43). After spending time with them, he commissioned them to tell others the story and the promise and to teach them to follow what he’d said. He also ordered a ceremonial washing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for those who said they trusted him and wanted to follow him (Matthew 28:16-20). After he told them all of this, he physically rose up in the air and went to heaven (Acts 1:9). He is now sitting at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55), a position of authority and honor. From heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit upon his followers so that they would be able to do as he’d told them (Luke 24:49, Acts 2:4).

What Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection was that he made a way for rebellious people to be made right with God by enabling them to trust him to have taken care of their debt to God from our sin. We rebels are accepted by God not because we do good things for him (Romans 3:20), but because of what we might call “the great exchange.” Jesus took our sin and gave us his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Just as the first man represent all of humanity in his rebellion against God, Jesus represented all of his people in obedience to God (Romans 5:12-21, 1 Corinthians 15:22). These people are those who God knew from before he created the world (Ephesians 1:4). He had always intended to show his mercy on humanity even from before the first man took the first breath. Jesus was always going to bring praise to his Father by bearing his anger (1 Peter 1:18-21). Satan really never had a chance!

And so now, with Jesus ruling in heaven, he is building his church on earth (Matthew 16:18). His church are those he has called out to worship God and they are made up of people who love and trust him. He’s given these people the ability to turn away from their past rebellion (Acts 11:18), and he’s given them faith to trust in Him (Ephesians 2:8). He has sealed these good gifts to them by giving them the Holy Spirit who lives in everyone who loves Jesus (Ephesians 1:13, 4:30). He wants his people to come together regularly to thank him and to encourage each other and sing and teach each other and to eat a special meal together often till he returns (Hebrews 10:25, Colossians 3:16-17, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

He isn’t got to stay in heaven forever. There is a day when he’s going to come back to the earth to rule it (2 Samuel 7:12-13, PsalmS 2:8-9, Revelation 19:15). He’ll raise his people who have died and they will rule with him (Revelation 3:21, 1 Corinthians 6:2-3). But a day will come when Satan will stir up rebellion once more (Revelation 20:7-8). On that day Jesus will gather his army who to watch as he finally and fully wipes out his enemies (Revelation 19:11-21). Then he will judge everyone, including the angels. Satan and his rebellious angels will be thrown into that horrible place of God’s judgment that he prepared for them long ago. But so will rebellious people who didn’t trust Jesus (Revelation 20:11-15). Since they refused to take part in the “the great exchange” they’ll be judged for all the wrong they did and they’ll join the fallen angels in hell. Forever. But those who did trust and love Jesus, they get to be with him in a renewed heaven and earth where they’ll enjoy him more and more foreverand ever (Revelation 21-22).

That’s God’s story. It is the story he’s been writing in history and I believe it.