ESV Global Study Bible :: Overview of the Bible

Overview of the Bible

How does the Bible as a whole fit together? The events recorded in the Bible took place over a span of thousands of years and in several different cultural settings. What is their unifying thread?

One unifying thread in the Bible is its divine authorship. Every book of the Bible is God's word. The events recorded in the Bible are there because God wanted them to be recorded, and he had them recorded with his people and their instruction in mind: "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Rom. 15:4).

God's Plan for History

God also has a unified plan for history (Eph. 1:10, 12). The work of Christ on earth, especially his crucifixion and resurrection, is the climax of history. It is the great turning point. The present era looks back on Christ's completed work but also forward to the consummation of his work when he will come again in the new heavens and earth.

God's Promises and Predictions

The Old Testament directly points forward to Christ through promises of God's salvation. God gave some specific promises in the Old Testament relating to the coming of Christ as the Messiah, the Savior in the line of David. But God often gives more general promises concerning a future great day of salvation, without spelling out all the details of how he will accomplish it. Sometimes the promises take explicit form (e.g., the coming of the Messiah), and sometimes they take symbolic form (e.g., the animal sacrifices). All of the Old Testament promises find their "yes" in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20).

God's Warnings and Curses

God's relation to people also includes warnings, threatenings, and cursings, which anticipate and point forward to Christ in two distinct ways. First, Christ is the Lamb of God who bore the curse of sin on the cross (John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1 Pet. 2:24). Every instance of the wrath of God against sin, and his punishment of sin, looks forward to the wrath that was poured out on Christ on the cross. Second, Christ will wage war against sin and exterminate it at his second coming. All earlier judgments against sin anticipate the final judgment.

God's Covenant Commitment and Instruction

The promises of God in the Old Testament come in the context not only of God's commitment to his people but also of instruction about the people's commitment and obligations to God. When God makes a covenant with man, God is the sovereign, so he specifies the obligations on both sides. "I will be their God" is the fundamental obligation on God's side, while "they shall be my people" is the fundamental obligation on the human side.

For example, in the first call of Abram (Gen. 12:1-2) God's commitment takes the form of promises, blessings, and curses. The promises and blessings point forward to Christ, who is the fulfillment of the promises and the source of final blessings. The curses point forward to Christ both in his bearing the curse and in his execution of judgment and curse against sin, especially at the second coming.

Christ fulfilled the obligations of God's covenants through perfect obedience (Heb. 5:8), receiving the reward of obedience in his resurrection and ascension (Phil. 2:9-10). By dealing with God's wrath against sin, Christ reconciled believers to God, bringing about the intimacy with God that all of the Old Testament covenants anticipated.

Christ Is the Offspring of Abraham and the Last Adam

God's promises to Abraham were the foundation for the nation of Israel. Abraham was obligated to walk blamelessly before God (Gen. 17:1). But only Christ is without sin (Heb. 4:15), making him the ultimate offspring to whom the other offspring all point (Gal. 3:16). Through Christ, believers are united to him and thereby themselves become "Abraham's offspring" (Gal. 3:29). Believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, become heirs to the promises of God made to Abraham and his offspring (Gal. 3:28-29).

Christ is not only the offspring of Abraham, but—reaching back farther in time to an earlier promise of God—the offspring of the woman: "I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15). The conquest over the serpent, and therefore the conquest of evil and the reversal of its effects, is to take place through the offspring of the woman. One can trace this offspring down from Eve through Seth and his godly descendants, through Noah, and down to Abraham, where God's promise takes the specific form of offspring for Abraham. Thus Christ is not only the offspring of Abraham but the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45-49). Like Adam, he represents all who belong to him. And he reverses the effects of Adam's fall.

Shadows, Prefigures, and "Types" of Christ

The Old Testament anticipates Christ the Savior by "shadows" and "types"—examples, symbols, pictures—of the things that were to come (see 1 Cor. 10:6, 11; Heb. 8:5). Animal sacrifices in the Old Testament prefigure the final sacrifice of Christ. The temple, as a dwelling place for God, prefigured Christ, who is the final "dwelling place" of God, and through whom God is with his people (Matt. 1:23; John 2:21). The Old Testament priests were types of Christ, the final high priest (Heb. 7:11-8:7).

The fulfillment of all these Old Testament shadows and types takes place preeminently in Christ (2 Cor. 1:20; Eph. 1:10). But in the New Testament those people who are "in Christ," who place their trust in him and experience fellowship with his person and his blessings, receive the benefits of what he has accomplished. Therefore one can also find anticipations or "types" in the Old Testament that point forward to the New Testament church, the people in the New Testament who belong to Christ.

Some Old Testament symbols also may point forward especially to the consummation of salvation that takes place in the new heaven and the new earth yet to come (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-22:5). Old Testament Jerusalem prefigured the new Jerusalem that will come "down out of heaven from God" (Rev. 21:2).

Christ Is the Mediator

Sinful man needs a mediator who will approach God on his behalf. Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, and who is innocent of sin, is the only one who can mediate (1 Tim. 2:5-6) and the only one who can save (Acts 4:12).

All the instances of salvation and mediation in the Old Testament prefigure Christ. Prophets bring God's word to his people. Godly kings bring God's rule to bear on the people. Priests represent the people in coming before God's presence. Christ is the prophet, king, and priest who fulfills all three functions in a final way (Heb. 1:1-3).

We can also look at wise men, who bring God's wisdom to others; warriors, who bring God's deliverance from enemies; and singers, who bring praise to God on behalf of the people and speak of God to the people. Covenants bring God's word to the people. The temple brings God's presence to the people. Animal sacrifices bring God's forgiveness to the people. In reading the Bible, we should look for ways in which God brings his word and his presence to people through the means he establishes. All these means perform a mediatorial role, and because there is only one mediator, clearly they all point to Christ.