Student Lesson 5 – What Did God Say?

Read this section, then answer the questions on the Student Response sheet. 

Responses can either be e-mailed to Pastor Kip or pick up a paper copy of these
questions in his office.

Stories are everywhere.  We love stories; they speak to our innermost self, some, obviously, better than others.  Stories can inspire and shape our dreams.  Stories can sometimes make us afraid and cause us to question the safety and security of our environment.  Some stories intrigue us through mystery and suspense while other stories become a form of escape from the mess of our own lives.  Some stories are small tales that teach us little snippets of truth while others serve as a large and overarching story that frames our understanding and interpretation of the world and life experiences.  We like stories and we tell and listen to them with regularity.

Movies, television, music, theater and poetry tell stories.  There are endless stories in local and global news; stories which attempt to educate society about current events, both positive and negative, and still there are more variations of storytelling.

U2 singer Bono called stained glass “the first cinemas”.  This stained glass window is from an ancient cathedral in France known as the Cathedral Basilica of St. Denis.  In the center, God the Creator is surrounded by the days and works of creation. 

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was turned into a giant canvas for storytelling when Michelangelo, hired by Pope Julius II in 1508, used his ingenuity to illustrate segments of nine Biblical stories from the book of Genesis.

The history of storytelling is difficult to pinpoint to a particular date.  The Lascaux cave paintings, discovered in 1940, are believed to be as old as 16,000 years.

Stories are also told by way of oral tradition, passing narratives down from one generation to the next by word of mouth.  Each time the story may be told in a new and fresh way.  The art of storytelling has transcended time and medium; there is power in a story.  They illustrate life and experiences in a way that sparks the imagination and tugs on our creative energies.

Q1. What are some of your favorite stories?  (Think of books, movies, family stories, TV shows, poems, pieces of art, etc.)

The Bible as Story

The Bible is an example of a story, or narrative.  The Bible is a large and beautiful story with the most important plot line possible – the story of how God is putting the world to rights and making all things new through Jesus.  It is a story that incorporates poetry, history, narrative, parables, prophecy, songs and reflections on things to come. Even more, in order to get the fullest picture possible of what actually happens in the person of Jesus, we have to read and know the whole story, both what happened before (Old Testament) and what happened during and after Jesus came (New Testament).  In other words, how do we read Scripture?  We read Scripture as the true story of God’s past, present and future activity in the world, centering on the life, death, resurrection and return of Jesus.

Q2. What can make Bible reading hard?  How does reading the Bible as a large, true story help you to understand what God has said and continues to say to us?  Are there other ways you have read the Bible that have been helpful?

Q3. What are some of your favorite stories in the Bible?  What are these stories about and how do they illustrate what God is doing in the world?

It is very important to remember that just because we say the Bible is a story does not mean we are talking about something fictional, such as Harry Potter or Twilight.  As you know, stories can be fictional or non-fictional.  A story is just a way of breaking down and ordering a series of events in a way that gives fresh meaning and understanding of the world.  We love and relate to stories – they are everywhere and God has written our story, the Bible, to us and for us.

Read this passage from The Message paraphrase of Romans 5: 12-21:

You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in— first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.

Q4. How does Romans illustrate the larger story of the Bible?  What are some of the significant events and what is the primary turning point in the story?

Some of you like theater, another form of storytelling.  A theatrical performance is usually broken down into scenes and acts.  Writer N.T. Wright describes the Biblical story as a six-act Shakespearean play.  Look at the illustration below:

Q5. What is your role?  What gifts, talents and passions has God given you to use as you participate in the Biblical story?

Click here for the Student Response Sheet for Lesson 5 - What Did God Say? 

Material adapted from Erin Hayes and the Imago Dei Ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church and Dilworthtown Community Church, 2008.