Opening reflection
It’s hard to enjoy a novel if you only ever read one paragraph at a time, in random order. The same is true of the Bible. Most readers grow more confident the moment they begin to see the bigger story behind the smaller pieces. This session sketches that story in broad strokes — the kind of map you can keep returning to as you read.
- Tell the Bible’s story in a single rough outline.
- Name the major movements: creation, fall, Israel, Jesus, church, new creation.
- See how Old and New Testaments belong to the same unfolding story.
- Place a single passage somewhere in the bigger arc.
Key Bible passages
Genesis 12:1–9
The call of Abraham — God’s promise to bless one family in order to bless the world.
Luke 24:13–35
Two disciples learn to re-read the Scriptures in light of Jesus.
Revelation 21:1–5
A glimpse of the story’s end — a world made new.
Open these in your Bible, or in a free reader like Bible Gateway or YouVersion.
Teaching
Creation: a good beginning
The Bible opens with God making a world and calling it good. People are described as bearing God’s image — set in the world with dignity, relationship and responsibility. This opening sets a key note: the world matters, people matter, and the original picture is one of harmony.
Brokenness: things go wrong
Genesis 3 introduces a deep fracture. Relationships break — between people and God, between each other, and between people and the land. The rest of the Bible takes this seriously. It does not pretend the world is fine; it offers a long, honest account of what has gone wrong and what is being done about it.
Israel: a family with a calling
From Genesis 12 onwards, God works through one particular family. Abraham and Sarah are called, given a promise, and sent. Their descendants become the people of Israel. The Old Testament tells their story in detail — exodus from slavery, life as a covenant people, kings and prophets, exile and return.
Israel’s story is not a side road. It is the road by which the larger story moves. The promise to Abraham — that through his family ‘all the families of the earth will be blessed’ — sets the direction of everything that follows.
Jesus: the turning point
The New Testament presents Jesus as the moment the story turns. The Gospels are not generic biographies. They are written to show that in Jesus, God’s long promises arrive: a kingdom announced, the broken healed, the dead raised, a new community gathered.
His death and resurrection are at the centre. Christians have always read these events as the place where the world’s brokenness is taken seriously and where a new beginning is opened up.
Church and new creation
After Jesus, the story continues with the church — a new and very mixed community drawn from many peoples, sent into the world. The New Testament letters help these communities live out a new identity in real cities.
The Bible closes with a vision of all things made new: a world healed, a city of God, no more tears. The story does not end with escape from the world but with the renewal of it.
How this helps you read the Bible
- Reading any passage, you can quietly ask: ‘Where is this in the story?’
- You won’t mistake a single dark chapter for the whole picture, or a single bright moment for the end.
- You’ll begin to see how promises in one place lead to fulfilments elsewhere.
Read these two passages and notice how promise (Old Testament) and fulfilment (New Testament) speak to each other.
- Genesis 12:1–3 — the promise to Abraham
- Luke 24:13–35 — two disciples discover that the whole story has been pointing to Jesus
Questions to ask
- What words or themes appear in both passages above?
- How does the promise in Genesis 12 connect to what the two disciples are shown in Luke 24?
- Does seeing the Bible as one story change anything about how you’d approach a passage you find difficult?
- Try, in two or three sentences, to tell the Bible’s story in your own words. Don’t worry about getting it perfect.
Next we’ll look at how the Bible itself is arranged — its sections, order and the way to find your way around.
Continue learning
Mark this session as complete to keep track of where you are.