Is there one major theme that appears when looking at all 66 books contained in the Bible? If so, what is that message? A lot of people have tried to make the Bible say a lot of things. Usually, to accomplish their goals, they focus on one part of the Bible message and ignore or discredit other parts. Maybe you have wondered what the Bible message is, when looked at as a whole. This article attempts to draw that big-picture view that comes from looking at the entire Bible message from cover to cover.

Original Intent

There is a God who made the universe and everything in it. This God created humans to care for the world He had created. God gave man a wife as a companion and helper, and God Himself was a friend to man and walked with him in the garden paradise He had created for mankind. God had created a man and a woman to have relationship with each other, and with Him. As a God of love, His nature and His desire were to love and care for the people He had created. The point was to have an active and living relationship with us. But then something happened. The progenitors of the human race chose to take the relationship into their own hands and try to be like God instead of just letting God love them. Man going his own way without direction from God is called sin. And the first sin in the Garden was the sin of religion. It might be more theologically correct to say that religion was born from their unbelief, but regardless, this was the first religious act in human history. Instead of relationship, which God wanted, Adam and Eve tried to attain God-likeness (knowing good and evil). Overwhelmed by their new knowledge, they began to be afraid of the God who loved them. God had built a universe of purity and love, but man had destroyed it all in a moment of religiousness. As a result, the whole universe is now out of balance, or as the Bible puts it 'under a curse.' Death and decay were unknown in the garden, but after sin entered, all the universe began to decay. Death and disease were born as our bodies began to wear out and wither. God judged their sin by removing them from the garden paradise. Our relationship with God could not be restored by human efforts because we had offended a God of Spirit. Only a spiritual solution would suffice, so God put in motion a plan to redeem (bring back) mankind.
Principles for today:

1) God's original plan and purpose was to have simple relationship with us.
2) Sin is any action that damages our relationship with God.
3) Sin does not always oppose God directly, but can appear as a method of being like God or drawing close to God on our own terms (religion).
4) God must judge sin. He is a God of love, but He is also a God of justice and law.
5) God had to initiate the plan of salvation (redemption) because man is inadequate to save himself.


Preparation


Having been evicted from the garden paradise, mankind began to reproduce on the earth. Each generation of man strayed farther from the love of God. Hatred, prejudice, war, and all kinds of destructive behaviors became common and accepted by the culture. God had promised that He would restore a relationship with mankind, and undo the damage that man had done by sinning. Man's natural inclination had become selfish and thoughtless, and far from the relationship that Adam and Eve knew. Mankind invented new false religions with gods and beliefs that supported their own personal agendas. Instead of returning to a simple relationship, men created more and more complex religious systems. Soon, people had completely abandoned belief in the true God, and had forgotten the simplicity of relationship with Him. So God chose a man and his descendants to preserve the message of God and to be the genetic line through which God's chosen savior would be born. Abraham was that man, and God gave him many promises and proofs that Abraham would be the father of a nation, and the forefather of the promised savior who would restore mankind to a relationship with God. The descendants of Abraham were the fathers of the tribes of Israel, a nation that has endured to the present day. God gave Israel his commands and many other instruction through prophets and teachers. The purpose of the nation of Israel has been to preserve mankind's connection to God, and to provide the lineage of the 'Messiah' or promised deliverer who would set us all free from sin and the false religions we have created. The Messiah was also to eventually deliver the nation of Israel from a military onslaught. The Tanach (called by Christians 'the Old Testament' or 'Old Covenant') record thousands of years of God's dealing with the Jewish people and the nations around them. There are records of the prophets' messages and stories that show what God expects of His people, and how he disciplines and guides those who follow
Him.


Principles for today:

1) Israel is a nation chosen by God to pass on knowledge of God to all mankind.
2) God has always had messengers (Prophets) in the world to let men know God's plans.
3) God showed the Jews and all of mankind that it is impossible to live up to God's standards by human effort.


Restoration


God had to accomplish two goals - First, He had to remove the death penalty we all deserve for our sinfulness. Second, He had to make a way for us to be restored into a simple relationship, free from man-made religious burdens and false piety. He accomplished both goals at once by becoming a man - know in history as Jesus of Nazareth. The God-Man, Jesus, willingly chose to die physically while at the same time spiritually he took on the shame and guilt of the sins of all mankind. He paid the spiritual death penalty we each deserve, and settled the issue of sin-guilt once and for all while he was on the cross. When he spoke the words "it is finished," Jesus announced that sin was no longer a barrier between man and God. With sin out of the way, God was now free to begin welcoming people into relationship with Himself. Each of us may enter into that relationship by simply believing (trusting, not just knowing) that Jesus' sacrifice really accomplished what he claimed: the full payment for our sin. That belief requires that we 1) admit our sinfulness, 2) admit that we deserve death, 3) admit that we are powerless to save ourselves, 4) reject our former sinful ways and embrace relationship with Father God through Jesus the Christ (Christ means King), and 5) Let Jesus take control of our lives. When we choose our own path, we tend to pursue selfish and destructive behaviors. When King Jesus lives his life in us and through us, he chooses a path that creates goodness, peace, and joy. Our sins are no longer held against us and instead we become heirs of the promises of God. The death of the Covenant-maker (Jesus) means that those of us who have been adopted into his family by faith are not just future heirs of the estate, but we are now in possession of the treasures of our Lord and King. We enter into his Resurrection life - abundant life that is about simply being in the presence of God and being loved by him unconditionally. No one can earn this wonderful gift and inheritance - no one can ever be good enough to obligate God. The gift is freely given based on one condition only - complete and total faith in the one God sent to set us free - King Jesus. Once we enter into that faith relationship, we receive the first of many gifts that God has planned for us - we get the Holy Spirit of God who comes to live inside us. God's Spirit comes to make a permanent home in us so he can live in us a life that is impossible to live without him. We get power to live, and the right to be called sons and daughters of God. Jesus rose from the dead after three days just as he predicted. He also promised that he would return and take the reigns of government away from men and rule the world in power, justice, and mercy. After ruling this world, He will re-create the universe and everyone who is in his family will live forever in a new and perfect cosmos called Heaven. The final act of restoration will be to restore all things to the condition that the first humans experienced in the Garden paradise - no death, no disease - just simple relationship with a loving God.
Principles for today:

1) You can have a relationship with God, who loves you and wants to be your father.
2) Religion is not the way to God, it is a false path.
3) Faith is the only way to approach God. (Faith based on the truth revealed in the Bible)
4) 'Giving up sin' or 'getting your life right' is impossible until after you put your faith in Jesus.
5) The 'good works' that you do as a believer are not your human effort, but God living in you and doing His work through you - it is natural and simple.
6) Without faith in Jesus, you will receive the death penalty you deserve, and be eternally seperated from God. With faith, you will be adopted into God's family and will receive the inheritance that God has prepared for you.


Proof


Ephesians 1:5-14 (BBE - Bible in Basic English)  As we were designed before by him for the position of sons to himself, through Jesus Christ, in the good pleasure of his purpose,  (6)  To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely gave to us in the Loved One:  (7)  In whom we have salvation through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, through the wealth of his grace,  (8)  Which he gave us in full measure in all wisdom and care;  (9)  Having made clear to us the secret of his purpose, in agreement with the design which he had in mind, to put into his hands  (10)  The ordering of the times when they are complete, so that all things might come to a head in Christ, the things in heaven and the things on the earth; in him, I say,  (11)  In whom we have a heritage, being marked out from the first in his purpose who does all things in agreement with his designs;  (12)  So that his glory might have praise through us who first had hope in Christ:  (13)  In whom you, having been given the true word, the good news of your salvation, and through your faith in him, were given the sign of the Holy Spirit of hope,  (14)  Which is the first-fruit of our heritage, till God gets back that which is his, to the praise of his glory.