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Why We’ve Got The Bible We’ve Got

God does not want us only to know about Him.  If He did, He would have given us a systematic theology. He wants us to know Him, and so He tells us His story.

Have you ever wondered why the Bible is the way it is? Why did God inspire a long narrative with lots of wandering and digression, rather than give us an easy-to-digest book of wise theological insights? The answer is that God does not want us only to know about Him.  If He did, He would have given us a systematic theology. He wants us to know Him, and so He tells us His story. Yes, the Bible does contain the odd list of facts about God, but for the most part, it is quite simply God’s story. It’s as if God was holding His photo album out to us and saying, ‘look this is what me and my friend Abraham did when he left his home in Ur’, ‘this is the time when Pharaoh thought he’d got the better of my friend Moses – but I showed him!’ And so it goes on, episode after episode, as God shows us His character through the way in which He interacts with people – good and bad. And then the story reaches a climax when God Himself takes on human form and walks on the earth – showing us what He is like in the most profound way possible.

God does not want us only to know about Him. If He did, He would have given us a systematic theology. He wants us to know Him, and so He tells us His story. Click To Tweet

This post first appeared in May 2019.