Imagine 1 word that describes the message of the whole Bible. Not so easy. There are about 728,000 in the NIV 2011 translation of the Bible. That is a whole lot of information. So how do we boil down the message of the Bible? Should we be trying to boil it down?
In one sense, we shouldn't. We don't want to take away from all those hundreds of thousands of words all that God is communicating in them, which is a lot. On the other hand, there is value in having a starting point, a place where we can say, "Okay, so this is what the Bible is all about. Let's see how it plays out."
May I make a
suggestion? Love. In Psalm 136, the unnamed writer has a very simple outline: He describes something about the Lord or about what he has done and then each verse ends with the same refrain,
"His love endures forever."
God is just, God is righteous, God is powerful. These are all true. But what God tells us about himself in his Word from chapter 1 of Genesis to chapter 22 of Revelation is that his love endures forever. Take a look outside. See how complex the world is. We can know from nature that God is powerful. Take a look at your conscience. We can know from our own conscience that God is just. But loving? So loving that he would send his only Son to die for us? That is an enduring love that God has to reveal to us in almost a quarter million words. And the great part is that when we reach heaven, we will have an eternity to explore his eternal love. His loves endures forever. His love for you endures forever.