the EPILOGUE

As we wrap up the book of Acts and begin to turn our attention toward the New Testament letters, it will be important to make a point about this meta-narrative of God as it’s recorded in the Scriptures. When we began to look at the book of Acts, I mentioned this was an "epilogue of an early church.” Let me explain what I meant by that.

In the beginning of this study, I said I teach my students that Genesis 1–11 serves as a kind of “PREFACE” to the narrative of God. The rest of Genesis (chapters 12–50) could be seen as the “INTRODUCTION” where God sets the stage for His great story. I always felt like this was important because we need to be able to talk about the meta-narrative of God in a coherent way so we can understand who God is and what He’s been up to in the world. If we can understand this story, as seen in the Text and told by the Author Himself, it will help us understand where we fit into the story and how we can step into the mission of God.

Because He’s still looking for partners to put the world back together.

And so I want to be able to teach the entirety of the Bible within a meta-narrative “package” that sees the story of God as a cohesive whole. It should have a beginning and a plot, a narrative arc of tragic and/or comedic redemption, as well as a conclusion that remains an open-ended invitation for God’s people to join the Story.

This is why I teach God’s story has a PREFACE and an INTRODUCTION. What we have been studying since then is the narrative itself. I believe this narrative is “A Tale of Two Kingdoms: Empire v. Shalom” — and the main plot and narrative arc is one of exodus and liberation, ultimately culminating in restoration. I believe the mystery of the incarnation was that Jesus came — the Divine wrapped in humanity — and showed us through his life and ministry what this narrative is like when it’s seen in flesh and blood. The story of Jesus, as seen in the gospels, is the climax of this great narrative God has been telling.

So if I were to pause, I would recap the narrative of God as follows:

God writes a PREFACE to help us reframe our understanding of the world. Who is God? Who is man? What is God doing in the world?

God then set the stage for His great story in an INTRODUCTION. He introduces us to the family He chooses to partner with and their descendants. They are a stubborn people, filled with fiery chutzpah, and a willingness to trust the story amidst many mistakes and questionable character. However, their ability to trust the story sets them apart from the other characters we’ve met thus far.

God then begins His great narrative of exodus. He starts with a literal exodus from Egypt and invites His people into a missional partnership to show the world what God is like (the very lesson learned in the PREFACE and modeled in the INTRODUCTION). We watch the characters struggle to learn this as a nation, we watch them wax and wane and eventually crumble to the temptation of Empire. They lose the plot of the story, and God disciplines them, reminding them what exodus looks like and what the plot of the story should be. Having learned some good lessons, the people of God try to rebuild a new Judaism and people, but as temptation creeps back in, there are multiple responses as to what the proper interaction with this temptation should be.

Into this vibrant and lively cultural debate dives the incarnated Christ at the climax of the narrative. God wraps Himself in flesh and the Author of the narrative jumps directly into the story. He shows us what it means to live a life of exodus, to trust the story in such a way that you are free to lay your life down on behalf of others. This pure model — this incarnated Text — brings us back full circle to the best moments of the INTRODUCTION, as Jesus becomes the perfect example of the kind of man Abram was on his best days. Jesus becomes the living expression of the complete, realized potential of humanity, made in the image of God.

This means the book of Acts becomes the EPILOGUE to the narrative. Having shown us what it looks like to live out the narrative of God correctly, Jesus leaves his followers with a special deposit — the realized indwelling of the Holy Spirit. While still not perfect, this “holy nation” is empowered (by the Holy Spirit) to do things the narrative hasn’t seen before. Jesus even mentioned these acts would be greater than his own (cf. John 14:12). The EPILOGUE shows it is possible for this narrative to find a comedic and restorative end, and God will in fact put the world back together through a partnership with His people.

To succinctly describe this narrative arc in literary terms of the Hebrew Scriptures, I would say this: After God invites, defines, tests, and fulfills the covenant relationship with His people in TORAH, we are invited to watch the continued evolution and breakdown of this covenantal relationship in the NEVI’IM (the Prophets). The story is supplemented with the KETUVIM (the Writings) and the Jews take this evolved Judaism and rebuild in the post-Babylonian era. As they try to figure out, as a community, how to respond appropriately, God joins the scene and incarnates the story in the GOSPELS. We see the fruit of this narrative played out in the book of Acts.

However, the story — even the EPILOGUE — is far from wrapped up with a tidy bow. A few things become startlingly clear:

The story is far from over. Full restoration has not been realized, only it’s potential. The rest of the story is yet to be written. How will God’s people respond?

The rest of the story (the sequel?) will certainly be full of conflict and drama. Now that we have realized the full potential of God’s mission turned loose, we are also realizing the implications of a story understood correctly. The book of Acts does a wonderful job showing us how difficult it will be to walk into the future chapters of this tale, where outsiders are welcome, a family is redefined by lots of “adopted children” and the scandal of grace is hard to contain.

In light of all this, we now have the ability to see the rest of the New Testament appropriately. The New Testament letters — the writings of Paul, Hebrews, James, Peter, John, and Jude — now find their appropriate place amongst the narrative of God. These writings are now seen as the application of this narrative to very specific and varying contexts. In a sense, the New Testament letters become inspired midrash for this new, realized mission/narrative of God.

I’m very careful to state INSPIRED midrash. I have taught this before and the claim that the letters are midrash sets many listeners off that I am taking their authority away. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I see the New Testament letters as completely breathed by God and as authoritative as they can be. My point is that we simply cannot interpret and apply these authoritative teachings correctly unless we see them within their appropriate place in relation to God’s great narrative.

This will help us understand why a writer like Paul seems so schizophrenic. In one letter, he tells women to “learn in quiet submission,” while in another letter he tells the readers to greet all the women he put in public ministry. Instead of trying to decide which prooftext we want to cherry pick in order to match our theology, we can instead read each correspondence within the context that it was intended. When Paul wrote to Corinth, Paul was helping the Corinthians apply the narrative of God to their context; when Paul wrote to Ephesus, he was helping the Ephesians apply the exact same narrative to their unique context.

The same goes for the book of Hebrews, the writings of Peter, and the letters of John — and even the great Revelation. Each correspondence has a specific intended audience, many times regional and geographical, and sometimes demographical, but always with a unique context. Each of these correspondences is attempting to apply the same narrative of God to that unique setting and should be read in that way.

As I see and understand the story of God, this will be essential in order to move forward through the New Testament. Hopefully, by this point in our current conversation, the following diagram makes sense:

In my opinion, one of the most frustrating mistakes we have made in evangelical theology is that we have placed our interpretive lenses on the parts of the Scriptures we find the easiest to understand. Since we don’t understand the ancient context of the Old Testament, we misinterpret its meaning. While we love the saving work of Jesus and his loving character, we don’t understand and we misinterpret his rabbinical teachings. What we think we understand (but ironically don’t) are the writings of the Apostle Paul. Using his Greek writing styles and his imperative prose, we prefer the ease of exegesis and application, all the while missing the contextual work that needs to be done for properly understanding its original application (which happens to be the inspired, God-breathed application).

In the words of Brian McLaren, “We have welcomed Jesus as our savior, but have made Paul our lord.”

When we have the order of Jesus and Paul right, it allows us to keep Christ where he should remain — as the center, the climax, and the truest revelation of God’s story.