Story of God

There are two ways of understanding the story of the Bible.

The first is that Adam and Eve ate an apple that God told them not to eat and all hell broke loose. People started hating their spouses, their kids, animals and even Rockies fans. Then God sent his son to torture him on the cross so that he would not take his anger out on us. All we have to do is pray a little incantation called the sinners prayer, where we tell Jesus we have accepted what he has done for us and then we don’t have to go to hell. We can then file our new eternal life policy in a drawer somewhere and go on with our lives being virtually the same. Unfortunately this is the version of the story that is believed by so many.

The second version goes like this. Adam and Eve were two people like the rest of us. They did in the garden what we do every day. They chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil meaning they chose a life that makes sense to their mind and leaves them in control. By choosing to eat from this tree they cut themselves off from intimacy with the relational, triune, loving God of the universe. The result was isolation, boredom and escapism, which lead to every imaginable form of evil. God sent Jesus into the world to show us that what we want most, God’s love; is available to us. He died to show us the nature of God’s love – forgiving, sacrificial, committed and totally unconditional. We can choose God’s love or reject it. If we choose it then we are signing up for a relationship that will cost us our whole lives because God is an “all in or no deal” God. But he promises us that if we make this commitment he will restore our souls and help us be our best version of ourselves. This is what some people call spiritual formation. It leads to a life of joy, hope, adventure, meaning and most important of all, love.

I know which version I like better. How about you?

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