Biblical Metanarrative Essay
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Biblical Metanarrative Essay
Esther M. Verdejo
Health Sciences, Liberty University
THEO 104: Introduction to Theology Survey
Dr. Richard McGee
November 7, 2022.
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Biblical Metanarrative Essay
Introduction
The Bible is a collection of individual stories, songs (Psalms), journals, and prophecies that have
been captured to form an amazing conglomerate covering four distinct parts that allow us a way
of viewing and interpreting Scripture. These four distinct parts are creation, the fall, redemption,
and new creation, and when combined collectively, they form the Biblical Metanarrative. The
Biblical Metanarrative is how we understand and interpret God’s plan for humanity and creation
as a whole. The Bible is full of examples of God’s love, grace, mercy, faithfulness, power,
righteousness, authority, and truth. It also gives us many life lessons and examples of how we
should live our lives as followers of Christ. All of these things can be seen within the biblical
metanarrative.
Biblical Metanarrative
During the presentation, Understanding the Metanarrative, I learned more about how the
metanarrative integrates all of the stories and texts found in the Bible into a singular book. These
different stories, songs (Psalms), journals, and prophecies span different time periods, locations,
audiences, and key characters. When combined, they mesh perfectly to explain God’s love,
patience, grace, mercy, and plan for our lives in a chronologically continuous timeline. All of
these stories, events, lessons learned, and prophecies can be categorized into the four major plot
movements of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. Within the creation segment, we get
to see where it all began: "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth." (Genesis
1:1, NIV) God created all things, from the earth to all living creatures, including mankind, whom
He created in His image. Soon after came the fall of man when Adam and Eve sinned against
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God in the garden when they were tempted and fooled by the serpent and rebelled against God.
(Genesis 3:6-24, NIV) Because God is merciful and full of grace and love, God gave mankind a
second opportunity, that through Christ we would be redeemed. In this, we can find the
redemption plot. "For God so loved the world that he gave us his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NIV) He loved us
enough to send His Son to die for our sins. Lastly, there will be a new creation when God
restores creation and brings heaven to earth. "I’m making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5,
NIV)
Creation
Throughout the Bible and everyday life, we get a great sense of God’s power, vision, and
purpose for His creation. Apart from God, there is no creation. There are no resources without
the source. "While the story of Creation is told in Genesis, all of Scripture affirms the truth that
God created the world" (Etzel & Small, 2016, p. 58). Throughout the Bible’s timeline, we see the
affirmation of God as the creator. "For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things
have been created through Him and for Him." He is before all things, and by Him all things hold
together" (Etzel & Small, 2016, p. 59).
Faith
The importance of faith can be seen throughout the Bible’s timeline and transcends across all
four of the major plot movements that formulate the Biblical Metanarrative. In the Old
Testament, we see the story of Noah and how his obedience and faith in God’s plan saved him
and his family and allowed humanity to continue on. In the book of Genesis, we see how
Abraham’s faith allowed God to use him as the father of many nations. In the book of Exodus,
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we see how Moses’ faith allowed God to use him to free a nation and bring them to the promised
land. In the book of Samuel, we see how David’s faith in God allowed them to conquer the giant
and eventually become king. In the book of Daniel, we see how Daniel’s faith in God kept him
alive in the lion’s den. Once Christ arrives on the scene in His physical form, He begins his
ministry to teach, inspire, lead, and save God’s creation through His life, death, resurrection, and
faith in Him. "A couple of important factors should be remembered as we think about the
significance of faith. First, we are saved by faith alone" (Etzel & Gutierrez, 2012, p. 9).
Ephesians 2:8–9 makes this very clear. Paul says, "God saved you by his grace when you
believed."
Conclusion
Throughout the Bible, we can see how the metanarrative connects all of the stories found within
it, regardless of the authors, time periods, or writing styles. The Bible is God’s book that he uses
to help guide us, inspire us, encourage us, and teach us about our family history as his creation.
The metanarrative of the Bible also teaches us about God’s nature and plan for His creation. This
reminds me of one of my old pastors who would always tell people at the church that the Bible
stood for Basic Instructions Before Living Earth which I believe is a very fitting all-
encompassing terminology used to best describe the Bible.
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References
Gabriel Etzel and R. N. Small, "Everyday Theology: Exploring the Christian Faith," ed. Ben
Gutierrez and Gabriel Etzel, 2016, B&H Academic.
Ben Gutierrez and Gabriel Etzel (2012), Theology Applied: A Living Faith. B&H Academic.
Holy Bible (2011) NIV thin-line reference Bible, Zondervan