Biblical Metanarrative Sample Paper.
Biblical Metanarrative
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Biblical Metanarrative
Introduction
The metanarrative of the Bible represents the four major stories told from the first to the last book of the Bible. The story of man’s creation, fall, redemption, and restoration gets captured in an immensely captivating way that unfolds from the onset of the first verse of the Bible. The story seeks to explain the origin of humankind through creation, the nature of humanity after humans disobedient to God, and the fulfilled restoration plan of God and humanity. The explicit metanarrative starts from the Garden of Eden and ends up in the Garden of God that is the New Jerusalem. In between the transition from Eden to New Jerusalem, we get to see man’s rebellion towards God and God’s numerous attempts to restore humanity (Woolley, 2018). . This paper seeks to explain how unified and coherent the major biblical stories are in presenting God’s relationship and plan towards understanding.
Metanarrative
The grand biblical metanarrative begins at the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter one, verse one. God appears to be the main character of the creation account, where the story sets off with Him as the force behind the existence of all that He created. Creation story implies that God desired to have a trustworthy relationship with humankind. The disobedience of the first humans gets termed as ‘the fall.’ The rebellious action of the first man represents the entire generation of man. Man is the main character in the second part of the metanarrative, where Adam and Eve get referred to using the general term. From the first man, humanity has proved to be God’s enemy through actions and thoughts. Repercussions of man’s disobedience are the death of the flesh and the spirit. After man’s fall, God crafts a master plan termed as redemption. In the form of Jesus Christ, God comes to restore humanity and do a renewal of the world through His words and deeds (Woolley, 2018). . The epitome of the metanarrative occurs through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Redemption of man implies that no one can get saved unless through the confession of sin and proclaiming of Jesus as the personal savior. Restoration of humanity sums up the metanarrative, where God promises a renewal of humanity and the entire world. Recovery will occur in two faces, where Christ will return to judge sin and evil as He ushers in peace and righteousness. A restoration phase in humanity implies the end of sin and evilness.
Jesus Christ, in the Biblical Metanarrative
A transition through humanity history gets represented in the four stages of metanarrative. Whereby there is creation, the beginning of everything with God in trinity form. Then a period of humankind’s’ fall; where conflicts set into the preaching of John and other prophets about the coming messiah. At the climax of the narrative, we have a redemption phase; where we see the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The story comes to a conclusion with at the restoration time; where Jesus will come for the church (Tovey, 2017). As the mega narrative unfolds, we can see characters such as David taking a stop to praise, sing, preach, and pray. All events after creation seem to push the narrative towards the coming of Jesus in the flesh form. David, in the twenty-second chapter of his Psalms, takes us through immense suffering and tremendous victory, directly leading us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Love, in the Biblical Metanarrative
In Genesis, we can see God’s concern towards man by the bountiful provision of food Have to them in the Garden of Eden. After the fall, we see God’s love towards Egyptians by setting them free from the bondage of slavery. God granted Victory to His people under the leadership of kings such as David, Saul, and Solomon. The epitome of love in the metanarrative is evident during redemption, where the book of John chapter three verse sixteen well expresses the kind of love God has towards humanity. In the book of Revelation, we see God revealing to John about the second coming of Jesus and warns humanity to be ready on the second coming. The conclusion of bringing people back home to their father, through the second coming of Jesus is a profound illustration of God’s love.
Conclusion
The biblical metanarrative shows humanity God’s will in the establishment of a close relationship. During creation in Genesis, God created man in His image and likeness. During the fall, we still see humans experiencing God’s mercies and favor in their endeavors. Even after man’s fall, God crafted a plan to seal the gap that sin had created between humanity and Him. We see God in the incarnation of His son Jesus Christ, redeeming humanity from sin through the cross. Hence, it is evident that the Bible is a metanarrative that focuses on bringing an understanding of God intention to humankind.
References
Woolley, D. W. (2018). The Story of Which We Are a Part: John Wesley’s Understanding of Scripture’s Metanarrative as a Foundation for United Methodist Identity and Mission (Doctoral dissertation, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary).
Tovey, D. (2017). Reading the Bible Missionally [Book Review]. Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice, 24(1), 54.
The book of Genesis 1:1
The book of John 3:16