The Larger Story

Is your life headed somewhere? Does it have meaning or is it simply a lot of activity, signifying nothing?

Christianity teaches there is a meta-narrative. Our lives are sub-plots within a larger story that is carrying all of life forward to its completion—the continuing story of creation.

Plot Summary

Here’s an encapsulized version of the story from Dr. Kerry Koller:

Reality as we know it is the result of a creator God bringing into being a world that is other than Himself, and yet which is full of His glory. It was always the intention of this God that creation should one day be flooded with His own life, in the way in which is was prepared from the very beginning. As part of the means to this end the creator brought into being a creature which by bearing the creator’s image would bring His wise and loving care to bear on creation. By a tragic irony the creature in question has rebelled against this intention. But the creator has solved this problem in principle... and as a result is now moving the creation once more towards its originally intended goal. The implementation of this solution now involves the indwelling of this God within His human creatures and ultimately within the whole of creation, transforming it into that for which it was made in the beginning. That is the story of Christianity.

The Film—Now Showing

What is our role in the story? What should we do?

Swear Allegiance to Jesus. There is no King but Christ.
Be the New Humanity. We need to live this new life in the power of the Spirit.
Join God’s Family. Christianity is not only about one’s personal interiority or personal piety. It is a matter of being a people, the new humanity.
Be Recognizable. The people of God should be living a radical and visibly changed life. The first-century Christians proclaimed that God had acted in a definitive way on His covenant promises and it showed. If today we announced that "in Christ the world has changed" it would be reasonable for someone to ask us "Where is the change?" We need to be about the actual, recognizable transformation of the world.
Be Christ. Following Jesus is like joining a revolution. It’s more like membership in the Communist party than a spiritual club.

Let’s live our part in the great story: the marriage of heaven and earth, unfolding all around us in human history. It’s a huge and complicated story, which God is moving forward. As we live the life our Director is calling us to, the story will come to full fruition.