Can the bible be summarized?

This is from a recent study with Walen so much of this comes from things we talked about.

If you were to summarize the bible in a sentence, what would it be? Some out in the world might think we come together as a church and basically the idea is "Be good?" Or should the idea be "Believe?" or "Love God?" Or should you even try to summarize the bible? I think the answer is no. We need the whole bible as it is.

We see this in what Jesus says:

John 14
¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
²²Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
²³Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

If we love Jesus we will keep his commandments that we read in the bible. We will hold to the things told to us by Jesus and by the apostles through inspiration from God. We won't assume we're smart enough to just take out a few vital parts just to make things simpler. We won't say, "All you have to do is believe" or "You need to do these 3 things to be saved." If we love God we will want to be obedient in all that he commands...not just part of it. We won't just focus on one or two points to the exclusion of all else.

James 2
¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. ¹¹For he who said, "Do not commit adultery,"^[1] also said, "Do not murder."^[2] If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
¹²Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom,

We can't take away from the bible. It is complete as it is. We can't summarize. Each part is needed.

Revelation 22

¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. ¹⁹And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

If it would have been good enough just to have a single page of rules we must follow to be saved, then that's what the bible would be. But we have the bible in its entirety and I think it's all there for a reason.

We must study

2 Timothy 2
¹⁵Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

The church at Berea studied daily to see if the things they heard were true. This is a good example for us today. Don't assume you know everything in the bible and don't need to continually study it.

Acts 17
¹⁰As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. ¹²Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

Scripture is inspiration of God. Paul encourages Timothy to study here in...

2 Tim 3

¹⁰You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, ¹¹persecutions, sufferings--what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. ¹²In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

We notice here that Timothy had been learning the scriptures since he was a child and that should encourage us to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

[continued]

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Of course, scripture is inspired by God. It's how we know what he wants us to do. In old testament times, he spoke to his people in visions or signs or more directly but today this is how he speaks to us. During the time of Jesus and the apostles, inspiration from God was confirmed through miraculous healing and other miracles.

We are blessed today if we believe, not having seen physical proof of what's in the bible.

John 20

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
²⁸Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
²⁹Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
³⁰Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may^[1] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Today, it seems that the miracles of healing to confirm God's word have ceased. I have never seen someone healed of blindness or heard someone declare from God what will happen in the future (prophesy) to confirm the word of God to me. I just had to believe that the scriptures were true.

1 Cor 13

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

Truth of the scriptures

2 Pet 1

¹⁶We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

[This is something that's said today. That the bible is just an intricate set of stories made up by men. It's all just written by men. But this is not so and we have faith in that. We have faith that those who wrote the bible were inspired by God to write what they did.]

[continued]

¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."^{[1] 18}We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
¹⁹And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

[That's an encouraging image for us to think about. The words in the bible that prophesy a better life to come are like a light that shines in a dark place for us. Always something to look forward to.]

...

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. ²¹For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

These verses we just read are an effort to emphasize the truth of the bible...that it's not just some cunning fables written by some really smart men. That the prophecies talked about in the bible weren't made up by some really smart men...but that this is essentially the word of God passed down to us. Some of it make take some intense study to understand but it's here for us.

If we were to just grab one of the following verses, we might assume that any one of these covers all you need to be saved:

Acts 2

³⁸Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 3

¹⁹Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

Acts 10

⁴³All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

We must be careful not to summarize the plan of salvation in one or two statements or we would have an incomplete picture. We must take the bible in completeness. Each verse adds to the last and it never contradicts itself. Not only do you have to believe, confess, and be baptised, but you have to do a host of other things including loving your neighbor, trying to please God in what you do, being an example to those around you.

We must be careful in our study of the bible not to just jump to a scripture, and assume it applies to us. For example, we see in

Mat 8

²A man with leprosy^[1] came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured^[2] of his leprosy. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

Today if we are healed of a sickness, do we need to go find a priest and offer a sacrifice? No. Jesus was under the law of Moses and some of the things he said were according to it.

Let's look at a couple of scriptures that talk about the new law and the law of Moses.

The word in the bible is confirmed through the apostles with miracles

Heb 2

¹We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ²For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, ³how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. ⁴God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

So we know that the apostles spoke what God wanted them to because he confirmed it through miracles.

The new testament didn't come into effect until the death of Jesus. Just because it says New Testament in a certain section of the bible doesn't mean that's the start of the new church as opposed to God's people under the law of Moses.

Heb 9

¹⁵For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
¹⁶In the case of a will,^[4] it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, ¹⁷because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. ¹⁸This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. ¹⁹When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰He said, "This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep."^{[5] 21}In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. ²²In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

So we see that the new testament didn't really come into effect until after the blood of Jesus was shed. After this, there were the apostles to proclaim how God would have us worship today. We do many of the things we do because they were confirmed to us by the apostles. In some cases the apostles help to clarify between what the old law that even Jesus lived under and the new law that applied after his death.

So in summary, I just want us to be encouraged to constantly study God's word and seek to be obedient in all that he commands. To us, these are the words of life.