Gospel Did Not Come
The Bible consists of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament has several books sharing the stories we learned as children such as Creation, Noah’s Ark and Daniel in the Lion’s Den. There are stories of war and betrayal as well as love and devotion.
The New Testament consists of Four Gospels which contain the description of Jesus’ life, primarily from his Baptism to his Crucifixion. Then, in the Acts of the Apostles you can read about Jesus’ Resurrection and of the first Christians. The remaining books in the New Testament are letters written (mostly) by Saint Paul to different small Christian communities to give them support as they learn how to adapt the teachings of Jesus into their lives.
When people say they want to read the Bible, many begin at the beginning in the Book of Genesis. Well, why not, that is how you read other books, right? However, the Bible is not like a regular book. I look at it as a reference book and when I read one of those, I pick it up and seek what I’m researching and dive directly into what I want to reference.
If I were to set out to read the entire Bible, I’d begin with the Gospel of John. I’ve actually suggested this to several people, especially if they are new to the Bible. John’s telling of Jesus’ life is easy to understand. He also has great devotion to Jesus which you can hear through his words and in turn, I believe the reader begins to feel.
For me, any spiritual book shouldn’t be read for the sake of reading, rather is should be read for context, ie. how it can be applied to your life. With this in mind, after reading the Gospel of John, I think each person’s journey through the Bible will be different and so I’d suggest different books to different people.
There are some great resources that teach about Salvation History and Bible Studies that are devoted to different books of the Bible. I’ve enjoyed each of the ones I’ve participated in and appreciate the insight they can give. It really depends on how much of an investment you plan to put into reading the Bible and what you desire to gain from it.
I learned that if I attend daily Mass for three years in the Catholic Church, I will have read the Bible. Yes, the First Readings come from the Old Testament, with the exception for six weeks following Easter when we read from the Acts of the Apostles. Of course the Responsorial Psalm comes from the Book of Psalms, though each day you could hear from a different chapter, still over the three years you’ll hear them all. The Second Readings are the letters from Saint Paul and the Gospel Readings are from those four recounts of Jesus’ life.
When I say, live the Gospel or spread the Gospel, I’m saying WWJD, What Would Jesus Do. The Gospel Message is what Jesus came to proclaim and save. God worked through many Prophets in the Old Testament, and I believe he still works through Prophets today, but Jesus came to literally put the nail in the coffin of God’s message.
Jesus confirmed what God began and then left the Holy Spirit to continue the work. So when you hear people say, Jesus is the Word made Flesh, it means Jesus is the human form of the Bible. Jesus was there in the beginning at Creation, was born to redeem what God created.
When I hear the words from Saint Paul in the scripture from 1Thessalonians 1:1-5b, I know he is saying that the Bible isn’t just the word of God, it is also Jesus. It’s not simply words we read from a book but it is Jesus’ example of how to live a Christian life. And to seal the deal, when Jesus’ life on earth is done, he comes back to introduce the Holy Spirit. The kicker is that the Holy Spirit has been working since Creation, it wasn’t introduced to humanity until Jesus.
So to say the Bible is simply a book you can read cover to cover breaks my heart. It is so much more. To me, the Gospel is a human being, Jesus teaching me to spread the Gospel.
