The Bible, far from being “other-worldly”, is realistic and practical in its concern for the fate of the whole human race. Its vision of the future is worldwide in its scope, for “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

Though this prophecy was uttered 600 years before Christ, it represents the world-view of the whole Bible. It is entirely relevant to our modern troubled condition and is unique in the history of our planet.

Israel in God’s purpose

The careful reader of the Bible will be in no doubt that the nation of Israel has occupied a special place in the purpose of God. But many people today find this difficult to reconcile with the nature of the modern State of Israel. How did the “special relationship” arise?

The Bible account shows us that the human race, in the early centuries of its existence, massively abandoned the true worship of God, so that “the earth was corrupt … and filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11), thus bringing the divine judgement of the Flood. It was not long, however, before mankind began to show again the same tendencies to evil. God therefore determined to build up a special community, by whom His word would be preserved. So he chose Abraham, a man of faith, and made outstanding promises to him and his descendants, involving the future possession of the land of Canaan (later Palestine or Israel) and blessings for all the nations (Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14,15).

Abraham’s descendants were brought out of Egypt by God’s power and were eventually settled in twelve tribes in the Promised Land, Israel. There they lived under the Law, a system of regulations given them by God through Moses, with the intention of training them to be a people devoted to His service. In the following centuries the Jews repeatedly neglected the worship of God and turned to worship the idols of their pagan neighbours, and as a result were driven out of their land by the invasion of foreign powers. They lived for centuries scattered and persecuted, as God had warned them would happen (read Deuteronomy 28). Nevertheless, despite their waywardness, the Jews preserved the word of God both in the land of Israel and during their exile in other countries.

Promises to the Patriarchs

But the promises God made to Abraham did not only concern the nation of Israel. He was to be “a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5), though significantly it would be one special Jewish descendant who was to ensure the fulfilment of the promise of blessing for all peoples. This descendant, spoken about so long before, was the Lord Jesus Christ. Later promises made to David, one of Israel’s kings, filled out further details of what Jesus would accomplish, and of how “God will give unto him the throne of his father David: and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever” (Luke 1:32,33).

God’s purpose with Israel, then, was to make them a training centre for the faithful in the pagan centuries before Christ. Of them Jesus was born, to proclaim the good news that his faithful servants become children of Abraham by faith and so inherit the promises. So the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:27-29).

The truth about mankind

From the dawn of history men have sought consolation in pleasing views about themselves and their ultimate fate, because in this way their natural desires have been satisfied. The Bible, however, encourages no wishful thinking about human nature. It is utterly realistic about ourselves, our powers and our weaknesses. We were created, so it tells us, “in the image of God”; that is, we have been given wonderful powers of mind. We can reason; we have a power of conscience, warning us when wrong is being done; and we have a power of will, enabling us to make decisions affecting our conduct and so our lives.

Yet we have strong natural desires which demand satisfaction: the pressure to indulge ourselves in many ways, to acquire material possessions, and to defend our pride. Human history is a record of the way in which men and women have allowed their desires to dominate them. Strife and suffering have been the inevitable result.

Man is mortal

Why does human nature behave like this? Because, says the Bible, the first human beings having been presented with a free choice, preferred to please themselves and to reject the clear command of God. It was an act of rebellion which the Bible calls sin. Its consequence was mortality, the condition in which all human life ends naturally in death. We die because we are mortal. If left to ourselves, we “perish” (to use the Bible phrase) – that is, we cease to exist. The dead lie unconscious in the grave; they suffer no pain, but “sleep in the dust of the earth” (Daniel 12:2). The widespread idea that man possesses an “immortal soul” and goes on living after death (usually “in heaven”) is definitely not a Bible teaching. The Church of England Commission which produced in 1945 its report Towards the Conversion of England, stated clearly that the idea of the immortal soul “owes its origin to Greek, not to Bible, sources” (page 23). The theory was early absorbed into the teaching of the Church from paganism, and is an important example of a number of changes in original Christian beliefs made over the centuries.

But there is hope. The grave need not be the end for us, as we shall see.

The nature of Jesus

There is one very important result of a right understanding of human nature: it enables us to make sense of the life and the death of Jesus Christ by making clear their significance in the purpose of God for us.

The Gospel of Luke describes how Jesus was born of the young Israelite woman, Mary of Nazareth, by the power of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus was born Son of man through his mother. Thus he inherited our physical nature in the fullest sense and as a result was “in all points tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). But he was also the Son of God, because God was his Father. Experiencing within himself the desire for self-satisfaction, he overcame every temptation. Thus he was able to submit to his Father at the crisis of Gethsemane, declaring: “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

So Jesus was “without sin” and became in his death on the cross the ultimate sacrifice for sin, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). His body was taken down from the cross and buried. But a just God could not leave a wholly righteous man for ever in the grave. Therefore He did not allow his body to “see corruption” (Acts 2:31) and raised him again the third day. Jesus was granted immortal nature; “death no longer has dominion over him” (Romans 6:9). So he ascended to heaven to sit at his Father’s right hand.

Son of God not God the Son

The very important point thus emerges that the death of Jesus was not just a sublime example of noble self-sacrifice (though it was all of that). It was the vital atonement for sin, which makes it possible for us sinners to have hope. It is a tragedy that in popular Christianity this understanding has been perverted by the doctrine of the Trinity, which arose 300 years after the ascension of Jesus as a result of disputes within the Church. The creeds expressing the Trinity were decisions of Church Councils in the fourth and fifth centuries. Their teaching is not found in the Bible. The idea of a pre-existent “God the Son” in heaven changes the vital experience of Jesus as the independent, responsible Son of man who was also Son of God, and so takes away the true significance of his life and his death as the atonement for sin, achieved once for all.

Similarly the Holy Spirit is not presented in the Bible as the third “Person” of a Trinity. It is the power by which God achieves His ends, both physical and spiritual. It is always under the control of the Father, and later of the Son, and is never represented as acting independently of them, or as an object of worship.

It can thus be seen that a right understanding of human nature, and so of the nature of Jesus, lies at the very centre of the purpose of God in him for the redemption of men and women from sin and death. It is the very core of the Gospel. Only in the Bible do we find these vital truths about Jesus Christ.