The Story We’ve Been Waiting For: Advent, Christmas, and the Kingdom of God
The Story We’ve Been Waiting For: Advent, Christmas, and the Kingdom of God
The Bible is an epic narrative of the Kingdom of God and the human vocation within it.
It took me about six months to arrive at that sentence.
I was trying to say something simple without making it shallow. I wanted a way to describe the heart of Scripture that honors God and helps ordinary readers grasp the whole story. I wasn’t aiming for a slogan or a creed. I wanted one sentence that could carry the weight and sweep of the biblical drama—a drama that, in Advent, we remember is still moving toward its great fulfillment.
What that sentence points to is this: the Bible tells a story in which history is not random or meaningless, but guided by God’s purpose. God’s reign—what Jesus calls the Kingdom of God—is both the center of the story and where the story is going. And human beings are not background characters. From the beginning, we are invited into the story as participants—called to bear God’s image, care for His world, and live under His reign. Advent reminds us that this Kingdom does not remain distant or abstract; it draws near.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that once you have this sentence, you’ve “figured out” the Bible. Not at all. Think of it as a lens rather than a conclusion—a way of seeing how the major movements of Scripture fit together: Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus, and the Church. Advent, in particular, trains us to read these movements as a story of promise and fulfillment.
Any summary like this is only a starting point. Ideally, it sends you back into the text itself with fresh eyes and renewed confidence that Scripture has a coherent center. At the same time, the idea that we only need the “plain sense” of the Bible—something often said in Protestant circles—can be misleading. The Bible is clear, but it is also deep, layered, and shaped by a long story that unfolds over time, a story that reaches a decisive turning point at Christmas.
Take Genesis 1, for example. If the Bible really is an epic narrative of God’s Kingdom and humanity’s calling, then Genesis 1 isn’t just background information—it introduces the story’s central themes, themes that Advent helps us hold in anticipation.
Too often, Genesis 1 gets pulled in opposite directions. Some try to read it primarily as a scientific account of material origins. Others dismiss it as outdated mythology. Still others read it faithfully but import later ideas into the text— such as speaking of human dignity alone, which is true but may not go far enough.
When we read Genesis 1 as the opening chapter of the Kingdom story, something richer comes into focus.
The chapter reads like the dedication of a cosmic temple. God brings order out of chaos, fills creation with life, and then places human beings at the center. In the ancient world, temples contained images of the gods carved from stone. In Genesis, God does something far more striking: He places living image-bearers—men and women—into His creation to represent His rule.
Being made in God’s image is not only about worth or dignity; it is about calling. Humanity is entrusted with responsibility—to care for the world, to reflect God’s character, and to extend His good order. Psalm 8 captures this beautifully: “You have made them a little lower than God… and crowned them with glory and honor.” Glory, in this sense, names the dignity and responsibility of being God’s living images within creation.
Genesis 1, then, is not a detached origin story. It is the opening act of the Kingdom drama. And Advent points us forward to the moment when this drama takes on flesh—when the Creator enters His creation, and the Kingdom is no longer only spoken of, but seen.
At Christmas, the story does not reset; it advances. The child born in Bethlehem is the King through whom God’s reign is revealed, and the faithful human who lives out the vocation first given in Genesis. In Jesus, God’s rule and humanity’s calling come together at last.
That’s why I believe this single sentence matters: The Bible is an epic narrative of the Kingdom of God and the human vocation within it. Advent teaches us to wait for that Kingdom. Christmas proclaims that it has begun.
It took me about six months to arrive at that sentence.
I was trying to say something simple without making it shallow. I wanted a way to describe the heart of Scripture that honors God and helps ordinary readers grasp the whole story. I wasn’t aiming for a slogan or a creed. I wanted one sentence that could carry the weight and sweep of the biblical drama—a drama that, in Advent, we remember is still moving toward its great fulfillment.
What that sentence points to is this: the Bible tells a story in which history is not random or meaningless, but guided by God’s purpose. God’s reign—what Jesus calls the Kingdom of God—is both the center of the story and where the story is going. And human beings are not background characters. From the beginning, we are invited into the story as participants—called to bear God’s image, care for His world, and live under His reign. Advent reminds us that this Kingdom does not remain distant or abstract; it draws near.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that once you have this sentence, you’ve “figured out” the Bible. Not at all. Think of it as a lens rather than a conclusion—a way of seeing how the major movements of Scripture fit together: Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus, and the Church. Advent, in particular, trains us to read these movements as a story of promise and fulfillment.
Any summary like this is only a starting point. Ideally, it sends you back into the text itself with fresh eyes and renewed confidence that Scripture has a coherent center. At the same time, the idea that we only need the “plain sense” of the Bible—something often said in Protestant circles—can be misleading. The Bible is clear, but it is also deep, layered, and shaped by a long story that unfolds over time, a story that reaches a decisive turning point at Christmas.
Take Genesis 1, for example. If the Bible really is an epic narrative of God’s Kingdom and humanity’s calling, then Genesis 1 isn’t just background information—it introduces the story’s central themes, themes that Advent helps us hold in anticipation.
Too often, Genesis 1 gets pulled in opposite directions. Some try to read it primarily as a scientific account of material origins. Others dismiss it as outdated mythology. Still others read it faithfully but import later ideas into the text— such as speaking of human dignity alone, which is true but may not go far enough.
When we read Genesis 1 as the opening chapter of the Kingdom story, something richer comes into focus.
The chapter reads like the dedication of a cosmic temple. God brings order out of chaos, fills creation with life, and then places human beings at the center. In the ancient world, temples contained images of the gods carved from stone. In Genesis, God does something far more striking: He places living image-bearers—men and women—into His creation to represent His rule.
Being made in God’s image is not only about worth or dignity; it is about calling. Humanity is entrusted with responsibility—to care for the world, to reflect God’s character, and to extend His good order. Psalm 8 captures this beautifully: “You have made them a little lower than God… and crowned them with glory and honor.” Glory, in this sense, names the dignity and responsibility of being God’s living images within creation.
Genesis 1, then, is not a detached origin story. It is the opening act of the Kingdom drama. And Advent points us forward to the moment when this drama takes on flesh—when the Creator enters His creation, and the Kingdom is no longer only spoken of, but seen.
At Christmas, the story does not reset; it advances. The child born in Bethlehem is the King through whom God’s reign is revealed, and the faithful human who lives out the vocation first given in Genesis. In Jesus, God’s rule and humanity’s calling come together at last.
That’s why I believe this single sentence matters: The Bible is an epic narrative of the Kingdom of God and the human vocation within it. Advent teaches us to wait for that Kingdom. Christmas proclaims that it has begun.
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