Prologue: Raising the curtain. A Daily Devotional by Colin S. Smith
In the beginning ... Genesis 1:1
Suppose you and a friend have tickets to a major play called The Bible Story, but because of traffic, you arrive late to the theater. You walk into the lobby and discover that it’s already intermission! You figure you might as well stay. Besides, you’ve heard that the new Testament is the best part.
You hear the buzz of conversation about Acts 1, then the lights fade. It’s time to get a seat. You sit down just in time for the beginning of Acts 2. But you have entirely missed act 1, so you know nothing about what came first, the Old Testament.
The curtain rises, and a manger and a newborn child are at center stage. as the scene unfolds, you learn that this is no ordinary child. Unlike any other character in human history, he has no human father.
He is born of a virgin, and an angel announces that this child is the Son of God, “God . . . with us” (Matthew 1:23), and that “he will save his people from their sins” (1:21).
You overhear a wife say to her husband, “This is it! He will be the one who was promised. You wait and see; it will all center around him. He’ll be the answer to the problem.”
But you’ve just arrived, and you don’t know what the problem is.
You hear that he is the Son of God, but you don’t know who God is. You hear that he will save his people, but you don’t know who his people are or what they need saving from! Having missed act 1, you struggle to grasp what this story is about.
That is the position many people are in today. They hear the story of Jesus, but they do not understand it because they don’t know the Bible story.
If you don’t know who God is, humanity’s problem, or the promise God has made, the coming of Christ will seem like nothing more than a sentimental story. This is why we need to unlock the Bible story. act 2 won’t make sense until we have grasped Acts 1.
For Further reading, see Acts 17
Colin S. Smith
Colin Smith was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He came to personal faith in Christ at the age of six, and sensed God's call to pastoral ministry early in life. He has published several books and is the teacher of the popular evangelistic video series, 10 Keys for Unlocking the Bible Story.
