The whole story of Christianity is starting to be told again. The broad story line of Christianity usually is told around 2 points:

Fall – Sin entered the world causing pain, separation, and suffering

Redemption – Jesus saved us from the fall

This is a truthful story which goes like this: Man sinned in the garden of Eden bringing evil into the world. Jesus came as a man, lived sin free, died, and rose again giving us salvation that frees us from the penalty of sin.

But this is only half the story. It is not false just incomplete.

Do you love to read a good story? What if you bought a 500 page fiction book and when you started reading you realized the first 100 pages had been ripped out? You wouldn’t like it would you? What if you also realized the last 100 pages of the book were missing leaving you with only the 300 pages in the middle? No matter how good the 300 pages are you would feel robbed and wondered how the story began and how it would end.

Almost every book and movie follows this outline of 4 points of telling stories: Scene of something good, bad stuff happens, hero saves us, happy ending. Without the scene of something good and the happy ending the story wouldn’t be complete.

The same thing has happened in telling the story of Christianity. We have only told the 300 page story in the middle. The 300 pages are a great part of the story but incomplete. The story leaves off how we began and how we will end. I propose to you we need to expand the gospel story to 4 points:

Purpose  – The Earth was perfect, man knew God, man was fulfilled

Fall – Sin entered the world causing pain, separation, and suffering

Redemption – Jesus saved us from the fall

Restoration – Earth and man will be restored, man will know God, man will be fulfilled

Sin is the villain of the story that stole the world’s perfection and our purpose. Jesus is the hero which saved us from the villain. The story of Christianity – dare I say the Gospel – is only complete when we preface the fall with what was it like at the beginning and how will it be at the end on earth.

This to me is the best part of the gospel – restoration. Dealing with sin is very important, without sin being dealt with we really are dead. But the story of the gospel needs to be explained with what came before sin and what happens after sin is forgiven. The whole story is that the gospel restores unto man the purpose given in the garden of Eden. We need to tell all 4 points of the story. If we don’t communicate why only the middle of the story is being told.

The world is longing to know where they came from and and where they are going. People want to know why they were created. They want to know how the story of their lives is supposed to go on earth and not just hear about what happens after they die. Christianity is simply the best story on earth waiting to be told. Let’s tell the whole story.

Thoughts?