Introduction: The Big Picture
The 66 books of the Old and New Testament Scriptures were written over a period of 1,500 years, by more than 40 authors, from a variety of cultures on three continents, and in three languages. Yet the unity of the content and teachings is astonishingly consistent and coherent. They contain a comprehensive message of God’s dealings with humankind and share a common storyline about the origin of the universe, the nature of God, the nature and purpose of humankind, and the origin and extent of evil. That these 66 books also contain no historical errors or contradictions is beyond coincidence.1
Old Testament Scripture records God’s orderly creation of the universe and the earth into which He brought life first to vegetation, then to creatures of the sea, air and land. Lastly, God made humankind uniquely, in His own image, giving them both free will and the intellectual and moral capacities to respond to His relational initiatives.2 In the beginning, God’s children trusted Him, but by deception and pride they came to doubt His truthfulness. That Loss of Faith in God led to disobedience and, ultimately, estrangement. Yet, mercifully, He did not abandon them.
As time passed, humankind fell deeper into selfishness and sin, and God chose to speak to and through a certain people, making promises to individuals whose descendants later became known as the Israelites. After leading them out of slavery, He inspired Moses to write the first scriptures, in which the Genesis creation account was revealed, the Exodus from Egypt was documented, and the “Law” was established.
The Israelites were given both everlasting covenants and conditional promises of protection, as well as laws of conduct (and penalties), so they would become a blessing to all people. God spoke to Israel’s prophets, priests, and kings for about 1,000 years. But time and again a cycle of disobedience, suffering, repentance, and restoration was repeated. Then there was silence: total darkness for 400 years.
Suddenly, God burst forth into the world in the person of His long-prophesied Messiah, Jesus, whose brief three-year ministry illuminated reality like a camera flash going off in the dark. The light of truth blazoned, as Jesus revealed God’s loving plan of redemption for all who put their trust in Him – not just Israelites but men and women from every nation and race.
The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John witness, from different perspectives, the story of God coming to earth, taking on the form of a man. By word and deed, He revealed His nature and demonstrated how humankind should live. Importantly, He created the path for His children to reconcile with Him, and He did it in perhaps the only way that could satisfy the dual natures of an all-loving and yet all-righteous God. Through Jesus, who was (and is) both fully God and fully man, He paid the promised penalty of earthly death Himself for the sins of His lost children. That tortuous death on a cross did not happen to Him: He came for it, thereby fulfilling the ancient prophecies of God’s promised Messiah (or Savior).
Beyond the 26 recorded occurrences of miraculous healings and nine miracles of power over nature, Jesus proved His divinity beyond any doubt by dramatically rising from the dead, appearing to His disciples and more than 500 witnesses over 40 days before ascending back to heaven. God then sent His Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – as an eternal witness to the resurrection of His Son, so that those who believe and place their faith in Him will be reunited eternally with Them. For it is that Rebirth of Faith in God as the resurrected Son and Savior, which God credits as righteousness worthy of eternal life with Them.
The coming of God in Jesus Christ was the most significant event in human history. Both Old and New Testaments affirm there is only one God, but as one substance can be a solid, liquid, or vapor, so the one God made Himself known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the eternal Father, chose to enter the fluidity of time as the Son, and left His invisible Holy Spirit as a witness. Because God is infinite and outside the realm of time, His three forms always existed, so that at the creation of the world, “The Word,” as Jesus is often called in John’s Gospel, was there. This plural, self-communing nature of God was revealed even in the first chapter of the Bible, as God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”3
As would be expected from four views, each Gospel includes eyewitness details and events not found in the others. Thus, each reveals a part of the record of Jesus Christ. This book combines those parts to present the whole story. Duplication is eliminated, but the unique details of each are preserved, as the exact Scripture wordings are woven together to provide the entire Gospel account. Where Jesus repeated a similar teaching in a different setting, those repetitions are retained for accuracy.
The unity of the four versions is striking and compelling. Yet God does not make His entire Word transparent to all because, as Scripture states, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”4 We are finite creatures and cannot fully grasp infinite concepts. So some things must first be believed to be seen. In the few event descriptions that may seem to vary slightly, the lens of faith (occasionally aided by diagramming)5 reveals how all can be true, thus no detail is left out.
This book also includes 59 Old Testament prophecies, strategically placed where fulfilled in (or related to) Jesus life, including the approximate dates written. The Gospels are deeply connected to the ancient Old Testament promises of God’s coming as the Messiah, and together the life of Jesus can be more accurately understood.
Three colors identify the Scripture sources:
Black = New Testament Wording
Red = Jesus’ Words
Gold = Old Testament Prophecies
The volume of prophecies related to Jesus is astonishing, numbering more than 375 by many estimates. Only 59 are included here to maintain a concise presentation of the Gospel story. Of those, 25 are mentioned in the Gospels and 34 have been added.6 Jesus’ birth, life, and death were all foretold in Scripture many centuries before the events took place, as documented by numerous ancient writings and archaeological discoveries. Particularly detailed was His death by crucifixion, written hundreds of years before this gruesome form of execution had been invented.
Some Old Testament prophecies describe events to be fulfilled at Jesus’ future second coming. This was a problem for many of Israel’s religious leaders in recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, even though His coming was predicted and expected at that time. They saw the prophecies like “a mountain range in the distance,” with peaks showing the Messiah as both a servant-savior and an eternal king, but they did not see the valley in between.
Here, the four accounts of Jesus’ earthly life are melded into one. Nothing has been omitted or altered to satisfy any special interest. All of Jesus’ actions and teachings from the Gospels are here.
The Scripture Reference Section in the back shows where every word is found in the Bible by book, chapter and verse. Where partial verses are quoted, the number is followed by a “p”. E-book readers can toggle back and forth between the book text and the matching scripture reference by clicking on the closest heading.
Because it is faithful to the actual Scriptures, some scenes transition quickly. The Gospel story is never slow in depicting God’s passionate plan to bring His children home. Many whose minds are opened to hear the Gospel are not only informed, but transformed, as God speaks and reveals Himself through His Word. It’s been said if one wants to hear the voice of God, they may simply read the Scriptures out loud.
While not a substitute for reading the Bible, the basic premise here is that Scripture is most powerful when presented only in the Words that God inspired to be written, without fictional dramatizations for entertainment or other distorting purposes. Therefore, except for Chapter and Section Titles, and OT Reference Headings: EVERY WORD FROM THIS SENTENCE ON TO THE ENDING EPILOGUE IS FROM SCRIPTURE, all from the current New International Version.7
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful Word.
Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me....Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
“The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
Introduction Footnotes
1 Theology Matters, Vol 19 No 5 (Nov/Dec 2013)
2 Introduction to Prayer, Pg. 6, by Kenneth Boa
3 Genesis 1:26p
4 Hebrews 11:6p
5 See “Appendix” for Diagrams.
6 NOTE: Some OT wording in the NIV Bible can differ slightly from the NT wording “since the current OT Masoretic text may be different from the LXX which was used at the time the NT was written”. (per Hans Combrink, VP Biblica Training and Quality Assurance)
7 From this point on, every word is cross-referenced by book, chapter and verse in the Scripture Reference Section in the back.