The Bible sets forth a story of the world, from its beginning to its ending. It is the only true story of the world, all other stories being at best partial renditions of the world story disclosed in the Bible. Consequently, all other stories must be inscribed into the biblical story, rather than the biblical story into any one of them. Insofar as we allow the biblical story to become our story, it overcomes our reality. We no longer view the world as once we did; we view it from the point of view of a character in the Bible's story.[1]

The Bible is God’s storybook. It tells the greatest story of all – a story that spans from eternity to eternity. This story finds its origin, center, and conclusion in the good news of Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the one through whom and for whom all things exist. Christians are people who have been “caught up” into God’s story. As such, they embrace God’s story and make it their own, allowing it to shape and transform their own personal life story.

Our personal story is our particular point of contact with God. Although we are finite, limited beings, we are able to participate in infinite and universal truth (in other words, with God) by means of our particular life story. Because of our human limitations, this is the only way we ever experience truth – particularly, personally, and progressively.

This is only possible because of the mediation of Christ. It is only because the infinite and absolute God has entered into human history in the person of Christ and taken on his own particular, personal, and progressive life story that our own story is able to so perfectly intersect with God’s epic story. We personally participate in this bridge between God and humanity through our spiritual union with Christ by faith. United with Christ, our finite, limited, and imperfect story intersects with God’s eternal, universal, and epic story. It is vital, therefore, that we understand exactly how our personal story intersects with God’s story.

The Story We Tell Ourselves

Our life story is the golden thread that links together all the events of our life – past, present, and future – and “tells us where we have been (even before we were born), where we are, and where we could be going.”[2] Our story weaves the experiences of our lives together into a cohesive and coherent “plot line” that allows us to discover meaning and purpose in our lives. Without this “story factor” our lives become a chaotic sequence of unrelated events with no apparent end in sight.[3] People who feel their life is without meaning “are really saying that ‘the narrative [story] of their life has become unintelligible to them, that it lacks any point, any movement towards a climax or a telos’.”[4]

Your life story allows you to view life with “the big picture” in mind. No single event in your life is your “life story” – it is merely an episode in a much larger tale. It is your “life story” that gives meaning to each individual episode. All the particular episodes of your life – past, present, and future – are given meaning in regard to how they relate to the entire story. And the entire story – particularly the future since it has not yet been experienced – can only be perceived through faith.[5] Therefore, without faith’s ability to peer into the future (no matter how vaguely or imperfectly) your “plot line” remains unattached to any secure end and merely hangs limp, unable to provide an ultimate sense of meaning and purpose. For this reason, the end of your story – indeed, the end of every story – is of vast significance. It is the end of a story that gives the fullest meaning to all that has preceded it. It is the end of the story that communicates “the point” of the story.

The meaning of a story is always communicated in the entire story and not simply a piece of it. Only the “whole story” of our lives will shed complete light upon all the seemingly fractured pieces. Because of this, many present events will defy explanation until we progress further into our story. Kierkegaard was right: “Life must be lived forwards, but it can be understood only backwards.” However, in order for life to move forward with any sense of purpose, the future must be perceived by faith. A narrative must be told that allows a person to know purpose, meaning, and significance in the end.

Ultimately, our story helps us makes sense of perceived chaos. Questions like “Who am I?”, “Where did I come from?”, “How did I get here?”, and “What am I looking for?” provide stability and strength when questions like “What is going on right now?” and “Why is this happening?” are presently unanswerable. A knowledge of our past combined with our hopes for the future helps us persevere in the present. To lose either – our sense of past or hope for the future – is to lose ourselves. Why? Because we have lost our story. This is the tragic state of the victim of amnesia and the miserable experience of the hopelessly depressed. Both gazing back into an empty past or staring forward into an empty future leave people adrift without moorings. Only the golden thread of a life story rooted in the past and reaching forward into a hopeful future allows a person to view all of life with purpose, meaning, and significance.

Journey as Christian Motif

One of the great motifs of the Christian life is that of a person on a journey. The earliest name for the fledgling Christian movement was “the way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). The name was based on two biblical passages: Jesus’ claim to be “the way” to God (John 14:6) and the name for the path of righteousness declared by John the Baptist in fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (cf. Mt. 3:3; Mk 1:2-3; Lk 3:4-5; John 1:23). The implication of this name is that the Christian life is “the way” (the path) to live with “the Way” (Jesus). It is a righteous journey with God’s righteous One. It is “the way” with “the Way” in contrast to other “ways” with other gods or other less-reliable guides.

Contrasting God’s “way” with other possible “ways” is a common theme in Scripture:

• “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life…” (Deut. 30:19-20a)
• “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the ways of the wicked… but his delight is in the law of the Lord… For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” (Psalm 1:1, 2, 6)
• The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel. (Prov. 12:15)
• There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Pr. 14:12)
• “You shall also say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.’” (Jer. 21:8)
• “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrowthat leads to life, and few are those who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
• The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing… Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh (Heb 9:8; 10:19-20)

The Didache, one of the earliest extra-biblical Christian documents, begins its description of the Christian life with this motif: “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways” (Didache, 1). Throughout the story of the Bible faith in God is understood primarily as a “way of life” and not simply as “a state of mind.” It is holistic rather than simply an intellectual assent to a few doctrines.

Clearly, Christianity is a way of life. This is at the heart of Jesus’ evangelistic call: “Follow me.” He does not call people to simply trust in him, but to trust in him enough to make his way of life their own. He calls us to a journey – a daily walk with Jesus that involves a beginning, an end, and everything in-between. Christianity is a way of life and not a one-time decision. It is not focused on a point in time (whether located in the past or future), but on a process of transformation in the present – transformation that primarily occurs while traveling between two points in time: the beginning and the end of the Christian journey (conversion and final glorification, respectively). By following Jesus our story intersects with God’s story. The Christian life is to be “on the way” with “the Way” – or better, on the road with the Master or, even better yet, day by day with Jesus.

Every journey has a starting point and a goal. The journey is only successful if we enter at the right place, proceed in the right direction, and persevere until the goal is attained. As important as the proper starting point is, it is the goal that provides the impetus for the entire journey. If the goal is not realized, the journey is in vain. We will now consider how all three aspects of the Christian life work together in enabling us to share God’s story.

The Starting Point

All journeys, no matter how long, begin with a single step (and, for that matter, proceed by single steps). This first step permanently changes the direction of one’s life and radically redefines all that has gone before. When Neo in The Matrix decides to take the red pill rather than the blue pill his life is forever changed. Neo can never return to the deceptive comforts of the Matrix. When Frodo commits to carry the evil ring in Lord of the Rings his course is forever altered. Frodo can never return to his simple life in the Shire. When Jesus willingly participates in John’s baptism of repentance and begins his public ministry, there is no turning back. Jesus can never return to his old responsibilities as a common carpenter.

The starting point is a new stage in life. It usually involves a radical severing from all that has gone before. There is a distinct break from one’s previous attitudes, attachments, and life patterns. What was formerly meaningful holds less value. What formerly had little meaning, now takes center stage.

There is a clear human starting point in regard to our Christian journey.[6] In the New Testament, the starting point of the Christian journey is repentance and faith. These acts are most emphatically underscored by personal initiation into the Christian “way” through baptism. Whether one’s conversion experience happened in a moment (like the Apostle Paul) or involved a slow awakening over the course of many years, the end result is the same – an intentional commitment to follow Jesus.

This commitment is not the journey. It holds no power in itself other than that it sets one on the Christian path where the great transformation actually occurs. The commitment itself is powerless without the consequent journey. We must not mistake the gate for the way. It is not the wedding day that transforms a couple, but the actual marriage itself. The wedding day simply introduces the couple to the domestic life that will either transform them into truly devoted lovers who love “for better or for worse” or expose their promise of commitment as a sham. Likewise, it is not a membership card to a gym that gets one into shape, but the actual process of disciplined exercise. The membership card simply introduces one to the real possibility of actually using athletic equipment.

It is impossible to live our entire life on the excitement of our conversion. This would be like a married couple speaking only of their wedding day and not of their marriage. Sadly, this is what many Christians seem to do. Their “testimony” always seems to be about a conversion in the far-off past rather than on God’s work in the present.

The Goal

Every journey must have a goal. The goal provides direction for the journey and sustains one’s heart when the journey grows difficult. Like the starting point, the goal is not the primary thing that transforms us; it is the journey toward the goal that primarily transforms us. However, the final goal is far more important than the starting gate. It is sustained focus on the goal that keeps one going in the proper direction and motivates one to persevere on the transforming journey – especially when the journey becomes difficult or hazardous.

What is the goal of the Christian way? Sadly, for some, the goal is simply to evade hell. However, this should neither be our only goal nor our primary goal. Our goal should correspond to God’s goal – God’s will and purpose for the cosmos and humanity. In other words, we should pursue the end toward which God is leading all things. What is that end? New creation. The restoration and renewal of all things in order that God may be “all in all.” This goal is trustworthy for it is the incontrovertible future of the cosmos. God’s new creation has begun with the resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits of a full harvest to come. Christ’s resurrection victory is the trigger that inaugurates and guarantees the glorious end of all things.

What, then, should be the goal of our personal journeys? To share in the glorious new creation of God – the renewal and restoration of all things in heaven and on earth through the mediating work of Christ and the sanctifying work of God’s Spirit. More particularly and personally, our goal is to participate in and share in Christ’s resurrection glory. And what is the ultimate fruit of sharing in Christ’s resurrection glory? Union and communion with God. The transfiguration of all things in Christ – resurrection for humans – will finally and forever reverse the curse of sin and bring all redeemed creatures into deep, eternal, intimate union with God.

The experience of this intimate union is not something reserved for the future. This union is real and has begun in Christ through his Spirit and is experienced through faith. As Christians, we are intimately united with God through Christ by the Spirit. We have something deeper than a “personal relationship” with God – we have an intimate unbreakable union with God. And this union is for the purpose of deep, intimate communion.

This has happened because of Christ. Through participation in Christ we share in the life, love, and fellowship of the triune God, and subsequently, in the glorious works of God on our behalf. Through the incarnation of Christ we are brought into union leading to communion with the Triune God. This union and communion results in personal transformation – a theosis. This transformation will be complete when we possess glorious resurrection bodies. And thus we will forever be like Christ! And we will forever reign with him in a cosmos purged of sin and purified unto righteousness.

This is our goal, our end, our hope. Indeed, this is our home! An uninhibited experience of union and communion with God in eternal bodies suited to dwell in everlasting glory is our heart’s deepest longing, the end of all our journeying.

Our Present Experience

What then does this mean in regard to our present? We must come to view all things as leading toward this end. Nothing can thwart God’s purpose of redemption (Romans 8:35-39). Therefore, in whatever we do and whatever we experience in our journey to God with God, we must seek to be like Christ. We know who we are (or better, whose we are). We also know where we belong – in the loving arms of the triune God.

Our goal is to participate in the life of God through Christ and by the Spirit as deeply as we can. This is what it means to be “in Christ” or to experience “Christ in you” – a formula that the Apostle Paul uses over 170 times in his writings, demonstrating how central to his life and experience this participation was. “For Paul, then, the Christian does not simply receive the benefits of Christ’s work, but is also united to Christ and comes to share in his life and death.”[7] The essence of our union with Christ is not forensic but relational. We share in – actually participate in – the life of Christ. We die with him, rise with him, and suffer with him. Consequently, we are also glorified with him!

This is what it means to be “on the way” with “the Way” – to be personally transformed by the personal presence of the living Christ. It is nothing less than an encounter with Jesus – learning to live in, through, and for God in Christ by the Spirit.

Essentially, the Way for a Christian is a real person. The Truth of the Way is wholly embodied in the human person of Jesus. So, to be following the Way is something more than studying a religious system of beliefs. To be a disciples of the Way is more than obeying certain moral or religious laws. It is a whole form of life which is not merely cerebral, nor merely social or legalistic. To be following the Way, when the Way is a person, means to be coming into full conscious contact with this person. St Paul talks of union, of being in Christ, of ‘putting on Christ’.[8]

Every experience we have along “the way” with “the Way” holds the potential to transform us. As C. S. Lewis wrote, every moment bears “the weight of eternity”, providing another opportunity for us to become more devilish or angelic.

We are, in the end, the cumulative results of all our decisions. We arrive at the destination we have been seeking. It is the journey that prepares us for this final chapter. It is the starting point that sets us in the right direction. It is the goal that keeps us in headed in the right direction. It is on the path, however, that the vast amount of personal transformation takes place. In other words, it is the journey that changes us.

Perhaps we could recover the concept of journey if we used biblical language more carefully. What do you think of when you hear the word, “seekers”? If you think of unchurched people marginally interested in spirituality you are not thinking biblically. At best, you are using biblical language loosely; at worse, you lose a category that is meant to describe God’s people. According to the Bible, it is God’s people who are “seekers.”

• You will seekthe Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. (Deut. 4:29)
• Glory in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength; SeekHis face continually. (Ps. 105:3-4)
• And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seekHim. (Heb. 11:6)
• The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. (Ps. 10:4)
• “For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seekfirst His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matt. 6:33)

In truth, everyone is on a journey – everyone is seeking something. Everyone is on a journey but not everyone is heading in the same direction or toward the same goal. Our goal is not to “be right” but to be going in the “right” direction – stumblingly, haltingly, whatever it takes.

How can we know that we are on the way of salvation (Acts 16:17), the way of the Lord (Acts 18:25), the way of God (Acts 18:26)? We know this by whether the journey is transforming us to become more like “the Way” – for to walk with “the Way” is to walk the “way of love” (1 Cor. 12:31). It is the way of humility, sacrifice, and suffering. We can’t expect a comfortable life of ease and convenience when we are on the way with the Way. We are following the betrayed, rejected, and crucified one – the Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. And yet, no matter how hard the journey, it is worth it because of Who we are with and what we are becoming – we are following Christ and becoming more like him! For the Christian, there is no other person they would rather follow – no matter what it involves.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2004