“It is not just a wonderful plan for ‘my life’ but a wonderful plan for the world; it is about the coming of God’s kingdom to renew all things.”

-Tim Keller 

There is a powerful scene at the end of the Lord of the Rings  that was not in the movie. After the ring is destroyed at Mount Doom and the eagles rescue Sam and Frodo, Sam wakes up from his sleep surprised he is alive and surprised to see Gandalf standing at the foot of his bed.

He gasps, “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?”

We believe the answer to Sam’s question can be found in the historical redemptive narrative told by the Bible. We call it the Four-Chapter Gospel: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. It’s the ultimate story of significance.

For over 1800 years this grand biblical narrative was taught by the church, but in the last two centuries the evangelical church has truncated the Four-Chapter Gospel to only two chapters: Fall and Redemption.

This Two-Chapter Gospel often leads Christians today to see their salvation only as a bus ticket to heaven. They believe that what they do while they wait for the bus doesn’t really matter. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

While the Two-Chapter gospel is most certainly true, it also is limited. It leaves out God’s original good creation (characterized by shalom – universal flourishing, wholeness and delight), and God’s future restoration of his entire creation (also characterized by shalom). It is an incomplete story with a number of problems:

• The Two-Chapter Gospel does not tell us why we were created.

• The Two-Chapter Gospel does tell us about our true destiny.

• The Two-Chapter Gospel tends to over emphasize the individualistic aspects of salvation. Salvation becomes all about us.

• The Two-Chapter Gospel tends to lead to an escapist view of redemption.

• The Two-Chapter Gospel becomes just a gospel of sin management.

The Bible begins with the creation of all things and ends with the renewal of all things, and in between it offers an interpretation of the meaning of all history.

We need to rediscover the lost two chapters to find out why we were created and understand out future destiny. The Four-Chapter Gospel is the framework for the significance of our life and work.

Only in this larger framework can we truly understand why our work is important to God and how he has called us to Stewardship. This biblical narrative makes a comprehensive claim on all humanity.

As Christians, we are called to live a life so transformed by this Four-Chapter Gospel that others glimpse in it the possibility of their own transformation – and the world’s.

Sam’s question, “Is everything sad going to come untrue?” recognizes that the world is not the way it was supposed to be. It is a place that is filled with much sadness, cursed by sin.

In the final restoration of shalom, those sad things will be made untrue. The curse will be rolled back. The world will be forever changed. As we read in Revelation 21:1-5:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!

What do you think? How does the Four-Chapter Gospel inform your view of your own work and significance? Leave your comments here.