Let's Bust a Recap : Christ from Beginning to End

Christ from Beginning to End was Cody's and my first read-aloud for 2024. One of our dear friends sent it to me for my birthday a few years ago, and we decided it would be a good one to read together. We started mid-January and finished it the first week of May. Our loose goal was to read one chapter a week, and we pretty much stuck to it. 

Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ, co-authored by Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum, was published in 2018. Shortly after Cody and I started reading this, we learned that Trent is one of the pastors at our current pastor's previous church. Hunter's and Wellum's stated goal in writing this book is to help Christians better understand how every part of Scripture fits to reveal the glory of Jesus Christ. According to their acknowledgments, the book came from the two-fold conviction that the church must know and proclaim the whole counsel of God, and that books that discuss how the Bible is all about Christ are for the entire church—not just academics. 

The book is divided into two parts: Opening the Book and Reading the Story. Reading Part I felt a little like being in school. There was a lot of basic information that, for Cody and me, was not new. But it explained how each chapter in Part II would be structured—Looking Down (the close context), Looking Back (the continuing context), and Looking Ahead (the complete context). I'll be honest, those first four chapters were a bit dry, but Part II of the book is a completely different story. We couldn't make it through a single chapter without me getting choked up or outright crying. In Reading the Story, Hunter and Wellum take the reader through the entire story of the Bible, explaining how it all points to Christ. From beginning to end. *ba-dum ching* 

Part II is made up of eleven chapters starting with the Creation; moving through key characters in the Old Testament like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, showing how none of them were the answer to our sin problem; finally to Jesus revealed; then the Church; and ending with the New Creation. The story of the Bible is the story of our world, and it is truly the most beautiful story ever told. Wellum and Hunter did a fantastic job of showing how this story is cohesive and complete. Once I got into the meat of the book, I appreciated Part I a lot more because the structure of looking down, looking back, and looking ahead was vital, not only to understanding this particular book, but in understanding the Bible itself. Just starting out, Cody and I both noted how this would be an excellent book to hand a new believer or someone who had never read the Bible before and was feeling intimidated by it. But the further we got into the book, the more I saw the value for people who have read the Bible multiple times as well. I try to read through the whole Bible about every other year, and Christ from Beginning to End was a great companion book as I started the journey again this year. It's easy to view the Bible as more of a treasury of lots of stories than one cohesive book, and reading Christ from Beginning to End was a wonderful reminder to remember the big picture, remember what it is I'm holding in my hands each day. God's very Word to me, revealing His Son and the plan for my salvation. Every part of His Word points to His Son, points to my salvation. Wow. What a glorious story.

Christ from Beginning to End is a book I would highly recommend. It prompted a lot of great discussion between Cody and me, and it helped me to look at the beautiful story of Scripture with fresh eyes. So much of what we read in this book was being reinforced concurrently in my personal reading of the Bible and in sermons our pastor was preaching while we were working our way through it. It's always amazing to me when I can see so clearly how the Holy Spirit is teaching me something, and He was definitely teaching me while Cody and I read this book together. All in all, this is a great resource and a book I'm so glad Cody and I read together.