The opening pages of the Bible tell the story of incredible beginnings, the crowning of humanity as God’s image-bearers, but also of tragic failure. We see how this isn’t just the story of two people; it becomes the story of Noah, then Abraham and his descendants—the whole nation of Israel. But it wasn’t Jesus’ story. Jesus came as a new Adam, but while he shared in Adam’s commissioning he didn’t share in his sin. And if we are in Christ, it doesn’t have to be our story either: we await a new creation, more glorious than the first.

Abraham is known as the patriarch not simply because he has many descendants, but because God promised to fix the problem sin through these children. Looking at Abraham’s legacy as it is told through the biblical story, we look at who from among Abraham’s descendants God chooses to fulfill his promises through, as well as how this works at each stage of his plans. Ultimately, we see how Jesus redefined both what it means to be a descendant of Abraham as well as how his descendants share God with the world, and what we can look forward to when he returns.

When the holy God makes his dwelling among sinful humans it creates a volatile situation that risks their destruction. Thus, when God makes covenants with us he also installs mediators, in order to establish and sustain the covenant without compromising his holiness. We start by looking at Moses, the paradigm mediator of Israel, and consider how he laid the foundation for the prophets and the priests who would follow him. Then, focusing on the priests, we look back to before Israel, and forward to our great high priest Jesus, in order to see how he makes possible a relationship with God that was previously unattainable.

Through Israel’s history, the heart of the king usually decided the fate of the nation. Unfortunately, most of their hearts were turned away from God, set on building kingdoms for themselves, following after other gods. But that wasn’t the way God intended. But when things were at their worst, there came word of a king who could set things right, who could rule in the way Adam and Eve were made to rule in the beginning. The New Testament shows us how Jesus is that king, and we consider what it looks like to live under his rule, and in fact to rule with him as heirs of God and coheirs with Christ over the new creation.

In Isaiah we read about a Servant who was supposed to be a light to the nations, God’s representative to those who don’t know him. When we work out who this Servant figure was—who it was that Isaiah had in mind—we get a picture not only of the story so far, but where the story is going. While we should be cautious about rushing too quickly to the Servant being Jesus, when we do see how Jesus fulfils the role of the Servant, we see a richer picture of who he is and how the New Testament authors talk about him.