It is the Record of a Revelation from God.
The theme is, "the entrance of God into the spiritual life of man." This makes it superior to all other books and invests it with a unique character which commands our most earnest attention. God, who is speaking to men through this book, says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." God is not only the God of the Israelites but of all nations and peoples.
The great men, whose life stories are given in the Bible, were God called to, and God guided in, their work of uplifting the world. We have only to look at the record to see how the initiative is declared to have been taken by God. Here is the roll call, Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), Moses (Exodus 3:14), Joshua (1:1-6), Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4-21), David (1 Samuel 16:3,11-13), Isaiah (1:1), Ezekiel (1:1), Jeremiah (1:2) and all the prophets, John the Baptist (Luke 1:13-17; Matthew 3:1-12), Peter, John and Paul (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4; 13:1,2).
The Old Testament shows the looking forward to the Christ and the New Testament records His coming as the Spiritual Light of the world. No other book or set of books announce "the entrance of God to the spiritual life of man" through Jesus Christ (John 1:1-18), who came speaking of the new spiritual birth of man (John 3:1-21).
The only key to the understanding of the Bible is this plan of God to enter into the spiritual life of man. We may easily look in the Bible for what is not there and read into its pages what is in our own thoughts or read out of them that which we do not wish to see, but back of all we must acknowledge this peculiar purpose of God.
Back also of all theories of revelation and inspiration—and giving rise to them—stands the great thought of God for the spiritual redemption of men. For this end He enters into covenant with the Israelites, He sends them prophets and teachers, and at last He sends His Son. Continually God is calling to men, "Be ye holy for I am holy."
STRUCTURE
In any book, after the consideration of the theme, we look for the form and the plan. In order to study a book to the best advantage, the different parts and their relation to each other and to the whole must be made plain. The Bible readily lends itself to an investigation of its structure.
The Bible is One Book with one thought running through it, God's purpose to redeem man, and may be so read and studied.
The Bible is Composed of Many Books written by different authors in different languages, at different times. Some of the books were circulated separately before they were gathered either into the canon of the Old or New Testaments. The gathering together of the books and the placing them in the order that we have them now was a slow process, but all in the order and interest of a progressive revelation of God and because of a common sympathetic subject.