length. Our nature, our origin, and our destiny summarize the content of Holy Scripture. It teaches that man is a free and intelligent being created in a state of grace and destined to be united with God in Heaven for all eternity. Through abuse of free will man fell from this high estate and is daily exposed to sin and suffering, but the merits of Christ's death on the cross have redeemed man's fallen nature and placed him once more upon the way of salvation.
The person of Christ thus becomes the central figure of all Scripture. He is the "alpha and omega, the beginning and the end."[1] As God, He created all things "and without Him was made nothing that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men."[2] As man, Christ is the greatest handiwork of God, the "first-born of every creature"[3] As the God-man, He is our Redeemer, the "only name under Heaven given to men whereby we must be saved."[4] Thus is Jesus Christ the centre from which all things radiate, around which all revolve, and in which all must finally converge.
After recounting the creation and fall of man, the Old Testament announces the coming of the Saviour and narrates the preparation of mankind for this great event.
