The Story Behind The Saviour Unveiled

My wife and I recently released our first children’s book, The Saviour Unveiled. With so many Christian children’s books already available, you might wonder: Why write another one? That was the very question we wrestled with when we began this project. Our desire was not to merely re-tell familiar Bible stories but to help children to read the Bible the way Jesus Himself taught His disciples.

After His resurrection, He appeared to two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus. They were discouraged, confused, and unsure of what had just happened. But Luke tells us, “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). In other words, Jesus gave them a crash course in biblical theology.

In his book How to Understand and Apply the New Testament, Andy Naselli defines biblical theology like this, “[It] studies how the whole Bible progresses, integrates, and climaxes in Christ.” The Bible is not a random assortment of ancient writings loosely connected by moral lessons. It is a unified story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Seeing the Bible as One Big Story

Think about how a novel unfolds. Each chapter builds on the one before it, and every scene prepares the way for the climax. God chose to reveal His Word in a similar way. From creation to fall to redemption to new creation, every part of Scripture builds on what came before and points forward to what comes next. The Old Testament, far from being outdated history, is the foundation on which the New Testament stands.

This means that the people, events, and institutions in the Old Testament were never meant to stand on their own. They function as shadows or types pointing forward to something greater. They whisper of a Saviour yet to come. When we learn to read the Bible this way, we begin to see that the Old Testament is not disconnected from the gospel; it is the stage on which the gospel drama begins.

One of the clearest examples of a type is Adam. He was not only the first man God created; he was also, as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 5:14, a “type of Christ.” That means his life was more than personal history. It was a preview of a greater reality that would one day be fulfilled in Jesus.

In our book we explain that Adam served as our covenant representative (Romans 5:15–19). This means that when Adam sinned, all humanity was implicated—God counted every person guilty in him. In other words, his sin became our sin. Adam’s guilt and corrupted nature were passed down to every human being. Because of his disobedience, we are born into sin.

Adam’s disobedience in the garden had catastrophic consequences. When he ate the forbidden fruit, sin and death entered the world. His failure did not only affect him; it rippled outward, touching every generation that followed. We feel the effects of Adam’s choice every day. Brokenness in our world—violence, betrayal, sickness, selfishness, even death itself—can all be traced back to that moment of disobedience.

But where Adam failed, Jesus triumphed. Paul calls Him the “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). Unlike the first Adam, Jesus perfectly obeyed His Father in every way. Adam grasped for what was forbidden; Jesus emptied Himself, humbling Himself even to death on a cross. Adam’s disobedience brought condemnation, but Jesus’ obedience brought justification. Through His perfect life and sacrificial death, righteousness and eternal life are now offered to all who believe in Him.

Our book includes forty Old Testament stories, beginning with Adam and moving through the patriarchs, prophets, and kings. Some of the connections to Christ are easy to see—like Abraham offering Isaac or the lamb sacrificed at Passover. Others are more subtle, requiring careful reflection. But in each case, we invite children and their parents to trace the thread of redemption that runs through the Old Testament and leads straight to the Saviour.

Reading with “Christian Eyes”

Our prayer is that The Saviour Unveiled will help children read the Bible with what D.A. Carson calls “Christian eyes.” That means approaching Scripture with the understanding that it is ultimately about Jesus Christ. Every page, every story, and every prophecy finds its fulfillment in Him.

The Old Testament looks forward to Jesus, showing us why He had to come to earth in the likeness of human form. The four Gospels tell us about His earthly life, death on the cross, resurrection from the grave, and ascension back into heaven. The rest of the New Testament explains what it means to follow Him and builds on everything the Old Testament and Gospels have said. So, every part of the Bible helps us understand who Jesus is and why He came.

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day searched the Scriptures diligently, but they missed the One to whom they pointed (John 5:39). They knew the words but failed to see the Word made flesh standing in front of them. We long for children today to avoid that mistake. We want them to see Jesus clearly, to recognize that the Bible is not a disconnected collection of moral tales, but one unified story that climaxes in the life, death, and resurrection of the Saviour.

Our prayer is that this book will not only inform minds but also transform lives. And that it will spark a lifelong habit in children of reading the Bible as God intended, with eyes fixed on Jesus from beginning to end.

The Bible is one great story. It begins in a garden, it climaxes at a cross, and it ends in a new creation where every tear will be wiped away. Our hope is that The Saviour Unveiled will help children begin to see that story for themselves, to marvel at the Saviour it reveals, and to place their trust in Him.