Dane Ortlund, Senior Editor in the Bible division at Crossway Books, recently asked Bible scholars and pastors to summarize the message of the Bible in one sentence. He received a few dozen reponses. I think the most thorough response came from Professor Greg Beale; although he stretched his “one sentence” a bit,
The OT storyline appears best to be summarized as: the historical story of God who progressively reestablishes his new creational kingdom out of chaos over a sinful people by his word and Spirit through promise, covenant, and redemption, resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to extend that new creation rule and resulting in judgment for the unfaithful (defeat and exile), all of which issues into his glory; the NT storyline can be summarized as: Jesus’ life of covenantal obedience, trials, judgmental death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit has launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already-and-not-yet promised new creation reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to extend this new creation rule and resulting in judgment for the unfaithful, unto God’s glory.
If I were a dying sinner, I would prefer Andreas Kostenberger’s summary which was to quote John 3:16, “God so loved the world that the gave his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
You can read the other answers at Dane Ortlund’s blog.
Have there been attempts to summarize the Quran in one sentence?
The Koran in a sentence: Praise Allah because he demands it and kill everyone who is not a Muslim because they deserve it for not believing in Allah who commands Muslims kill whomever is not Muslim.
Not only is this a summary but it gives you a feeling of the puerile and prosaic nature of the thought and repetitiveness of the Koran.