God with Us is a unique way to read the four Gospels and reengage with the story of Jesus. It contains the biography and teachings of Jesus woven together into a single narrative of redemption from the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Using only the text from the New Living Translation, this book allows you to hear the distinct voices of the Gospel writers in a unified telling. God with Us crystallizes the story of Jesus, amplifies his life-changing message, and clarifies the gift of salvation. It is a reading experience unlike any other.
The authors of the four Gospels did not set out to arrange all their material chronologically. The events are often topically arranged for their intended audiences. The synoptic Gospels (from the Greek word synoptikos, meaning “seen together” or “the common view”)—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—are often thought to provide essentially the same information, just arranged differently by the three different writers. This is an incomplete picture, however, given the large amount of text that is unique to each of the Gospels.
To obtain a complete picture of the Gospels, they must be read collectively and in proper context. God with Us provides a unique opportunity to read the Gospels in that manner as a single story, allowing readers to see the fuller picture of Jesus. It is important to note that this work makes no claim to be an absolute authority on the chronology of Jesus’ life and ministry. There are sometimes very limited clues between the four accounts that serve as guides, and there is often no way to be certain, except where an aspect of chronology is made clear by the writers. This represents our best attempt at presenting a probable ordering of events.