Yes, Virginia, there is a metanarrative

[T]he Christian gospel is not primarily about having one’s sins forgiven and spending a blissful eternity with God after somehow getting through this life with one’s faith reasonably intact. This view, which I do not hesitate to call heretical, is the result of a misreading of the New Testament. If a person constantly reads the New Testament in the light of the Old, which the Church Fathers clearly intended by their joining of the two in one canon, then it becomes unmistakably clear what the purpose of the Gospel is. It is the same purpose that God has had from Genesis 4 onwards: the transformation of human behavior in this world with the consequent possibility of living with God through all eternity.— Called to be Holy, page 3

<idle musing>
Today we begin excerpting from a new—really an old!—book. I had John Oswalt as a professor in seminary, way back when. He would start classes with prayer, but it wasn't just a rote, do-it-because-we-have-to kind of prayer. He would pause before praying, and you could feel the presence of God fill the room. Then he would pray. I can sense that same spirit of waiting on God in this book.

I think this is one of the best expositions on Christian holiness that I've read. I encourage you to think about what you read in the excerpts from this book over the course of the next few weeks. Prayerfully consider what he says—maybe even pick up a copy of the book (I got mine via inter-library loan) and read the whole thing...

In the overworked (at least on this blog) words of Augustine: Tolle! Lege!
</idle musing>