I recently heard a Christmas sermon which purported to offer a broad overview of the Biblical story leading up to Jesus. Unfortunately, this sermon was flawed in ways which are very typical of evangelical Christendom.
The sermon began well enough by describing the goodness of God’s creation. But the pastor focused only upon the fellowship humans enjoyed with God in the Garden of Eden. Humanity’s relationship with God was presented, so to speak, in a vacuum. But this detached treatment of the divine-human interface is completely foreign to the writers of the Bible. This sermon predictably failed to address the fundamental purpose of humankind: to reflect the image of God & govern the creation wisely so that the world might flourish.
The scriptures cannot be fully grasped if our relationship to God is severed from our responsibility to exercise dominion over his creation. Evangelicals too often treat God & humankind like two astronauts floating about in space, either remaining happily connected to each other or tragically drifting apart. But this tendency makes it impossible to understand the full nature of both sin & salvation.
Far too many Christians think about sin purely as something which severs the divine-human relationship. But a full understanding of sin must account for our vital role in God’s creation. Sin is best described as the corruption of God’s good purposes for his world. When humans fail to reflect God’s image, the result is not just alienation from God but the ruination of his world. And these consequences are inextricably connected. Humans become estranged from God precisely because God will not allow us to continue destroying both ourselves and the creation over which we’ve been given authority.
When sin is reduced to merely alienation from God, then our grasp of salvation is pulled out of shape as well. Consider those ubiquitous evangelistic pamphlets portraying the human predicament: God & humanity are on opposite sides of a yawning chasm. The chasm symbolizes our sin which has alienated us from a holy & righteous God. We are rescued by the cross of Jesus which bridges the canyon. Those who place their “faith” in Jesus (defined as belief or trust) receive the forgiveness of sins, thereby restoring relationship with God. The end result is that when we die we will go to “heaven” to enjoy eternal life in God’s presence.
The problem with such gospel presentations is not so much that they’re wrong but that they’re woefully incomplete. Of course, forgiveness & reconciliation are essential parts of salvation. But salvation requires the restoration of God’s original purposes. Human beings must be re-made in the image of God, exercising dominion over the creation in accordance with the divine wisdom so that the world might become a wonderful place of eternal joy, peace, abundance & life.
The New Testament repeatedly affirms that Jesus is the true human being, the one who perfectly reflects the image of God. “The Son is the image of the invisible God…” (Colossians 1:15) “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…” (Hebrews 1:1) Our salvation is not complete until we have become models of Jesus himself, imitating our Lord in thought, word & deed. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers & sisters…” (Romans 8:29)
The scriptures promise that when humans have been restored to the image of God in Christ, the whole creation will rescued as well: “The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration…in the hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom that comes when God’s children are glorified.” (Romans 8:19-21) For Paul, human rebellion didn’t just alienate us from God. Rather, it caused the entire creation to go off track. And the brokenness of the world will only be undone when humans once again perfectly imitate their Maker.
This larger framework of sin & salvation is quite foreign to evangelical churches. This is very unfortunate, because it causes evangelicals to ignore crucial parts of the Bible. For example, the pastor I recently heard categorized the Biblical story as having four basic stages: creation, fall, rescue & restoration. But the fall was correlated only with Genesis 3, the moment when humans disobey God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil, thereby fracturing the divine-human relationship.
But for the author of Genesis, the fall extends well beyond just the eating of the forbidden fruit. In fact, Genesis 3 through 11 is a cohesive literary unit which explores in depth the rebellion of humanity against God & the resulting corruption of the creation. True, our broken relationship with God is at the heart of the narrative. But precisely because of our key role & responsibility as image bearers, our alienation from God has much wider ramifications. Genesis 3-11 demonstrates how, when we break faith with God, everything else unravels. Sin corrupts marriage, the most intimate of human relationships. It destroys the close family bonds which God designed to sustain us through life. It shatters the fellowship we might otherwise enjoy with the wider human community. Sin even affects the animal kingdom & the inanimate world.
Limiting the fall to merely one part of Genesis 3 is a mistake which is hardly surprising, given the evangelical tendency to isolate our relationship with God from our vocation to govern God’s world. This error causes many people to grossly misunderstand the nature of sin. Many folks think of God as a heavenly bureaucrat who has a long list of arbitrary rules. Life is then like an unpleasant visit to your local Department of Motor Vehicles. If you break the rules, you’ll incur the wrath of the chief bureaucrat and may suffer the consequences.
But when we understand our key role in God’s purposes, the nature of sin becomes far more clear and compelling. God gave us sovereignty over his creation so that the world might flourish. When we fail to reflect the divine image, our sin has destructive effects upon both ourselves, the people around us and the world in which we live. When seen in this light, sin is no longer a list of arbitrary rules meant to satisfy the grouchy bureaucrat at the DMV. Rather, God’s commands are the roadmap to a life of joy. Our heavenly father has given us clear guardrails intended to keep us from harm.
Grasping this larger picture also allows us to comprehend the fully nature of salvation. Salvation cannot be reduced to an abstract reconciliation between God & humans, however important that might be. Sin ruins absolutely everything. It doesn’t spare any aspect of the human experience. God’s remedy must address the all-encompassing reality of sin. If the creation is to be completely healed, God must reverse sin’s destructive effects upon individuals, marriage, sexuality, family and community.
When this perspective is recognized, it become logically impossible to exclude altered human behavior from salvation. God’s purposes simply cannot be achieved by passive belief (“faith”) alone; they require human beings who perfectly imitate Jesus the Messiah.
This framework also transcends the highly individualistic notions of salvation which pervade evangelical churches. It is true that each & every person must one day stand before God’s judgment seat and give account of themselves. But we should not forget that the healing of God’s world requires the restoration of human community. The church is not simply a collection of individuals who each stand in right relationship with God. Rather, it is the new humanity, characterized by love of God & neighbor, resulting in justice, peace & harmony between all peoples. The church is the company of God’s people who will one day inherit the earth. The division, enmity and violence of the present age will be left behind.
This is the first in a series of blogs focusing on Genesis 3-11. Yes, the fall begins with disobedience in the Garden, fracturing the divine-human relationship. But it certainly does not end there. The sad consequences of human rebellion ramify outwards like ripples in a pond.
This section contains some very ugly & disturbing material. We shall see how the partnership of marriage devolves into rivalry & contention. We shall witness how Cain murders his own brother Abel. We’ll hear the boast of a homicidal, polygamous & vengeful man named Lamech. We will encounter a world so full of bloodshed that God determines to wipe the slate clean. And finally, we shall see God’s decision to scatter prideful humanity which seeks divine blessing on its own terms.
This challenging material should not be ignored. It didn’t find it’s way into the Bible by accident. Rather, God has providentially given us these accounts. There’re vital for comprehending the story of the scriptures. For only by grasping the full extent of evil & wickedness can we clearly understand the greatness of God’s rescue.
