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Here is a draft of a brief message on 1 Thes 5:1-11:
1 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

What is the difference between good teams and great teams? The best teams know the winning formula. In soccer, Manchester United is world renowned for coming up with huge goals late in games when lesser sides would have folded and accepted defeat. In the NFL, the New England Patriots have demonstrated consistently for more than a decade the ability to win the biggest games often by the slimmest of margins. In the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers led by superstar Kobe Bryant have won championship after championship. All of these teams across the sports spectrum share a key trait that undergirds their success: they all expect to win. They play confidently. They know that they will experience challenges and adversity, but they face such times with the assumption that they will prevail. Basketball legend and six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan has said, “I felt that I had that winner mentality instilled in me….”

The key to courageous living for Christ is cultivating a deep-seated confidence that in the end love wins. God’s mission to establish his eternal reign of healing, hope, reconciliation, justice, and mercy is a done deal. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has secured the future for good. But hardships and tribulations remain for the present. Paul’s message today is simple. We are destined to win. We need to believe this. We need to embrace this. We need to live this out before a watching world.

In our Scripture lesson, Paul moves to wrap up his First Letter to the Thessalonians by affirming our hope in Jesus Christ. Paul writes to remind the earliest Christians in Thessalonica that the future is securely in God’s hands. This truth is the grounding for living fully for God in our daily lives.

The future is absolutely secure. God will bring human history to a decisive and just end. The biblical promises and metaphors of an eternal era of peace and righteousness will come to fruition. God’s victory through Jesus’ death and resurrection has paved the way for the future of God’s dreams. Paul’s teaching in our Scripture lesson assumes this.

Perhaps surprisingly Paul opens his exhortations with a stern warning against the temptation to focus on trying to figure the time and season of God’s climactic actions. History has proven Paul’s words to be necessary and applicable throughout the ages. The security of the future is good news. But knowing the day and hour is unnecessary and irrelevant. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus said, “But about that day and hour no one knows neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (24:36). Yet rather than reflecting deep on the security of knowing that the God’s ultimate victory is a done deal, many focus instead on trying to figure out when the end will occur. The obsession with figuring out the times and seasons leads to disappointment when human predictions prove wrong and loss of focus on doings God’s work in the world today. It is enough for us as followers of Christ to know that human history is moving toward a remarkably good and just future.

So what is the purpose of Paul’s focus on the coming of Jesus at the end of days? Paul desires for us to live profound and courageous lives as his people before a watching world. The message of our secure future is meant for encouraging and building us up so that we can serve as vital witnesses to the power of the Gospel in the presnt. To this end he gives a two-fold positive exhortation.

First, in light of our secure future, Paul says, “Be ready.” Rather than working to figure out when the end will arrive, Paul suggests a different approach. We are to live each day with the assumption that Christ may come. How would our lives be different if we truly thought that today might be the last day of the present age? How would our priorities be different? How would we spend our resources? How would we divide up our time? Paul declares that our lives must be lived with a sense of urgency. Now is not the time for complacency or resting on our laurels. The Gospel is humanity’s only true hope. Each of us has a role to play in advancing God’s mission of extending his blessing, grace, and mercy to all. To be ready is to live each day with no regrets because we gave our all for the sake of the Gospel. Paul uses the metaphors of light/darkness and sobriety/drunkenness to capture the mood.

Second, Paul says, “Live well.” This is not a prosperity message. Paul is not calling us to affluence and security in the present. Paul is calling us to a life lived well for the sake of the Gospel. We are children of the day. Therefore Paul deploys the familiar triad of faith, love, and hope. In verse 8, Paul describes these as armor. Paul is under no illusion that the Christian life is easy. Yes, our future is absolutely secure¬—Jesus died for us so that we may abide with him now and forever. But we will continue to face hardships, persecution, and challenges. Such times serve as opportunities for offering a profound witness for the Gospel. We are not to shrink back in fear but to shine like stars on a dark night (Phil 2:15).

No matter the score, by the end of the fourth quarter, God’s love will prevail. This is the hope that Paul announces. Now is no time for clock watching or for computing how much time is left. Rather we are to be ready daily and live fully for God’s mission in our day. Let us live courageously by faith, be known to the world by love, and serve tangibly as voices of hope to others who desperately need what only the Gospel can provide. Amen.

Here is a draft of some reflections on Philippians 2:1-13

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Ours is an age of self-promotion and radical individualism. Emerging generations have been tuned to assume the rightness of personal expression and autonomy. Focus on self in all of its glory is the expected norm of our culture. Yet none of this is new. Deep within us is a desire to control, to exert our own will, and to exalt ourselves over others. Some of us may be overt in expressing this; others may be more subtle or even passive-aggressive. But it is present nonetheless. In his devotional My Utmost for His Highest Oswald Chambers sublimely defines the nature of sin as “my claim to my right to myself.”

The apostle Paul is writing to encourage the Christ followers in Philippi to live lives worthy of the Gospel as citizens of heaven (1:27; 3:20). In our Scripture lesson, Paul opens with a series of “if” statements to capture the imagination of his hearers and to remind them of the tangible benefits of following the way of Jesus. Paul assumes that the Philippians have indeed experienced encouragement, consolation, sharing in the Spirit, compassion, and sympathy. He lists these out as a means of exhorting the Philippians to aspire for a higher life, but profoundly the way to a higher life is intimately tied to turning away from our own desires for status in favor of the life modeled by the Lord Jesus. Paul calls on the Philippians to “make my joy complete” and then sketches out an ethic that is other-centered, promotes unity, and tangibly embodies the same self-less intentionality that Jesus brought to his earthly mission.

To illustrate this life Paul includes in his letter a poetic hymn about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The poetry of verses 6–11 serves to unpack what it means to embody the “same mind that was in Christ Jesus” (v. 5).

First, Jesus’ life calls us to move from a life of exploiting our own rights to one in which we are willing to relinquish our rights for the sake of God’s mission. Jesus’ incarnation is the model. Verse 6 is perhaps the most profound text in all of the New Testament. It reminds us of Jesus’ mindset in embracing his humanity: “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.” Jesus enjoyed all of the prerogatives and status that belong to the divine. But in the ultimate counter-cultural move, Jesus subverts all human notions of what divinity entails and fully embraces our humanity. This is the essence of Jesus’ self-emptying. He willingly sets aside the status and rights of being God and instead takes on our flesh and blood for the sake of God’s mission to offer healing, hope, wholeness and reconciliation to all Creation. As we ponder God’s mission in our day, this text invites us to think carefully about what rights and notions of status that we need to let go of in order to live fully as the people whom God created us to be.

Second, Jesus’ life calls us to move from a focus on self-preservation to a life shaped by the cross. There is a line that marks the demarcation point between bondage and freedom. It’s the difference between the life that God calls us to live and the status quo existence of the masses. The cross is the key. It wasn’t merely that Jesus was obedient to the point of death–it was that Jesus willingly embraced death on the cross. Crucifixion was reserved only for slaves and rebels against Rome. The Son of God died a death associated with persons of the lowest status. If we want to lives that demand explanation, we must die up front to self and our notions of status so that we can truly live.

Last, Jesus’ life points clearly to the paradox of sacrifice. In God’s economy, you gain life by losing it. You receive by giving. The highest calling is servanthood. Our temptation in life is to pursue endlessly our fifteen minutes of fame. Too many among us grieve over our perceived anonymity as though a life of profound meaning and worth is found only in receiving the acclaim of others. Abraham Lincoln said, “Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.”
The lesson here is simple: let God exalt you. God the Father responds to Jesus’ obedience by “super exalting him.”  Jesus was already God, but this text asserts that God has given him the name that is above all names. How did Jesus reach this pinnacle? Not by self-promotion. Not by asking for it. But through the life of a servant who was fully obedient to God’s mission in the world.

Paul concludes with a powerful exhortation to a cross centered life lived out in community. In verses 12-13, Paul roots the power to live in a Christ worthy manner in God. It is God who works in us. But God’s transforming power is subtle in the sense that it requires receptivity. It is not a call for us to try harder, but rather for us to die more fully to our old modes of existence. Moreover Paul’s concluding words are addressed not to individuals alone but to a community of Christ followers. The way of Jesus is not a solitary existence but one embodied in community. This is the point of Paul’s letter. The world needs to experience the reality of the Gospel. For the believers in Philippi, this meant a unified witness for the sake of the city. I suspect that Paul would give the same exhortation to us in our day.

The Ethics of God’s New Missional Community

In our understanding of God’s people we have continually used this definition: God’s people are a missional community that reflects God’s character to/for/in the nations. In the stories of Genesis 12–50, it is easy to see mission and community, but what about character and holiness? In the above section, we have recognized the importance of God’s faithfulness to his promises as a key theme. This included observing times when God is faithful despite the actions of God’s people.
Genesis 12–50 is fundamentally about God’s faithfulness in the progress of his mission to bring blessing to the world through Abraham, but there are clear hints of the expectation by God of a distinct conduct and lifestyle for the success of God’s mission.

In Genesis 17, God cuts a covenant with Abraham in which God gives the rite of circumcision. The chapter opens, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him, saying, ‘I am God Almighty; walk continually before me and be blameless. I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly multiple your numbers” (Gen 17:1-2). Genesis 17 is a significant moment in Abram’s life because God gives him the new name Abraham to signify a new epoch in his life and by cutting an explicit covenant with Abraham. These opening verses raise an expectation of a lifestyle that is congruent with God’s character. The combination of “walk” (Heb: hlk) and “blameless” (Heb: tmym) occurs elsewhere in the Pentateuch to describe Noah, “This is the story of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the peoples of his day, and he walked continually with God” (Gen 6:9).

Genesis 17 does not give detailed information about what was expected of Abraham. The only regulation mentioned in Genesis 17 is the necessity for future generations to circumcise all males within their households. Otherwise, we must wait for the Sinai Covenant (Exodus 19:1–Num 10:10) to encounter specific ethical and cultic regulations. As we discovered in the previous section the emphasis in the book of Genesis is on God’s faithfulness. The next passage however serves to establish further the force of God’s exhortation:
“Then the LORD spoke, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him that he may guide his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him” (Gen 18:17-19).

God is poised to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wickedness found in those cities. Due to his relationship with Abraham, God reveals his intentions. In response, Abraham will intercede successfully on behalf of his nephew Lot (18:22-33). With the negative example of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah in the immediate context, verses 17-19 clearly present a contrast between God’s expectations for Abraham and the lifestyle/ethos of Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, this verse establishes an expectation that part of Abraham’s vocation was to “guide” his children in the way of the Lord. This clearly suggests that Abraham was to instill an ethic of faithful obedience into his household.

This text is critical for understanding the interconnectivity between mission, holiness, and community. In this context we clearly see all three elements. Abraham’s family (community) was to embody a distinct ethos (holiness) as part of embodying the promise of serving as a blessing for all nations.
Genesis 22:16-18 “[The angel of the LORD] said, ‘I swear by myself, utters the LORD, that because you have done this—you have not withheld your only son, indeed I will truly bless you and expand the number of your offspring so that they are as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the grains of sand on the seashore. Moreover your offspring will inherit the gate of their enemies and all nations of the earth will find blessing for themselves in your offspring because you heeded my voice.’”
Abraham’s willingness to follow God’s command to sacrifice Isaac epitomizes faithful obedience. This text embodies the tension between God’s promises as unconditional and the necessity of human response. In the context, we need to read God’s words to Abraham as an affirmation of his faithful obedience. God already promised Abraham all of the things included in the text. It is clear that Abraham’s obedience was not the cause of the God’s promises, but Abraham’s obedience points the way forward for God’s people. It is the desired response to God’s prior grace.

Genesis 26:2 The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land about which I am speaking to you. 3 Live in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your offspring I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to Abraham, your father. 4 I will multiply your descendants as though they are the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will find blessing, 5 because Abraham heeded my voice and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws.”

In Genesis 26:2-5, God directly extends to Isaac the promises initiated with Abraham. God’s appearance occurs during a time of famine and serves to assure Isaac of God’s presence with him lest Isaac flee to Egypt. Verse five is critical for our reflection on the ethics of Israel’s ancestors. God cites Abraham’s obedience as the basis for renewing the promises for Isaac. God promises Isaac land, many descendants, and the mission of serving as an instrument of blessing. Abraham’s willingness to heed or listen to God’s voice functions as the model for Isaac to follow. Obedience enhances the ability of God’s people to advance God’s mission in the world.

In Genesis 39, Joseph models faithful obedience despite his circumstances. By Genesis 39, Joseph is serving as a slave in Egypt in the household of Potiphar an officer under the Egyptian Pharaoh. The narrator describes Joseph as handsome. His good looks attract the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife. Joseph resists her by asserting his faithfulness in serving as a steward for Potiphar. Moreover in verse 9 he adds, “How can I do this great evil and sin against God?” Joseph’s goal is witness. He will not act in ways that dishonor God. This is the essence of a holiness rooted in mission. Joseph understood that his actions directly impacted the way that others would perceive his god.

We don’t want to over-interpret these passages, but the implications are clear: holiness matters. Faithful obedience enhances the missional success of the people of God. Too much is at stake in God’s mission to disregard this aspect. Scholars often debate a key question about the Abrahamic covenant: Is it conditional or unconditional? Perhaps the best answer is, “Yes.” God’s call of Abraham and his descendants is certainly an unconditional offer of promise and blessing. God offers unmerited favor and promises to Abraham. Yet, this unconditional offer nonetheless requires a human response to enact it. Genesis 12–50 is more interested in demonstrating the grace and faithfulness of the LORD who called the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the necessity of a holy community is clearly implicit and adumbrates a more thorough treatment beginning in the book of Exodus.

What do you think?

© 2010 Brian D. Russell

Here is another draft/snippet from my forthcoming book (re)aligning with God.

Genesis 3 marks the watershed moment in humanity’s walk with God. Before Gen 3, men and women enjoyed endlessly open and free relationships with God, the created world, and one another. They lived in the world described and assumed by Genesis 1:1–2:25. Genesis 3:1–7 narrates the disastrous conversation between Eve, Adam, and the serpent. Bonhoeffer’s calls this encounter the “first conversation about God.” This is a sublime observation. The root of humanity’s rebellion is the idolatrous objectification of God. In Genesis 2, humanity freely conversed with God. In Genesis 3, God moves from subject to object. The serpent tempts Eve and Adam. At issue is the trustworthiness of God. The serpent denies that God can be trusted. Humanity needs to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because God is intentionally withholding something good and desirable from humanity. In essence, the existential question faced by Eve is this one: Do I trust that God has my best interests at heart? This is the fundament question that all people face. In the context of Genesis 1–3, God has demonstrated his trustworthiness and care for humanity by providing a idyllic setting in Eden, abundant food, authentic relationships between men and women, purposeful vocation as keepers of creation and regents of the Creator, and unfettered access to himself. God has gifted humanity with access to all sources of food except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This exception serves as the only prohibition that God gives to humanity. Otherwise humanity is endlessly free to fulfill God’s creation affirming mandates. Yet it is the prohibition against eating the fruit of a single tree that serves as the impetus for the temptation facing Eve and Adam. Thus from the beginning humanity’s sin and rebellion against God is irrational and astonishing given God’s kindness and grace to humanity. Humanity was supposed to exercise dominion over the created world, but instead allows a serpent to usurp authority and lead the first man and woman away from the Creator God. In the conversation with the serpent, God becomes an object rather than the subject of a moment-by moment-relationship. Trust is broken. Apart from dependence on and trust in God, humanity goes its own way and eats the forbidden fruit. The effects are tectonic. Adam and Eve feel the breech immediately. Their new knowledge illuminates only their own nudity for which they feel shame. They hide from God.

In the aftermath of their decision, God comes looking for his prized creation. God does not hide from humanity; humanity hides from God. This is the profound irony of sin. Adam and Eve attempt to reach beyond their creaturely status and tragically fall well below the potential for which they were crafted. Their decision to eat from the tree causes immediate breeches in their relational web. They have already experienced their own nakedness and the separation that they now sense between their once naked and one-flesh bodies. Their unfettered access to God becomes a liability as they are fearful at the once welcomed sound of God’s approach. Yet the first words out of the Creator’s mouth are “Where are you?” (3:9) God’s response to sin is an immediate attempt to re-engage humanity relationally. this line demonstrates God’s continued engagement with humanity despite their disobedience. God doesn’t withdraw from Creation – he goes looking for his lost people. The verb used for God’s pursuit of humanity is qr’ “called.” The Lord calls out to a humanity that has alienated itself through its actions.

Humanity’s rebellion has consequences (Gen 3:14-24). God draws out of Adam and Eve the details of their conversation with the serpent and their actions. The serpent is downgraded from its high place in the animal world to a creature, which will henceforth craw about on its belly. Adam and Eve will face a daunting new world. Their vocation of filling the earth will now by complicated by painful childbirth and the relational brokenness. Gen 3:16 describes a new power dynamic between the sexes. No longer will the relationship be rooted in mutuality. Men and women will focus on issues of power and attempt to dominate one another. Humanity also will experience the created world as an adversary. Humanity will toil over the earth to maintain life. Easy access to food and sustenance ends. The climax of sin’s consequences is humanity’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Access to the tree of life and immortality ends for all people from Adam and Eve onwards. As Paul will pen years later, “…through one man sin entered into the world and through sin came death. Thus death spread through all humanity because all have sinned” (Rom 5:12).

A missional reading or hermeneutic recognizes the devastating effects of human sin on God’s creational design. However, it also highlights the character of God in response to Adam and Eve’s transgression. We have already observed that God pursues humanity in the aftermath of the garden. God does not speak words of condemnation, but rather calls out to humanity, “Where are you?” One of the distinctive features of the divine–human relationship is the capacity for verbal communication. This does not end with the entrance of sin. The relationship between God and humanity has changed, but verbal revelation remains. Moreover Gen 3:21 records an additional act of God’s grace and mercy. The immediate result of Adam and Eve’s consumption of the fruit of the forbidden tree was the sudden realization of their own nakedness. This marks the irony of their disobedience. They were seeking wisdom and instead discover nakedness through their folly. They move from “naked and unashamed” in chapter two to “naked and ashamed” in their heightened awareness. Yet, instead of leaving them exposed and humiliated, God kindly provides a suitable covering for the man and woman. God’s love and compassion for humanity, even when men and women are at their worst, will remain a hallmark of God’s character and actions. It serves as a model for God’s people as we seek to engage the world with the Gospel.

What do you think?

© 2010 Brian D. Russell

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missional hermeneutics
missional hermeneutic
book of Genesis

Genesis 1:26-31 announces the sublime reality that humanity has been forged in the image of God. It is fascinating to reflect on the communal implications of humanity’s creation. Community seems to be an important aspect of what it means to be created in God’s image. Here are some of my initial thoughts:

Persons in Community

1) Humanity exists in community from the beginning. Genesis 1 portrays a humanity created specifically as a community of men and women. The image of God is defined in the context of community. It is not solitary man or woman. It is reflected in the communal life of women and men together. The beauty of Genesis 2:4-25 is its insistence that “it is not good for the man to be alone” (2:18). The end of this story is a beautiful portrait of intimacy and embrace.

2) The imago dei trumps issues of sexual differentiation among people. So God created humanity in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them (v. 27). Male and female equally and fully reflect the image of God. There is no sense of subordination here. There are no limits placed on the extent to which either man or woman can function in God’s mission. Being fully human implies that we function as God’s representatives on earth. The tensions between the sexes that we experience in our day are absent in this text as well as in the second creation narrative (2:4-25). In fact, in Genesis 2:18 the woman is described as “helper” (Heb ‘ezer). This word has been misunderstood as a title of subservience in the sense of “helpmate”. Yet in the Old Testament it is the LORD who often carries the title of “helper.” The woman as the helper reminds us that man alone is incapable of fulfilling God’s mission (Gen 2:15). God’s mission requires men and women serving together in community.

Male and female are presented as complements to one another. They each bear the divine image and thus were created to reflect equally the character of God to all of Creation. Tensions and issues of domination and inequality are not the Creator’s original plan. In fact, root of the attempts of both men and women to dominate rather than serve one another lies in humanity’s disobedience rather than in God’s creational intentions. This reality implies that one aspect of God’s saving work ought to be the renewal of authentic relationships of mutuality and genuine intimacy between men and women. The empowered community of God’s people, male and female, serves together for the sake of God’s mission.

3) The imago dei is not limited only to certain humans. An Egyptian text from ca. 2050 BC entitled “Instruction Addressed to King Merikare” reads:

Well tended is mankind – god’s cattle,
He made sky and earth for their sake…
He made breath for their noses to live.
They are his images, who came from his body…
He made for them plants and cattle,
Fowl and fish to feed them…
When they weep he hears…
For god knows every name (Lichtheim, AEL 1:106)

What is remarkable about this Egyptian text is that it is a rare example from the Near East in which humans as a whole are valued. It is more typical to devalue people as slaves of the gods or, if image language is used, it is deployed only in reference to a great King. Our biblical text however places no limits on the scope of the term. It applies equally to all persons, male or female. The implications of this cannot be overstated in our world today. Racial tensions, ethnic squabbling, and dangerous explosions of nationalism continue to remind us of the deep divisions that exist among those whom God has created to bear his image. This reality continues to be reflected in our communities of faith. Yet, Paul clearly saw the reality of a new humanity in Jesus that reflects our Creator’s original plan:

NRS Galatians 3:28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

In Christ, the truly human one, The import of this truth is crucial for a correct orientation toward humanity. All persons are born in the image of God. This means that each person carries intrinsic value in the order of creation. Each human has the potential to live out God’s creational purposes. The scope of our missiological focus then is universal. We cannot pick and choose worthy recipients for the Gospel message. All are worthy because all bear the image of God. Chris Wright reminds us, “Mission is not primarily to Hindus and Muslims, but to people in God’s image to whom God can speak and who stand before God in his judgement and mercy.”

Last, this truth speaks a word against the degradation and continued devaluing of human life in our country and world. Every person is born with an intrinsic value in the eyes of God. Every life has a wealth of potential. Every person lost to starvation, violence, and disease represents a loss to the wider human family. The Church needs to take this truth seriously in its embodiment of God’s mission.

4) Creation in the image of God seems to be the basis for the special relationship that is forged between the Creator God and humanity. It is clear from the biblical witness that the whole world belongs to God and that God cares for all creation. Yet, it is worth pondering that it is to the newly created humanity alone with whom God converses at length. God’s blessing (vv. 28-30) is direct address and suggests that humans have the capacity to act according to God’s wishes. Humans are empowered to rule over the animal world and subdue it. Subdue should not be equated with unjust dominance or abuse. Genesis 2:4-25 helps to emphasize this point. We find God conversing with his newly created man and working together to name animals. Man is to till the earth. The implication here is that humanity is to start with what God has created and build upon it.

What do you think?

© 2010 Brian D. Russell

Why the Fall Matters?

1) The biblical witness offers a basis for understanding the presence of both good and evil in humanity. Genesis 1-11 describes the potential and pitfalls of women and men as persons created in the image of the Creator God. Humanity was crafted as the pinnacle of the creation and as the center of the myriad of relationship built into the created order by God. Women and men were created to serve as a missional community that reflects God’s character to, for, and in Creation. But now in the aftermath of sin and rebellion, God’s creational intentions for humanity are shattered, but the potential remains. People still intrinsically long to be the people that they were created to be and occasionally women and men commit astonishing acts of goodness and generosity. The biblical story can thus account for the goodness and kindness in our world based on the vestiges of God’s image in humanity as we suggested based on texts such as Ps 8. But the final verdict on humanity is its lostness.

2) Creation itself is marred. Humanity was created to serve as stewards and caretakers of the created world. Post-Gen 3, there now exists an enmity between humanity and the earth it was commanded to keep and fill. One of the hot button issues of our day is concern over the depletion of the earth’s resources and abuse of the environment. These texts call us to remember humanity’s original mandate of dominion over the earth. There is no warrant for the deification of the earth at the expense of humanity as is prevalent in much of the environmental thinking of the political left in the West, but there is likewise no warrant for the abuse of the earth as though this world does not matter. The biblical faith is a worldly one in the sense that the focus of the biblical story is our present world in anticipation of its recreation. Salvation is not an escape from the earth, but rather it is a return to the realities of Eden.

Paul reminds us of God’s intention to redeem even the world in Romans 8:18-23:

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

3) All life and ministry on this side of the final consummation of history in the creation of a New Heavens and a New Earth will occur within the reality described in Gen 3-11. The biblical narrative assumes this. We lose sight of this reality at our own peril. There is room for a profound optimism because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but every person has the capacity for the destructive and life-denying patterns witnessed to in Gen 3-11. There is no room for a naïve hope that the “good in people” will have the last word. We can’t simply “be good for goodness sake.”

4) God’s mission recalibrates in response to the rebellion of humanity and brokenness of the “very good” world that God originally created. God’s mission shifts to work for the salvation of a fallen world and of a lost humanity. If there is to be a continuance of God’s mission that began in Creation, God will be the driver. Humanity on its own has shown itself to be incapable of serving as the missional community that God created women and men to be. In these chapters, God sets in motion the initial reverberations of his desire to redeem creation. As we reflect on mission in the 21st century, it is vital to hold together the need to reach lost people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but it is likewise missional to work for the good of the creation as a whole. There is no dichotomy between personal evangelism and social justice. A biblical view of mission does not pull asunder these dimensions. One of the tragedies of 20th century evangelicalism was its surrender of social justice issues to the theologically liberal wings of the Church. The Old Testament affirms the importance of the created world and missional thinking in the 21st century must return to a full orbed understanding of mission. Likewise, we must not make the opposite mistake of emphasizing social justice to the neglect of reaching lost people with the Gospel. Beginning in Genesis 3, God’s mission entails the redemption of humanity in all of its individual and social dimensions and of creation itself.

5) The “good news” of Gen 3-11 is that God the Creator of the “very good” heavens and earth commits to the redemption of creation rather than the option of uncreation. The Flood Story is about partial uncreation and recreation. Even in the judgment on humanity’s sin, God saves Noah, his family, and enough species of animals to replenish the earth post-Flood. The first explicit biblical covenant serves to guarantee the future of Creation presumably regardless of humanity’s ongoing wickedness. The future is secure because God guarantees it. God’s love for humanity and the world that he created is not stated explicitly. But the beginnings of God’s mission to bring salvation adumbrate the ultimate tangible demonstration of God’s love in the sending of the Son into the world.

6) Genesis 3-11 ends with hope that God will indeed achieve his creational aims. The Tower of Babel does not end in the destruction of humanity. Instead, humanity has now filled the earth. This is ironic because humanity on its own terms had chosen to centralize to build a tower to the heavens, but God scattered them around the globe (see Table of Nations in Gen 10). Thus God responds to human sin by partially fulfilling his creational intentions for humanity. God now has creatures created in his image scattered throughout the world. This is good news. But how will humanity ever function as God’s visible and tangible representatives? This will involve the creation of a new human community: the people of God. This lineage will begin with the call of Abram. The missional God of the Scripture is on the move.

What do you think?

© 2009 Brian D. Russell