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Here is installment two of the Lecture “Holiness and the Mission of the People of God” See below for part one.

How Can We reengage with this vision in our day?
I think that it begins with a rediscovery of the biblical message itself in general and a fresh reading of Old Testament in particular. I want to begin at the beginning and allow the Scriptures themselves to map out God’s vision for God’s people. The Bible seeks to convert us out of our own parochial self-interests to its own perspective.

Let me raise our initial question again:
What if following Jesus Christ were the only true means of unleashing all of the talents, passions, and gifts that God implanted in us at our Creation and of living an unbelievable life in which we fulfill our true destiny as human beings?

Rooted in Creation
I hope it is not a surprise to you that I am rooting my answer to this question primarily in the Pentateuch (Genesis – Exodus). Of course, part of this is simply the result of the limits of time. But most importantly, I believe that we can rediscover the true message and importance of God’s call to holiness of heart and life only when we capture an overarching sense of God’s intentions for Creation and for His people both corporately and individually. The Pentateuch or the Torah serves as God’s authoritative instructions for how the redeemed nation of Israel was to conduct itself in the midst of the nations who were to be the ultimate recipients of God’s blessing (e.g., Gen 12:1-3; Isa 49:6). Thus, if we can gain a sense of the beginning part of Scripture, we can better understand how we as followers of Israel’s Messiah – Jesus Christ – are to live and embody God’s purposes in our day.

Please turn with me to Genesis 1:26-31

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground– everything that has the breath of life in it– I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning– the sixth day.

Genesis 1:26-31 brings the Creation story to a climax by describing the creation of humanity in the image of God. It is clear from a careful reading of Genesis 1:1-2:3 that its author intends to declare that the creation of humanity marks the pinnacle of God’s creative work. It is only after God fashions humanity - male and female - that He assesses his work as “very good” (v. 31). Until the creation of humanity and throughout the first five days, God had used the adjective “good” to describe his handiwork. With the creation of humanity, all Creation is elevated to “very good” status.

The image of God or imago dei has received much treatment through the millennia. This text has rightly been recognized for its importance, but it tends to be an overinterpreted text due to its own lack of detail. Readers rightly desire to know the precise and specific meaning of the phrase image of God. What characterizes this image? What does it mean for understanding the human person? What implications does it have for individuals and communities?

Various theologians over the years have explained the imago dei in terms of humanity’s rationality, community, psychic awareness, ability to act independently. Note that all of these ideas focus on the internal character of men and women. These suggestions are plausible, but they are inferences based on the text rather than elements cited explicitly in the text itself. Too often through the centuries theologians have found in the phrase whatever constituted the popular understand of the human person in their day.

What does Genesis 1:26-31 actually say about the imago dei? Interestingly enough, we find a portrait of holiness, community, and mission at the center of God’s creational designs for humanity.

1) The problem is that the text does not focus on what the imago dei is, but rather on humanity’s function which comes as a consequence of being bearers of God’s image. This is important however because it suggests that the Bible is not so much interested in giving us the ontological meaning of imago dei as much as it is in converting us to a life in which God’s people can embody God’s original mission. A missiological focus is implicit in humanity’s creation in the image of God.

In the Old Testament, the word selem is translated as image. It tends to refer to that which is visible. In other words, imago dei points to humanity as representatives of God in Creation. Throughout the Scriptures, creating visible representations of God is prohibited. It is striking to recognize that in Genesis 1 God created people to serve as a visible image of the divine. We are to reflect to the rest of creation something of God’s purposes and character. I would submit to you that this is the essence of true holiness – i.e., that we His people through our lives and conduct witness to the rest of creation the reality of the invisible Creator God. We are God’s representatives and agents. We may read this as a missiological mandate: God created people to be reflections of the Creator God. Humanity stands before the remainder of Creation as a witness to the God who has fashioned the heavens and the earth. Thus, from the beginning of Creation, we see that humans were born for a purpose. One in which mission and holiness cannot be so easily separated.

As a result of being forged in the image of God, humans fulfill a key role for God. Humanity was created to rule over creation. In our day, this has ironically been twisted into a warrant for abusing the earth and devaluing our fellow creatures. Genesis does indeed grant a high place to humanity, but this has to be understood in light of a representational authority. Humanity does rule for its own sake or prerogatives. Humanity exercises dominion over creation on behalf of God. The actions of people are to mirror those of God. Humanity’s mission is to reflect God’s character and prerogatives in its exercise of authority. We don’t act for ourselves, but for God and for others. This is the only sort of dominion that Genesis envisions. In its wider context, Genesis 2:15 confirms this reality, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (italics added). We may even call this dominion through servanthood. (Christopher J. H. Wright, “The Old Testament and Christian Mission” Evangel 14 (1996): 38.)

The Apostle Paul will make a similar connection between creation and mission in his Second Letter to the Corinthians. In the same context in which Paul describes those in Christ as part of a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17), he uses the language of diplomacy in stating that as part of the new creation, “so we are God’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Cor 5:20).

Walter Brueggemann adds this commentary
“There is one way in which God is imaged in the world and only one: humanness! This is the only creature, the only part of creation, which discloses to us something about the reality of God. This God is not known through any cast or molten image. God is known peculiarly through this creature who exists in the realm of free history, where power is received, decisions are made, and commitments are honored. God is not imaged in anything fixed but in the freedom of human persons to be faithful and gracious.” {Walter Brueggemann, Genesis Interpretation (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 32.}

This world matters very much to God. Salvation is not merely about “going to heaven.” It is about living lives in tune with God’s Creational purposes. Being a follower of Jesus Christ cannot be defined by mere piety or by what one doesn’t do. God created us for an active life and for profound purposes. I don’t think that it is an over-statement to say that the sort of holiness envisioned in the Bible is one in which we truly become fully and authentically human. This is a holiness that our world desperately needs – one in which the character and purposes of our Creator are authentically reflected in the lives of the only part of creation made in His own image. This is the sort of holiness that will draw others to God.

2) The imago dei trumps issues of sexual differentiation among people. So God created humankind 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 as God’s ambassador. Being fully human implies that we function as God’s representatives on earth. The tensions between the sexes that we experience to this day seem absent in this text as well as in the subsequent narrative in Eden (Gen 2:4-25).

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. These are the result of the Fall of humankind in Gen 3-11.

As we reflect on the interplay between holiness, mission, and the people of God, let us reaffirm the biblical truth that there are no bit players – but that all of the people of God – male and female need to be unleashed fully if we are to be faithful to God’s Creational intentions.

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 God 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 divisions that exist among those whom God has created to bear his image. Even our churches reflect this. It is cliché but it remains a valid critique of modern Christianity in America to say that Sunday morning worship remains the most segregated time in our nation. 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.

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 intension. The scope of our missiological focus then is universal. There are no throw away or disposable people. We cannot pick and choose worthy recipients for the Gospel message. All are worthy because all bear the image of God. Thus, all possess the potential to fulfill God’s purposes. 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.” (Wright, 32) I would add to Wright’s reminder that we are not called to minister to the homeless, the addicted, the impoverished, the narcissistic, the suburban, the urban, but simply to those who desperately need God.

Conversely, this truth speaks a word against the degradation and continue 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. Furthermore, this means that, if the Church is to take this truth seriously, leadership will become less clergy focused and more lay led.

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 all of the 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.

Humans are to be stewards of God’s creation. The long standing dichotomy between social Gospel and personal evangelism is wrong-headed – I don’t want to ridicule the roots of this tension in an anachronistic way (liberal theology was and remains problematic), but it is time to reaffirm biblical truth and reclaim a true biblical scope for our ministry.

Why is all of this important? Two reasons:

1) We now live in a post Genesis 1-2 reality. Genesis 3-11 describes the persistent presence of sinful choices and actions by humans. Sin has fractured God’s creation. Genesis 1-2 stands as a witness to the Creator’s original intentions and as a reminder that our world was once “very good.”

2) In order to understand salvation, these texts point to what full salvation would look like. It is wholistic – much more than an opportunity to “go to heaven.” Salvation is an invitation to become the persons that God intended us to be. It is a return to Eden.

© 2005 Brian D. Russell

Tags: Holiness, Mission //