An Appealing Vision: Part 3
The fact that our world is fallen and completely broken is evident as we look in the newspaper, watch the news, or simply watch relationships, etc., broken before our very eyes. This is nothing surprising or new... It's broken. Since this is self-evident, how can we as a redeemed people offer change to remedy this broken system?
In some very simple ways, we can turn to God's Word and see the way in which he has called his people to live and apply it to every sphere of life.
In Genesis 1:26-28 we read that God called his pre-fallen people, created in his image to participate in the development of the cosmos. Now (after many years...), if we as a fallen yet redeemed people desire to regain this original intent, then we as God's church need to once again take command of the cosmos in every sphere of life. This includes his command to participate in the "cultural mandate." I stated in Part 1 of this short-series that we (as a pre-fallen people) were to take dominion of the animal kingdom, procreate, and subdue the earth. Likewise, Genesis 2:15 described the God-ordained (and good...) vocational calling to work the ground through God-honoring stewardship and cultivation.
If we are going to take this seriously we need to be involved in God's creative culture-building. We are not to stick our heads in the sand. This means we should be active in seeing God's redemptive purposes unfold in every sphere of life.
I used to think of this as strictly an individual thing. God wants to save everyone by bringing them into a right relationship with his Son and then everything would be okay (maybe a true statement but nevertheless an unbiblical statement...). That's how I used to think. The Gospel is the primary means of bringing people (as individuals) into a right relationship with himself and I thoroughly believe that. It's through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone that His people are "declared right."
However, the very structures of our society also need the cosmic effects of redemption applied to them. Here are a few examples of these and I invite you to assist me by thinking through these various components of society.
1) Work - How do God's people work without dividing their very sense of reality? Meaning,how can a "secular" worker continue to express his/her Christian faith on the job? How is every God-honoring form of work "sacred"?
2) Education - How can a Christian work toward bringing the redemptive qualities of Christ's work into the "secular" academic world? This indeed can be challenging...
3) Family - How has God's institution of the family been infected with "secularism"? How does God's Word shed light on informing God's people of the right/good form of the family? What do we teach our children? Or maybe just as important, what worldview perspective do we demonstrate to our family? How are they going to begin formulating a right sense of reality from within the family? This is by far the most important of the three examples and i kept it last to ask a few more questions regarding the worldview perspectives within the family because this institution has the most impact on shaping tomorrow's future. This is where it all starts.
I find it hard to talk about Christ's work of redemption without talking about how Christians shape their way of thinking and vision of what's real. How as a Christian people do we perceive reality? Do we have a faulty or Non-Christian sense of reality? Where do we look for this perspective? It is from pop-culture? Is it from the news? Is it from God's Word and those that proclaim this very thing from the pulpit on Sunday mornings? How about those dedicated to writing helpful articles/books on the subject of bringing the redemptive work of Christ into every sphere of life?
These are just a few examples and questions surrounding the many ways Christ's work of redemption change everything. We as his people need to be thinking about how our Christian faith impacts our very sense of reality. If we are not careful about thinking through the ramifications of how we live, we will most likely be fooled into believing something that represents a false-view of reality. Let's be a people eager to bring about God-honoring change through the redemptive and cosmic qualities of Christ's work of redemption.
