DISCOVERY CLASS ON DOCTRINAL FOUNDATIONS
DISCOVERING AND DISCUSSING THE BELIEFS THAT ARE FOUNDATIONAL TO THE CROSSING
Week #6— The Gospel and Living Redemptively in Creation and Culture
Question: How far does the Gospel reach into the things of this world? What parts/areas/aspects
of this world does God promise to save for all eternity because of the promise of redemption in
Jesus Christ?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Worship
Evangelism
Church
People
Animals
Plants
Work
Education
Business
Politics
Art
Technology
Building/Developing Material Goods
Energy Resources
In a speech given a few years ago, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said his brother’s
death caused him to reevaluate his own life. Thomas said he realized that the three F’s—faith,
family, friends—are what mattered most— he said, “Work became irrelevant. Being on the
Supreme Court became meaningless.”
Really? Just faith, family, and friends? We would say, as Christians, “right;” “amen,”
wouldn’t we? Sounds right, doesn’t it?
But if you were entering the operating room for triple by-pass surgery on your heart, or
your husband or father was, would you want the doctor or surgeon to have those same
convictions when he or she was getting ready to cut open your chest, or when he or she
was in medical school?
—That their work was, as Clarence Thomas put it, “irrelevant” and “meaningless;” that
the only things that are worthy of our whole heart are our faith, family, and our friends?
(Now we need to give people a break when speaking after the loss of a close family
member, and not be so analytical about the veracity of their statements. But it does
represent a common way many of us are led to think today as Christians.)
Like most great errors in our thinking, this statement does contain a partial truth. We DO
need to remind ourselves of the importance and value of relationships, but we must also
never forget that we possess a God-designed nature not only to need and value
relationships, but to need and value work.
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Question: What about your work as a Christian?
Question: What about material realities in this world?
Question: Does the Bible only teach us about the importance of church and religious and spiritual
things?
What about the supposedly non-religious, non-“spiritual” dimension of our lives: science,
economics, technology, education, government, art, business—things some think of as
“secular?”
A Sacred/Secular Split—a False Dichotomy
There’s a current view in much of American Christianity of having a dualism—a sacred/secular
split—between the physical and the spiritual, where we see the physical world as more or less
irrelevant to God’s plan and purpose in our redemption. In other words, the more detached you
are from the material/physical world the more spiritual/godly you will be (or vice versa).
Our answer to this, of course, will overflow into how we view education, vocation,
business, the arts, the environment, science and technology, etc.
Here’s the biblical truth—no Christian ever has a secular job.
We need a biblical view of the created world or we will never be able to function in it
according to God’s redemptive purpose.
Let’s go back briefly to the Beginning—
The Creation Mandate—Mankind was created to be God’s image.
Genesis 1:26–28, 31 TNIV
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they
may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the
wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created
human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; 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 in the sea and the birds in the sky
and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” …31 God saw all that he had
made, and it was very good.
Note: On seven different occasions in the Gen 1 account of creation, God
pronounces his works of creation to be good. The pinnacle is the last verse of
Gen 1, which says; “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”
The point of the passage is that human beings have been made in the image of God. The
repetition in v. 27 is impressively emphatic: It reads…
So God created human beings in his own image
In the image of God he created them
Male and female he created them.
According to Gen 1, a human being is the only being on earth whose essence relates both to the
physical world and the spiritual world. We’re fully both—we’re God’s designed unity of the
physical and the spiritual. We represent both to the other.
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Being created in the image of God distinguishes human beings from the rest of creation.
On the one hand, like other creatures; we are part of the creation. From that
perspective we are radically unlike God: only he is the Creator, only he is transcendent—
existing outside of his creation.
But on the other hand, the message of Gen 1 is not only that human beings are created
BY God, but that human beings are created LIKE God.
The least that the “image of God” language suggests, in addition to human personhood, is that
human beings are not simply hairless apes with cranial capacities slightly larger than those of
other primates, but…
 That we are accorded an astonishing dignity and value and significance.
 That human beings are moral creatures with special privileges and responsibilities—
we’re morally accountable to God.
 That there is implanted within us a profound capacity and hunger for knowing God
intimately, however much we have suppressed and distorted that capacity.
 That there is implanted within us an eternal instinct (Ecc says that “God has placed
eternity within the heart of man.”). Death is strange to us: we hate it, fear it, do
everything to avoid it. Have an instinct that our loved ones still exist somewhere after
they die.
 That we have been given the God-like power of words!
 That we have a unique, innate capacity for personal relations with other persons.
 That we have a hunger for creating and building things—in art, music, building
monuments, buildings, expression, thought, joy of discovery, science, technology,
gardening, homemaking.
 That God is the owner of every human being (the earth and the animals he has given to
humanity). But he reserves human beings for himself. Nobody owns their own life, nor
the life of another human being. Only God does.
God’s original purpose for humanity was to image God by ruling over, working in and
developing God’s created world. That was our function as beings created in his image—to image
God (as a verb)—to continue God’s work of creation and care and cultivation.
Humanity was originally to fill the earth with Eden’s blessing.
Genesis 1:27-28
So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds
in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 2:15 NIV11
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care
of it.
So the creation mandate means this—
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Being created in the image of God means that we have both a purpose and a nature that matches
that purpose. We’re created in God’s image to rule, to govern, to care for, to create, to build, to
fix, or organize from chaos—to continue what God had rested from in Gen 1.
In spite of sin entering the human condition, it’s still how we’re created—in his image. It’s still
how we image God.
We are not now what we were originally created to be, but we still retain the image of God in
significant ways.
Gen 9:6 (TNIV) (Human beings belong to God)
Whoever sheds human blood, by human beings shall their blood be shed; for in the image
of God has God made humankind.
James 3:9 (TNIV)
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who
have been made in God’s likeness.
The Bible is clear that God’s image in us—and everything that that has imprinted upon
and within us—has been deformed, distorted, and disordered by our sin, but also that we
still possess God’s image. We’re a deformed and disordered image of God with confused
instincts.
We image God by developing civilization and culture. We can even see this progress of
development in civilization and culture in the earliest chapters of Genesis.
Gen 4:20-22—
“…Jabal … was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. …Jubal … was
the father of all who play the harp and flute. …Tubal-Cain … forged all kinds of tools out
of bronze and iron.” (All of these skills learned by evil people would later be prescribed
by God in worship.)
All of these people were portrayed as very sinful, but that they also were able (because of
God’s creation and culture blessing) to develop valuable progress in civilization and
culture that continues today.
All of these people—this line of Cain—were completely destroyed by the judgment of
the flood in Gen 6. Yet, their cultural advancements remained after the flood in human
culture.
The transition from this age to the next will most likely have similar continuity…
Revelation 21:26-27 (NIV)— Speaking of the “New Jerusalem”…
The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter
it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names
are written in the Lamb's book of life.
God created a world with the potential for all these developments, and uniquely created us with
the desire and capacity to discover and develop them.
For example:
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When you compose a song—when you put together four notes that have never been put
together before into this new melody—you’re pulling a potential out of creation and the
progressing of culture—that’s important to God in and of itself.
That’s why the arts are so important and valuable in and of themselves. It’s how we
image God.
It’s why architecture and engineering and landscaping are so important and valuable in
and of themselves. It’s how we image God. And that’s why good architecture is so
inspiring!
That’s also why science is so valuable. That’s why technology is valuable (our embracing
the ethical advancement of scientific investigation, research, and experimentation, and
responsible technological development, including the continuing exploration of space).
It’s all possible because of God, and all is important to God.
That’s why learning and studying is so important as Christians. It’s an important way we
as Christians honor God's commands and to give him the praise. We progress culture and
civilization, and that’s important to God.
When Christians rightly embrace these various aspects of God's good creation as good,
we begin to live redemptively in a fallen, broken world.
Christians are called to enter into civilization and culture to be and to live redemptively.
What makes us unique is not simply intelligence (whales and dolphins have that too), but the
ability to discover, create, invent, design things—write about, sing about, sculpt and paint and
photograph about, and to develop culture. No other being in creation can do this, regardless of
intelligence.
All of these things are the “work” God has created us and given us to do in his creation.
Question: Can a gardener bring just as much glory to God as a pastor? Can a
homemaker? An engineer? Lawyer?
We must recognize the current fallen state of the judgment of creation.
What is now is not what it was created to be. Creation is tied to mankind in his judgment. When
mankind first sinned, the effects went far beyond just our own judgment of death that we first see
in Gen 3. Because of our federal headship over creation, creation too was judged for our sin. In
fact, it’s the first thing we see afterward:
Genesis 3:17–19 NIV11
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about
which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ Cursed is the ground because of
you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce
thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your
brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
The earth, creation, now suffers the judgment for humanity’s sin.
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All of life—animals, etc.—now suffer the judgment for man’s sin:
Disordered
We are disordered in our “dominance” over the earth and civilization and culture.
In this fallen state of creation, and the fallen state of the human condition, there is a distortion of
the good of creation. What is good and meant for good is turned into—and used for—evil.
In this fallen state of existence, mankind distorts the good things in creation and turns them to
evil use. But abuse does not make its use evil or wrong.
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Animals for evil (i.e., horses into battle, bit-bulls as attack dogs).
Human sexuality becomes sexual abuse, prostitution, and immorality, and becomes
something that ruins peoples’ lives—a curse instead of a blessing.
Government (which is instituted by God) into tyranny
Art into pornography or art to communicate a pessimistic, humanistic worldview.
Even something like wine into alcohol abuse.
Psalm 104:14-15 (TNIV)
He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate—bringing
forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their
faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.
Not for intoxication, but for a rejoicing kind of gladness.
I don’t know who invented wine, but I do know that they didn’t invent anything
God didn’t first give to bring forth from the earth for our enjoyment.
It is essential to our function in the world that we keep creation and sin/evil distinct from each
other. This is true with everything in the created world.
That’s why it is such a sad thing—a missed opportunity—when Christians abuse what God
has created to be good, or when Christians reject as evil what God has created to be good and
enjoyed.
1 Timothy 4:1-5 (ESV)—
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting
themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars
whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that
God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For
everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
Just because something God gave and/or created is abused doesn’t mean it can’t be properly
used for his purpose. Christians today are often guilty of throwing out the baby with the bath
water. We tend either to abuse or not use.
When sin entered the human condition, the judgmental consequences entered all of creation—
Genesis 3:17
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Cursed is the ground because of you; …it will produce thorns and thistles
Yet God’s purpose has always been to restore this world—all of life in all of creation—to the
way it was created to be and meant to be.
Genesis 9:1 (NIV)— (after the destruction of the flood)
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill
the earth.
Notice the similarity with the creation and cultural mandate in Gen 1:26-28, even though
the world is under judgment and distortion because of sin.
Gen 9:8-17—God’s promise of redemption/restoration is extended to all creation,
not just humanity—Notice the repetition…
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with
you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with
you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark
with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never
again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to
destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making
between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to
come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant
between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow
appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living
creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16
Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting
covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” 17 So God said
to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on
the earth.”
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God’s purpose for his creation and for humanity is still the same—a redeemed humanity
and creation.
The incarnation, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus prove that God loves and is eternally
committed to redeeming/restoring his good creation.
God loves the physical matter he made. He loves humanity and the physical world so much that
he forever became physical, material humanity himself in the person of Jesus so that he could
rescue and restore it to what it was meant to be through his own physical death and resurrection
and accession. And this restored creation will last forever.
Romans 8:19-24 (NIV)
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the
creation …itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious
freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in
the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves…groan
inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For
in this hope we were saved.”
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And this redeemed physical creation is what the Bible refers to as the future heaven
believers will inhabit after they are resurrected with transformed, redeemed bodies (v.
23). Paul says, “For in this hope we were saved” (v. 24).
NOT just our souls, BUT our bodies AND all creation as well. In THIS hope we were
saved!
So what the Bible calls the future “heaven” will NOT be some ethereal, purely spiritual existence.
Our resurrected bodies will be redeemed, transformed, physical, material bodies that are also
spiritually alive and eternal.
Now there will be a disembodied state after we die and before Christ returns. But this is
only temporary, and not our eternal destiny. Much like, perhaps, the days in between
Jesus’ own death and resurrection. But the eternal state of our being will be a resurrection
of body and soul in a transformed creation.
Jesus’ physical, bodily resurrection and our physical, bodily resurrection are both bound
together.
And it will be a body like Jesus’ body when he rose from the dead. Bodies without sin and
without death.
Philippians 3:20-21 (NIV)
20
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord
Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control,
will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Notice the words “changed,” “transformed.” Like with Jesus’ body, it will not be an exchanged
body, but a changed body—not a newly formed body, but a transformed body.
Notice what else the Bible says about this…
1 Corinthians 15:35, 37-39, 2-43 (NIV)
“But someone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’”
Paul answers the question…
“…When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of
something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives
its own body. All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds
another and fish another. ...So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is
perishable, it is raised imperishable, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
Our bodies will be transformed into a resurrected body that is…
 Glorious
 Imperishable
 Powerful
 Spiritual (but still a body, but spiritually alive and fully aware of spiritual truth)
 Immortal
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And Paul’s analogy is that a buried seed does not bring forth to life as a different plant, but
the same plant transformed—grown out of—coming forth from—the seed. Like the
transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.
That’s why it’s significant that we understand that our resurrected body will be like Jesus’
resurrected body. What was Jesus’ resurrected body like?
Luke 24:37-43 (NIV) When the disciples say the risen Jesus standing on the shore…
37
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. …39 [Jesus said to them],
Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have
flesh and bones, as you see I have.” 40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands
and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked
them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43
and he took it and ate it in their presence.
Notice how Jesus said he wasn’t a ghost (a spirit), and asked for some fish. He ate the
fish. Our future is a physical future.
So when believers die, we’re not going to spend eternity in some kind of purely spiritual
netherworld, some celestial ocean of spiritual being. We’re going to be bodily resurrected
to live on a renewed earth—a physical, material, redeemed earth restored to what it was
meant to be.
We’re going to have relationships. We’re going to eat. There will be restored animals and
plants. We’re going to physically hug and embrace and interact and participate in and
with a physical world in the kingdom of God. And it will not be futile, but completely
satisfying. Everything we were made for, without being disordered in any way.
And we will have glorious, satisfying WORK.
That’s why only the resurrected life in a resurrected world will satisfy the deepest needs
and desires of our hearts.
We image God as Christians when we live redemptively in creation and culture.
This is the gospel. The gospel is NOT just for saving souls. The gospel reaches all creation. Christ
died and rose again to redeem creation as a whole, not just humanity.
So now mark again which activities and interests in this world the Bible views as important
priorities to God for Christians to live redemptively (hint: all circles should be checked)—
o Worship
o Evangelism
o Church
o Family
o Animals
o Plants
o Work
o Education
o Business
o Politics
o Art
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o
o
o
Technology
Developing Material Goods
Energy Resources
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