Transcript Document

Presentation 03
Presentation 03
Introduction
When people look back over a year of sorrow or loss they often ask, ‘Why
did God make a world that is gripped by death, wars and aggression?’ But in
truth the world that God originally created and the world in which we now
live are light years apart.
Today, God’s original masterpiece is scarcely discernible.
It is vandalised, scarred and mutilated
beyond all recognition. A useful starting
point is to think about the world as
God intended it and of man as
God intended him to be.
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The Goodness of God’s Creation
The refrain punctuating each stage of creation, contained the words, “And
God saw that it was good” v3, 9, 12, 18, 21, 25 and then in v31 “God saw all
that he had made and it was very good”. Whenever I make anything, my
response is invariably “I’m sure I could do better next time!” Do you know
what it is to have a lingering sense of dissatisfaction with things that you do
or have made?
It was said of Michelangelo, one of the most famous
artists the world has known, that none of his work gave
him pleasure because he strove for perfection.
In contrast, when God looked at the world he had
brought into being, he did not think, “This is a rush
job I can do better”. He declared it good!
Presentation 03
The Goodness of God’s Creation
God began with the creation of matter, v1 and he created out of nothing.
Why should that be important as we consider the goodness of God’s
creation? Well the difference between God’s creation and that of an artist is
that God was not limited by a range of materials. The artist has to reach out
and make do with the brushes and pigments that are already there.
He may say, ‘I wish I had access to a more intense blue or to a finer brush’,
but God knew no such limitations. He created
out of nothing. There was no mass, no energy
particles before God brought them into being.
The environment that God created in our
world was therefore exactly what God
wished it to be.
Presentation 03
The Goodness of God’s Creation
At each successive stage of the creation God surveyed his handy-work and
pronounced it “very good”. As far as God was concerned he’d created the
best of all possible worlds. At no stage in the process of the creation of this
great original was anything introduced, which marred or spoiled it. It was
perfect. There was no evil in God’s world at this time, if there were he could
not have pronounced it good.
Evil came in at a later stage. These opening
chapters are a foundational part of Christian
apologetics dealing with evil, suffering and
pain in the world. They did not belong to
God’s original and are not the product of
divine incompetence!
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Paradise Lost and Regained
If you are familiar with the writing of John Milton you will know that he wrote
two major works, “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”. These titles picture
for us not two but three different worlds all of which are described in the
Bible. First, God’s great original, which is found in the opening two chapters of
Genesis. Secondly, the original now marred almost beyond recognition as a
result of human sin. And finally, the world completely restored to its original
splendour through the work of Christ. The Bible uses very graphic language to
describe this restored world. Why? because its intention is to teach that the
broken world in which we now live is not the world God originally planned.
Presentation 03
Paradise Lost and Regained
Consider some of the particular images that the Bible employs? First, we’re
reminded of the harmony that will be restored to the animal kingdom, “The
wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling together...the lion shall eat straw like
an ox” Isa. 11.6. God’s original world was not one of predator and quarry.
There was peace in the animal kingdom. Incidentally, in Gen. 1.29-30 we
discover that this sort of harmony was possible because both man and beast
were vegetarian.
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Paradise Lost and Regained
Secondly, we see that in God’s original world there was peace between
animal and man, a peace that will again be restored in the new earth,
“the lion shall eat straw like an ox and a little child shall lead them. The
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy”Isa.11.7.
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Paradise Lost and Regained
Thirdly, God’s original world like the world to come was not designed to be
a place of suffering and death. The natural disasters that wreck havoc in
this spoiled creation will no longer be forces to be reckoned with in the
world to come. In Rom 8v20ff Paul speaks of the whole of “creation that
was subjected to frustration being liberated from its bondage and decay
and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God”.
He is arguing that the redemptive
work of Christ is cosmic in scale
bringing peace not only between
God and man and man and his
fellow but harmony to the
whole created order.
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The Crown of God’s Creation
Man, was created in the ‘image of God’ cf. v26. What is implied by the fact
that out of all of creation only man was created in God’s image.
There are 5 basic aspects of man’s nature, that have
been recognised as mirroring God’s likeness; rationality,
creativity, dominion, righteousness and community.
Out of all of creation, man alone was selected to be
the special object of God’s love and the bearer
of his likeness.
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The Crown of God’s Creation
But God’s picture in man was badly shattered, brutally vandalised the details
of which we will consider in chapter 3. What is important for us to grasp is
that as a result of man’s disobedience and determination to be independent
of God, God’s original man was tragically violated and dehumanised.
Not only does he no longer live in the world that
God originally intended but man is no longer the
creature God intended him to be. Man has
dragged the image of God through the mire.
God’s likeness has been brutalised.
But in what sense has the image
of God been obscured?
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The Crown of God’s Creation
This is seen first in his rationality. Man is a rational being. There’s
something of God in man’s power to think, understand, reflect, appreciate
and communicate. God made man someone to whom he could speak and
who in turn could respond to him.
But now as a result of sin that rationality has been
twisted in man and in the process those lines of
communication have been damaged. Man’s thinking
processes have become darkened and
self-centred. Cf Rom 1.21ff.
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The Crown of God’s Creation
Secondly man’s Creativity. God made man capable of shaping his
environment. When man fashions and builds, he is displaying God-given
attributes. But this creative potential for good, tends towards destruction
rather than the enhancement of the environment. Human invention is often
used to satisfy man’s greed rather than his need, to destroy and pollute the
environment rather than enrich it.
Man discovered a means of splitting of
the atom, but that discovery can be
used for both good and ill! Today the
environment is often destroyed for
purely commercial reasons rather
than enriched by human discovery.
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The Crown of God’s Creation
Thirdly man’s dominion. God originally gave man a limited sovereignty. He
was to be God’s vice regent and permitted to exercise lordship over the
earth and all of its creatures. This rule was intended to be for creation’s
good but again this potential has been perverted so that dominion becomes
tyranny.
Tyrants rule for their own good. Even in democracies
much of the cynicism with which many politicians
are viewed is fuelled by stories of an abuse of
power to bring about their personal financial
enrichment.
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The Crown of God’s Creation
Fourthly, man’s righteousness. God gave man an innate
consciousness of good and evil. Because God is perfectly just
and loving, man the crown of God’s creation was supposed to
reflect that image.
What do we see today? Is the reverse not often the case?
This moral judgement of what is good and evil has been
turned on its head, so that men call good evil and evil good.
Cf Is. 5.20
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The Crown of God’s Creation
Fifthly man’s community. There is divine fellowship within the Godhead.
When God created man, he designed him to live in community not in
isolation. Mankind is intended to be a family where there is a mutual
responsibility for one another’s welfare. God’s aim was to produce a caring
society. But this idea of community is eroded as men ask the question, ‘am I
my brothers keeper?’ Instead of pulling together they are pulling against each
other. Real community is not produced by politicians and legislation but only
as the divine image is restored.
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Conclusion
We no longer live in God’s perfect world where man reflects his image. The
reality of suffering and war are constant reminders that we are no longer
living in the way God originally planned. Does this produce a sense of
longing in your heart? It should! Longing for the day when God will restore
his creation, when men will study war no more, when men will,
“beat their swords into ploughshares and their
spears into pruning hooks”. Joel 3.10
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Conclusion
Jesus is God’s ‘image restorer’. He came to restore God’s image in the lives
of all who will put their trust in him. What might happen if you were to
pray, ‘Lord do all that is required for more and more of that image to be
seen in me’ ? For all who submit themselves to Christ’s rule there is the
promise that God will change them from
‘one degree of glory to
another’. 2 Cor.3.18
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