God's Intentional Purpose At Creation

When I read Genesis 2 it seems to be a wonderful narrative rooted in the Jewish idea of shalom. Adam and Eve understand who they are, they have a healthy relationship with each other, they have a life-giving relationship with God, and know their place in God’s wonderful creation.

That is what I describe in my Theological Foundations for the Christian Life class as “God’s intentional purpose at Creation.”  It wasn’t good for the man to be alone, the woman was created and community in fellowship with God was born. My personal favorite way to describe what eternity with God will be like is to dream of “Eden restored.”

In a wonderfully thoughtful new book titled For the Life of the World: Theology That Makes a Difference Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun express concern that theology has lost its way and as a result, the discovery of a “flourishing life” (for me, think Genesis 2) is ever more difficult to find.

One of their more direct concerns is expressed this way: “No longer experiencing ourselves as constituents of a meaningful cosmos and members of a social body, we modern human beings imagine ourselves and act first and foremost as individuals, ideally sovereign owners of ourselves and our actions.” (pages 20, 21) When I first read that statement, it seemed to be such a great explanation for so much of the self-centered, overly individualistic spirit that I see in the newspaper daily. 

Yet unless I have completely misread the Jesus story, it seems He came to help us find a flourishing life – “life abundantly” as He calls it in John 10:10. Could Paul’s imagery in 1 Corinthians 12 of “one body, many members” be a definition of what Jesus had in mind? A flourishing life isn’t so much about “stuff” we own and control as it is “to whom we belong.” There’s hardly room for the kind of individualism that sees ourselves as “sovereign owners of ourselves and our actions” in a body where, “if one member suffers, the whole body suffers.” (1 Corinthians 12:26)

In a few weeks we will celebrate anew the resurrection of our Lord. His resurrection made possible for humankind to begin our journey back to Eden. To that place where shalom defined life. A place where we discover what a flourishing life can look like.

As we approach Easter Sunday, April 21 this year, may we pray daily that our thoughts and words about life and about the gospel’s impact on life will help us in our partnership with God to renew and restore creation to its God-intended purpose at creation. 

That for sure is theology that makes a difference!

 

Eden restored.