Ephesians 6:16-17
“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation …”
Staying on the theme of the “why’ of salvation, I want to revisit something we have written about several times before. It is important to understand the four great themes that describe the unfolding of God’s plan on planet earth.
- Creation
- Fall
- Redemption
- Transformation
One of the challenges of our time is that the Christian community has emphasized #2 and #3, but has neglected #1 and #4. The church has traditionally focused on the fall and redemption, but has largely ignored creation and transformation.
One of the consequences is that we love being redeemed from the fall, but we are not nearly as committed to managing creation (the command to “have dominion”) and being agents of restoration. Not surprisingly, managing creation and being agents of restoration require hard work, whereas receiving redemption is mostly a matter of “faith.” But when removed from the context of the whole plan, receiving redemption can become very self-oriented and out of alignment with true, biblical faith.
Many Christians in our time love the notion of being redeemed from the Fall, but are not nearly as committed to managing creation (the command to “have dominion”) and being agents of Transformation. Many are operating with an abridged view of salvation, and that is dangerous.
It is critically important to understand that salvation is more than redemption. Creation and transformation are essential elements of Christ’s work on earth, and they are an critical part of the gospel message. Being saved from sin is wonderful and important, but it is not the whole story. We must not proclaim a half-gospel. We must not be directed by a half-story. We must not follow an abridged version. We must be faithful to declare and live out the whole story of God’s plan for planet earth.
Christ’s death and resurrection not only save people from something, but also restore people to something. In Christ, God redeems us from sin, restores his image in us, and calls us to be agents of redemption and transformation in the world. Christ’s redemptive work is neither the end nor the goal of the Christian life. Rather, redemption is the beginning of our participation in God’s work of restoration in our lives and in the world.
As followers of Christ, we are created, redeemed, and called to co-labor with God in the process of transformation. We are agents of transformation. We are called to mend earth’s brokenness. Every day. The world will not be completely healed and restored until Christ’s return, but until then we are called to bring the grace, love, and power of God’s kingdom to bear on the people and situations we deal with every day. The world has suffered under the rule of Satan and self, but now God’s kingdom has come and transformation has begun. Through our every day work we are called to be agents of the process of transformation.
This is the gospel. This is the good news that in the person of Jesus Christ, the loving rule of God has come to earth, and through Christ, God is at work restoring what was lost at the Fall. The amazing thing is that the Lord calls us to participate with him in that work. Good news indeed! This is the whole story of salvation.
Partners with God in transformation
God has commissioned us to engage the world in ways that reflect his character and his kingdom. Unfortunately, the church seems more than a bit confused about its mission and strategy for engaging the world. We seem to be bipolar. One end of the spectrum are those who copy. These are the imitators of culture. They are quite undiscerning and undisciplined about their habits, and the way they live and work is virtually indistinguishable from contemporary society. The other end of the spectrum are those who condemn. These are the Christians who focus their energy on criticizing, denouncing, and protesting about the culture.
We are not called to condemn the culture; neither are we called to copy it. We are called to engage the culture with the truth and love of Christ. We are called to create culture through the way we live and work every day. We are called to be transformational; to be agents of change. We will change culture by creating it in ways that reflect the love and lordship of Christ. This is what it means to “have dominion” and to labor with God in the process of transformation.
One of the great realities of the Christian faith is that we have been saved and then called to be agents of the Kingdom in the midst of the present evil age … in the midst of a broken world. God will bring full restoration at the Second Coming of Jesus, but between now and then, God has called the followers of Christ — individually and collectively as the Church — to be ambassadors of God’s redeeming and restoring grace.
Daily Opportunity, Daily Challenge
Every day we have the opportunity to deal with people and situations affected by the brokenness of the world. We are called to respond to these people and situations in a way that reflects the presence and power of Christ. We are called to respond to these people and situations as ambassadors of the truth and grace of the Kingdom. We are called to respond as agents of redemption and restoration. We are called to respond with truth, love, and the fruit of the Spirit.
The challenge is that we often want the Christian life to be comfortable and convenient. We want the experience of full restoration right now. But we must continually recognize that complete redemption lies in the future, and that we are called to live out the faith in a still-fallen world. Quite often, that is very uncomfortable and inconvenient.
It is certainly good news that we are saved, but we must awaken to the radical truth that we are saved for a purpose, and that purpose is not our comfort and convenience. We are saved so that we can serve God’s purposes, not our own. The source of true peace in this world is to live every day as an agent of God’s Kingdom.
So I would like to encourage you to adopt a true Kingdom mindset. Each day when you wake up, recognize that you are an agent of the Kingdom of God in a broken world. Thank God for calling you to be his ambassador, and then ask him to equip and empower you to deal with the brokenness you will encounter that day, so that the people and situations you deal with might be transformed (even in very small ways) through your actions.
At the end of the day, thank God for giving you the privilege of co-laboring with him to bring redemption and transformation to the brokenness of a fallen world, and giving the world a foretaste of what Christ will bring fully at His return.
Trust God and do the work to which he calls you.
