Bible Readings
- Genesis 1:26-2:3
- Psalm 8
- Romans 8:18-25
Introduction
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
During our time away over Christmas, I made a point of it to have a date with our grandchildren. I took them for a milkshake. Discussions ranged from every-day topics to the progress in their education. NSW experienced a few sweltering days, and just to be mischievous, I threw in a few questions about what they know about climate change. I was amazed to discover that for them, everything they hear through the mass media is actually what they are taught in schools as absolute fact beyond doubt.
At that point, I decided to prepare a few sermons on the Christian worldview about creation and living on God’s earth.
How do we as Christians understand what is going on around us? What is our role as human beings being placed on earth? Are we perhaps running out of resources to live meaningfully? Is the world overpopulated? Is there reason to be stressed and go into panic mode about these issues? What are the do’s and don’ts? How do we understand the calls for caring for our environment? Is there any direction in the Scriptures about these issues?
In the sermon for today I will not endeavour to give exhaustive answers; in the following week or two, we might go there. But today we will look at some basic principles of the Biblical worldview.
Worldview
What is a “worldview”? In short, it provides us with guideposts to understand and interpret the world we live in. We might ask questions like, “Where does the world come from?”, “Where do we as humans beings come from?”, “What is our purpose on earth?” “What is the future of the world?”, “Where will all of this end?” This is not a comprehensive list we as Christians may ask, but let’s stick with it for the moment.
The Marxist has a different worldview, and the atheist holds to a different worldview. In our day environmentalists have a different worldview. They will answer these questions differently, and they might even ask completely different questions. Each worldview represents a different angle, depending on a different belief or philosophical system. But are they correct?
But what is the Biblical worldview?
God, the creator
We take the Bible seriously when it declares:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1, ESV)
Who does not take the very first verse in the Bible seriously, undermines the authority of the Scriptures, and logically forfeits the right to believe anything in the rest of the Bible says as worthwhile to believe in.
Out of nothing God created the universe and everything in it. He created the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the sea, every living creature on the earth and under the earth. He created everything according to their kind, which means that plants since the beginning of time were plants, animals were from the beginning animals, insects from the beginning were insects, and human beings were from the beginning human beings. Evolution between the different kinds never happened, but evolution within species meant that, for example, dogs with the genetic material already available within the original pair of male and female dogs, could rearrange itself to adapt to different environmental demands.
Man as God’s representative
Mankind was created to be different from the animal kingdom. God created man and female and He Himself put his breath into them, something not attributed to the rest of what God created. We read:
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Genesis 2:7, ESV)
Adam and Eve were the first human begins, and they were directly created by God. Of them the Bible says more in detail:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26, ESV)
The purpose God had with Adam and Eve and their offspring was to represent Him and to have dominion over the rest He had created. God gave them a special blessing for this task:
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28, ESV)
God created everything within the space of six days. Then we read this statement:
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31, ESV)
What do we deduce from this?
- This world belongs to God who created everything according to plan.
- God gave everything needed for his creation to reach its fullest potential
- What God created is for his glory.
- Mankind was created in the image of God, as God’s representative to act as stewards over God’s creation. Mankind is separate from other created things.
- Mankind is called to have dominion over all other created things.
- Nothing you and I see, perceive, touch or possess belongs to us. This world is God’s dominion.
- Mankind has a responsibility to care for creation. We will be held accountable for the way in which we stewarded what belongs to God.
- To have children and populate the world is a command from God who will provide what we need for as long as we live under the Headship of God.
Man as under-creator
There is something else we need to keep in mind: When God finished creating, He rested. His rest means that He did not create any further. It does not say that God withdrew from creation as He was only involved in what He created for six days and then in some way became absent from what He created. When God rested, He made everything which man needed to live to the glory of God, and in principle, He provided all the raw materials required by mankind to be his representatives. He even made it possible for Adam and Eve to have children. In this sense then can we say that God made man his “under-creator”.
To be extremely blunt we can say that God never built a house, but he provided man with the raw materials and the know-how to build a house. God never build a power station, but He created the world with all the potential, and man with the intellectual expertise to build a power station. As man developed his skills and employed the God-given raw-materials, he exercised his dominion of creation as God indented.
God planted into Adam and Eve an affection and love for one another to have communion out of which they (in a limited sense) then became the creators of Cain and Abel. They did so because they received from God their breath—which is life—to pass on to their children. But Adam and Eve did not have the potential to become more than human beings. They could never become God, although the serpent trapped them into the idea that they could be like God!
This aspect of being under-creators and having children according to God’s plan within the relationship of marriage is critical. The abuse of sex for own pleasure, or for any other desire or purpose, distorts God’s design for man to be under-creators, and instead of the intimacy between husband and wife, sexual relationships become a curse and the original blessings are removed.
Therefore same-sex marriage carries with it the curse of no procreation. Sexual relationships of any kind, be it of the heterosexual or homosexual kind, outside of God ordained marriage is an aberration of God’s design and instead of children considered being a blessing from God, they are found to be a curse which has to be aborted. Sexual desire then become an instrument to satisfy sinful man and stand opposed to a God-given gift to glorify his name.
Fallen man
Our biblical worldview prevents us from glorifying man. The Bible is clear that man fell into sin. The consequences are devastating. Instead of living in a world which was created “good indeed”, man faced a world which became his enemy. Every effort of mankind to have dominion over creation became a struggle against pests, drought, pain, sickness, floods, natural disasters, etc.
“… cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:17–19, ESV)
Instead of childbirth being a joy right from the beginning, God said:
To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16, NKJV)
The word in Romans 8:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:20–21, ESV)
I buried my puppy that had a brain tumour. I cried my heart out for the little fellow in full knowledge that he was part of this creation which was subjected to bondage, not because he committed sin, but because my sin caused his suffering and death.
Paul in Romans 1 writes of the result of sin:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (Romans 1:18, NKJV)
What is this unrighteousness and ungodliness of men?
… although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21–23, NKJV)
Sin brought disruption between God and man: God is holy and man is not! Sin brought death. The first person born to man became the murderer of the second: Cain killed Abel.
Conclusion
In part then, this is our Christian worldview. In weeks to come, we will elaborate on it and also contrast it with other worldviews.
But there is something which gives sinful mankind hope. This hope is in the Second Adam, Jesus Christ the Son of God, our Saviour. The Bible teaches us:
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:15–17, ESV)
Our worldview includes underserved grace in Jesus Christ. And he who trusts Christ for salvation his this hope:
…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.(Romans 8:23, ESV)
Amen.
Sermon preached by Rev D. Rudi Schwartz on Sunday 6 January 2019.
Ultimate Standards 