Understanding the Kingdom of God预览

The Kingdom of God and Creation

The story of God’s Kingdom begins with God creating the heavens, earth, and all in them. Since God is the Creator of everything, He is also the Ruler (or King) of everything.

In Genesis 1:26-28, God creates both man and woman to be His image-bearers on earth. They are given dominion over the earth to steward it on His behalf. God’s reign on earth was to be mediated through humanity. By living a life of worship and obedience to God, humanity would fulfill its vocation of cultivating and preserving God’s reign of glory, order, wisdom, justice, and goodness here on earth.

However, in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned and handed this God-given authority over to the forces of darkness (the serpent). Due to the Fall, these powers corrupted man’s rule over the earth. Instead of God’s goodness, justice, and wisdom reigning through humanity, the powers of evil, injustice, violence, and death took over, and humanity became mere puppets in their hands. As we read through the next few chapters of Genesis, we see the destructive nature of sin.

However, God was not outsmarted. Even after all of this, He did not abandon His original plan for humanity to be His proxies here on earth. In Genesis 3:15, He gives a small hint of a promise that someone from the woman’s offspring would come and crush the head of the serpent. Someone would one day defeat the powers of darkness that reign over the human race. And that promise begins with a man named Abraham.

From Genesis 12 onwards, the Old Testament deals almost exclusively with Abraham and his descendants – the nation of Israel. God calls Abram (later called Abraham) from a life of pagan idolatry to become the father of a new humanity. Through Abraham’s offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. It is through Abraham’s family that God would undo the sin of Adam and Eve. They became part of God’s project of recreating humanity so His glory can again reign on earth.

With the Fall, humanity was in a hopeless situation, but the calling of Abraham tells us that God can create life out of the ashes of even the worst of man’s failures. When we respond to God’s call, He can turn even our most filthy rags into the most beautiful garments of praise unto Him.

Are there areas in your life that seem hopeless and beyond repair? In prayer, give these things to God and allow Him to bring new life into these situations.