Creation, Fall, and Redemption – What God wants us to know Today

Within the realm of Christian ethics there is one central message that dictates how life issues are judged. This is the message of God’s love. In one of the most widely known and quoted verses from the Bible, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (Bible, 1995, John 3:16), we see the culmination of God’s love. However, to fully understand this love, we first must understand the creation, fall, and redemption of man.

In the book of Genesis, we read, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them…God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Bible, 1995, Genesis 1:27 & 31). From this, we understand that God created humans different, as it states “in his own image”. Humans are thus set apart from the other animals and given to rule over the other creatures of the earth (see: Genesis 1:26).

Shortly after the creation story came the story of the fall of man. Found within Genesis chapter three, the man and woman are faced with the first ethical dilemma; do they listen to the Tempter or do they follow God’s command to simply not eat from a particular tree? This first ethical dilemma “raises questions about whether something is good because God commanded it or whether God commands something because it is good” (Rae, 1995, P.19). Both questions have equally feasible arguments. If God commanded it then it must be considered good, because he is the creator of this world and deemed it so. Also, God may have created the fruit from this particular tree to provide the ability to “[know] good and evil” (Bible, 1995, Genesis 3:4), yet determined that it would be better for humans to not to be troubled with having to make this determination. Regardless, the humans chose to listen to the Tempter, disregarding God’s command and being cast out of God’s presence.

In synopsizing the Biblical Old Testament, one will conclude that humans as a whole are unable to determine good from evil. So to save the human race from themselves, a savior was sent to Earth. Jesus exercises dominion over everything physical and spiritual; changing water to wine (John 2:1), calming of the storm (Matt 8:26), casting out demons (Mark 5:9-13), and even forgiving of sins (Matthew 9:5-7). Though, he never exercised dominion over an individual’s will to follow and obey. He and the Father determined this to be an individual’s act of service to receive eternal life after death.

Through understanding the creation, fall, and redemption story humans begin to conceptualize the love of God. This love was shown through life and death, and not through control. Therefore when we are able to accept God’s love and show this love to others, we have grasped the central message of Christian ethics.

References

Holy Bible, (1995) New International Version (NIV), Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI

Rae, Scott B. (1995). Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics (Second Edition). Zondervan Publishing House. Grand Rapids, MI

~ by Brad Raburn on December 15, 2008.