Evangelism is more important than <everything_else> (Part 5)

Finally, I want to argue that when redemption and creation work go together, they build an explained model of the future.

That is, when the Christian community does both creation work and redemption work well, we build a great witness to what God has done in Christ Jesus. We are able to both show and tell how good it is to belong to and follow Jesus.

And we can provide a glimpse of God’s future kingdom. By this, I don't mean that we provide the building-blocks of the new creation — that the road we build today will necessarily persist into the new creation. Rather, the work we do today is more like an architect's model of a future building. The model is not the foundation of the real building, but it really does provide some sense of what the building will be like. And yet it is an incomplete picture, an impression.

So when Christians do creation work well, what results is a testimony: we show that the world is real and good, and yet fallen, and we work to mitigate the effects of the Fall. We explain that the future is good, and why.

At the same time, we are able to show a glimpse of that good future: one of the purposes of doing good works is so that unbelievers may see them "and glorify God on the day he visits us" (1 Peter 2:12; cf. Matthew 5:16). It's interesting that the Scriptures don't dwell on the details of the new creation. But we know there'll be no more sin or mourning or crying or pain, and we'll once more be in the presence of God (Revelation 21:1–8). The way that we live now bears witness to and provides a foretaste of that sinless future — as we rejoice in our forgiveness in Christ, resolve conflict, share with one another, seek the good of others, and work for the Lord.

Again, God's people provide an explained model of the future. Without an explanation, no new people can know how to enter the life that is being modelled. But if there is no life being modelled, there is nothing to explain, and any attempted explanation will just sound hypocritical.
 



The ideas in this post are drawn from the Groundwork module Good Work: a labour of love