07: Biblical Storyline (2) Flashcards
What is the character of God’s redemptive work?
- Progressive in story
- Restorative in nature
- Comprehensive in scope
What is the object of God’s redemptive mission?
All things; all that has been corrupted by the garden rebellion.
How does God’s redemptive work safeguards against universalism?
God’s grace is creationally universal and humanly particular, as he seeks to restore all things but chooses some people for salvation.
What does it mean that God cares for the restoring of creation?
God has not deserted the work of his hands.
How is the Noahic covenant an example of the scope of redemption?
In Genesis 9:9-17, God says 6 different times that his covenant is with Noah, all generations to come, “and every living creature”.
What is the goal of redemption?
The recreation of the cosmos (all things) into the kingdom of God.
How does recreation look like in the restoration of humans and all things?
God renews the same humanity and the same world that has been corrupted by sin. He does not forsake his creation, but makes it new.
How is our understanding of Incarnation and Resurrection crucial in our understanding of the meaning of redemption?
The Incarnation is God’s affirmation of the goodness of his creation.
The Resurrection is a glimpse of the final restoration.
What is the centrality of creation in the biblical story?
“Redemption always takes place in reference to and as the restoration of creation. Redemption is nothing less than the holy jealousy of the Creator God for his creation.”
Does this emphasis upon creation draw us away from Jesus?
Christian piety does not need to be marked by a detachment from the world. This is not the testimony we have from Scripture.
Isn’t this emphasis on creation materialistic and not spiritual?
- As God wants to redeem “all things”, there is not a dualistic view between spiritual and material. That is a gnostic suspicion.
- The use of the word “spiritual” as immaterial is not derived from biblical usage.
What about John and Paul’s exhortation to “keep separated from the world” and “fix your eyes on the things above and not earthly things”?
They were reffering to an ethical dillema, namely sin, and not an ontological one.
Why we miss the centrality of creation within the Bible?
- Enlightenment’s individualism
- We tend to interpret the Bible in terms of our own individual story
- Our story is more concerned with the issue of the salvation of the human soul.
- The effects of metaphysical dualism
- “Nature” refers to the material order around us
- What is most essentially us, is our mind and the soul, which exist outside of nature.
