Men will give their life or limb to accomplish a mission that has captured their heart—like protecting their wife, children, or homeland. Is today’s church failing to capture the hearts of men with the greatness of Christ’s mission? You decide.
Adam’s Mission in Creation. Last week we learned that Adam, as God’s image- bearer, was created to be a king and given the earth as his kingdom. His fundamental calling is to do what kings do, i.e., exercise dominion over his kingdom. But he must reign FOR The High King, in accord with God’s moral nature. As God’s image-bearer, Adam must exhibit God’s holiness to the world. Therefore, he must shape his kingdom’s culture according to the righteous standards of The High King.
Adam’s Fall Causes His Kingdom to be Cursed. Genesis 3 records the tragic rebellion of our first parents and the consequent subjection of their kingdom to Satan, Sin, and Death. Instead of ruling FOR the High King, in submission to him, they chose to rule FOR themselves. Because Adam and Eve aligned themselves with Satan’s revolt against God, their kingdom was given over to Satan’s rule. (Eph 2:2, Luke 4:5-7) By their sinful rebellion they and their posterity became enslaved to the tyrant, Sin. (Rom 6:17-18). In a perfect symmetry of justice, their rebellion, as subjects in the High King’s kingdom, causes their own kingdom to rebel against them. The earth is cursed. Work will only be accomplished through sweat, childbirth only through pain. The earth and their physical bodies became subject to decay and death. The destructive triumvirate, Satan, Sin, and Death rule.
Adam’s Redemption Foretold. But before our gracious God even explained man’s punishment for his rebellion, he announces that a redeemer would one day come to crush Satan and his rebellion (Gen 3:15). A second Adam would come (1 Cor 15:45). Though the first Adam was tempted with his stomach full, in a lush garden, his beautiful wife beside him, and fruit trees surrounding them, the second Adam would be tempted at the point of starvation, alone, with nothing but barren rocks around him. But there in the wilderness, (and later at the Garden of Gethsemane) Jesus would defeat Satan, redeeming, i.e. setting free, Adam’s race and kingdom from its slavery to Satan, Sin, and Death.
Adam’s Kingdom Recovered. The promised messiah would defeat the kingdom of darkness at the cross (Col 2:15). Jesus came not just to buy an eternal life insurance policy for his people (overcoming death) but as a triumphant king, a glimpse of which we see on Palm Sunday in Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The crowd knew that the messiah was to be a conquering king, in the line of David. They cried, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:10). But they misunderstood who their real oppressor was.
Despite the widespread notion that the kingship of the Messiah would be in the form of a political/military state, the messianic prophecies had always contained clues that the oppressors of God’s people to be overthrown were far more deadly than earthly rulers. Jesus’ miracles had also deliberately foreshadowed this truth. He cast out demons to routinely show his power over the rulers of darkness. He demonstrated and taught that the righteousness of his kingdom went way beyond outward obedience to the law, and explained that the spiritual fruit of such righteousness could only come by abiding in him. (John 15:4-5) Jesus’ continual healing of broken bodies proved his ability to reverse the curse of decay on the ground, culminated by raising a little girl, a widow’s son, and Lazarus from the dead to foreshadow his victory over death.
To Follow Jesus is to Enlist in His Cause. Adam’s original call to be fruitful and fill the earth was the call to make disciples of every nation. Despite Adam’s rebellion, a second Adam has come. He and his followers will now be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth with those who will rule Adams kingdom in righteousness for the High King teaching others to do whatever Jesus commanded (Matt 28:19-20), relying on Christ’s power in them. In Christ, Adam’s original calling is now fully recovered, not in a way that separates the Cultural Mandate from the Great Commission but in a way that sees the Great Commission as the restoration of Adam’s original mandate. We are commissioned to take Jesus’ kingdom of righteousness geographically to the ends of the earth and spiritually to the very gates of hell. That is a mission worthy of the fullest allegiance of our hearts!
