God the Peacemaker 2
Chapter Two: The glory and garbage of the universe
I´m regularly amazed by the wonderful sacrificial acts of my fellow mankind and simultaneously stunned and horrified by the savagery and depravity of mankind. This is often seen in `natural disasters´ – great acts of bravery and practical love; looting of people´s possessions with their lives already devastated.
How do we make sense of this? Graham Cole in the second chapter of God the Peacemaker: how atonement brings shalom clearly shows what God says in His Word about glory and garbage in the universe.
Glory? Humankind has been created in the divine image and lieness (Gen 1:26-28). We are like God in some unique way, but as Graham rightly points out, this image is not clearly defined in the Genesis text (but in the totality of Scripture, “life, will and moral sense are necessary conditions for the exercise of dominion that is done in concert with others”).
In discussing `glory´ Graham highlights the biblical theme of tabernacle/temple (discussed in Gordon Wenham´s Genesis 1-15 Word Commentary), starting in Eden with Adam keeping the garden like later priests were to tend the tabernacle.
Garbage? We can trace it back to Adam and Eve´s rupture of their intimste relationship with their Creator: “fear and flight replace intimacy and fellowship.” Not only is the vertical relationship ruptured, but male/female relationships become strained as does the realtionship to the environment.
Peace with God has been broken. Human nature is now flawed. The image has been seriously `cracked´ – but not destroyed. It requires renewal (Col 3:10). Before our author explores in depth what is required to renew our cracked image, he will make sure we properly understand the problem that atonement remedies. That´s for chapter 3 in God the Peacemaker and will be our next post from this book.