The tragedy of human history
Donald G Miller cut to the chase when he said, "The story of human history is the story of broken relationships. The tragedy of this, however, cannot be fully understood until it is seen in the light of what history was intended to be. The purpose of history has been sidetracked." "Sidetracked" isn't quite the word, I would have thought of; humanly speaking, "derailed" maybe.
What history was intended to be was the rise and the rise of holy, happy humans, brimful of life and reflecting the image of their Holy God in their fellowship and exercise of dominion in and over the creation (Genesis 1:26-28). These happy holy mortals were meant to rise and rise under God to become happy holy immortals—for all the complexities and difficult issues involved, Colossians 1:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 speak to this.
And it's only in light of what we were meant to be that the full tragedy of what we became and are is seen.
In the man, Jesus of Nazareth, who is God being a man, we got an opportunity to see what we were and are meant to be. He is the new and last Adam, the founder of a new humanity who in his own personal and life brought into human history what had not been there before—a complete and lifelong holy devotion of a child to a Holy Father. In him "the world" (sinful corruption so organised as to overwhelm the human family) was met, confronted and soundly thrashed—more than thrashed, in his experience, utterly dismantled. Every phase of it came tumbling down in wreck and ruin, even death, which he killed in his glorious resurrection.
It is the business of the NT elect, which is the "body of Christ" to keep Jesus before the eyes of the chaotic world by telling the Story, pursuing his purposes, having his mind and imaging his understanding of dominion. The gospels, each in their own way, show us what that means when it is lived out in the life of Jesus. If Christians are to live out the Story it's important that they get to know the Story.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
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