Category: Gospel

Genesis 12 in the Gospel Story and in the City

Genesis 12 is the opening chapter of the story of the Bible with Genesis 1-11 being the prelude. The first eleven chapters show us how desperate the plight of man is in his rebellion against God. Depravity is deep and pervasive. No self-cure can come from a fallen race.

God’s answer to the crisis of the first eleven chapters is the call of Abraham and the blessing upon Abraham and his seed. God takes the initiative in calling Abraham; God promises to bless him and commands him to be a blessing; God further promises that through the seed of Abraham all the nations of the world will find blessing. Abraham obeys and the land of Canaan is promised to his seed.  Abraham understood that what might be experienced in the kingdom of Israel on earth was at best only temporary and a foreshadowing of that eternal city ‘whose builder and maker is God.”

The remainder of the Old Testament story is the outworking of this promise to Abraham. In some sense as both Adam and Noah  were given a new world in which to serve and worship the Lord, Abraham and his seed are promised a new world (Canaan) in which they will serve and worship the Lord. In Noah and Abraham there is a movement to return to what was lost in the Garden. Noah and his descendants after him failed to serve and worship and failed to regain what was lost. Abram will show his in his act of deception that he is affected by the fall and is not the One who comes to restore all things. Eventually the Old Testament story will end with the physical descendants of Abraham proving their inability to be faithful and leaving us looking for that seed ‘in whom all the nations of the world will find blessings.”

Galatians 3 tells us that the ‘seed’ of Abraham through whom blessing comes is Jesus and that all of those ‘in Jesus” by faith, regardless of ethnicity inherit the promise to Abraham.

Paul affirms that this was the gospel preached to Abraham. — that the One who comes to restore all things, to defeat the serpent, to atone for sin, and to lift the curse is Jesus Christ.

In urban centers around the world, the promise to Abraham that ‘all nations of the world will find blessing’ is being fulfilled as the gospel is preached and many, like Abraham, place their faith in Christ.

Unlike Abraham, we seek no temporal land of promise because we have found in Jesus the rest and the inheritance that comes from “being in the land.” Together in Christ, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, we enjoy all the blessings of ‘landedness’ in Christ.

Like Abraham, we sojourn here while still looking for that eternal city, whose builder and maker is God.  There we will gather with the redeemed of all ages from all nations to worship the Lamb who is worthy of our praise.

Genesis 10-11 in the Gospel Story and in the City

­­Genesis 10-11 shows again the effects of the fall in the revolt of humankind against their Creator God. Here fallen mankind seeks to find security and peace through their united efforts in city building. Instead of scattering throughout the earth to fulfill the creation mandate, they build a tower to symbolize their united effort to develop human society their own way. Their common language, which is a gift of God designed to make possible God-centered community, is instead used in an attempt to secure their lives apart from God.

God confuses their language and scatters them in judgment. Yet, in the midst of that judgment there is grace. As humankind begins to experience the fragility of their idolatrous, self-made security, they may begin to seek the True Prince of Peace.

Acts 17:26-27   26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,  27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.

Humankind scattered in judgment and in grace awaits God’s redeeming intervention. That intervention is anticipated in the genealogy that leads to Abraham who will model the way of justification by faith.

The geographical and linguistic divisions of the human race are largely being erased today in a world where travel, commerce, and technology transfer people, products, and information across all boundaries. Also, institutions like the United Nations attempt to bring together this divided world, pursuing a Babel-like security. Cities often become, not the melting pots, but the stews, where these diverse people live in the same city but yet remain separate. Despite all the programs on multiculturalism and diversity, all human attempts to unify the nations that ignore the need to be first reconciled to the Creator God ultimately fail.

The way to re-unify the nations of the world is modeled in Abraham who exemplifies the way of justification by faith and whose descendant, Jesus, will eventually be the One who reconciles people to God and to each other.         Urban church planting has the unique opportunity and joy of experiencing the unity of the nations that only the gospel can bring. People who were formerly divided by economic, racial, and educational barriers now gather together in the gospel to worship Jesus Christ as Lord and King of all the nations. We are beginning to taste this at Grace Church of Philly (www.gracechurchphilly.org) and we long for more.

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