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In Genesis One we find our Redeemer-King creating and forming a world to be inhabited and ruled by those made in His image. Creation was a gracious blessing and generous gift to humankind. All was perfect; all was glorious.  But, as we read Genesis one, we realize that the harmonious world conditions therein no longer exist. Our hearts are not in unison with God’s repeated summary, “all is good.” Instead our hearts cry out because of the brokenness within our lives and within the created world. 

Though Genesis One provides for us the origin of God’s World, it does not do so in order to generate scientific debate but to provoke spiritual desire. Genesis One exposes us to the good that once was and creates in us a desire to regain what was lost and to know the One who brought such a majestic universe into existence. The subsequent biblical and secular history of humankind, as well as our own personal history, reveals the utter powerlessness of men and women to regain what has been lost. Consequently, we long for a Redeemer-King who can rescue, rule, and restore. Ultimately He is the one who says, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5).

So Genesis One is an integral part of the gospel story, telling us that the world, as it is, is not what God intended, and causing us to anticipate One who would restore the world and us to an even greater enjoyment of God’s gracious gift and generous blessing.

T he urban centers of this world can no longer be called ‘good.’ There is no Eden in Philadelphia, Yet living with an awareness of the good that has been lost, city-dwellers seek to find Eden or build it themselves. Their efforts are noble but futile. This is not our world. It is still His. He is the Creator and He alone is wise and powerful enough to restore what is lost and repair what we have broken.  God chooses to begin that restoration in the hearts and lives of those who have rebelled against Him. This is the first step back —  to recognize that this is His world, we have ruined it and are ruined ourselves, and we need to be restored to Him first. Our hearts cry for the One who can do that!

The Gospel in Genesis and in the City

 Introduction

Genesis begins with God and ends with the dying words of Joseph who prophesied that God would visit his people and redeem them from Egypt.  Genesis is a gospel story, i.e. the entire book is the first chapter in the grand narrative of God’s redeeming grace. It begins with the story of creation which prepares us for redemptive themes as God by His word calls light out of darkness and order out of chaos.  Genesis is about blessing and loss of blessing, about innocence and loss of innocence, about exile and a longing to find rest. It is about an Edenic garden-temple and the divine commission of stewardship and worship; it is about rebellion, about spiritual conflict, and the promise of One who would triumph over evil.

Genesis 1-11 provides the prologue to the story line of the Bible in telling us of a once good world that is now fallen, broken, divided, and in rebellion. Genesis 12 begins the redemptive story of how God recreates a new people, a new land,  and a new mission of bringing blessing to the nations of the world. Israel becomes the new humanity to succeed where Adam had failed.  Israel will also fail as Adam did, and as we read the story of Israel, we yet long for the One who will triumph over evil and truly bring blessing to the nations of the world.

Genesis offers insight and encouragement to those who live and minister in urban environments. Though the world began in a garden-temple it eventually arrives at an urban temple. There are indications in Genesis that those who are made in God’s image seek community and urban living offers the promise of community. The first major attempt at city-building in Genesis represents man in rebellion against God. Contrariwise, the New Testament tells us that Abraham was looking for a city, whose builder and maker was God. Abraham desired a city designed for worship, not a Babel like monument to human rebellion. Human cities most often represent rebellion, not worship, and need redemption. Genesis offers much insight into how the unfolding story of the gospel relates to the desperate plight of urban dwellers as they seek to find rest and community in urban temples that worship the creature rather than the Creator.