Cultural Renewal: A Christian Calling?
December 13, 2006
Last week, Republican Senator Sam Brownback, “favorite of the religious right” according to CNN, announced that he is formally considering running for president in 2008. What interests me about Brownback’s announcement is his statement that one of his campaign’s primary objectives is to “renew our culture” in the United States. Media reports cynically have tended to chalk up such rhetoric to the senator’s desire to position himself as “the traditional values candidate.” At least one writer has observed that Brownback’s concern about the condition of the culture is likely a direct consequence of his efforts to learn how his faith ought to influence his public service.
I suspect that the notion of a committed Christian in high public office seeking cultural renewal may make many Americans nervous – professing Christians included. I can already hear people raising alarms about the impending theocracy. I do not intend, in this space, to address the concerns of nonbelievers. Instead, I would like to speak to those within the Christian community who may doubt the relevance or importance of the faith to an objective as sweepingly broad as the renewal of the culture.
I recently had an exchange with a Christian brother named Danny on the related but narrower issue of faith and government, one component of the culture. Danny said:
I don’t believe that the cross had anything to do with politics, or government. The cross’s only objective was to bring the opportunity for the forgiveness of sins to mankind. And if that is what the cross was all about, then that is what WE should be all about.
The notion that faith is personal – i.e., that is has no relevance in public discourse – is a commonly held view. Even Christians frequently limit their religious duties to evangelizing and bringing people to Christ. (Sadly, some church leaders have forsaken even this duty.) But this understanding of Christianity does not square with Holy Scripture. As awesome, important and incredible as personal salvation for humankind is, the Bible does not limit the relevance of the cross to this.
Jesus Christ’s passive obedience – His redemptive work of dying and rising again – had an objective far broader than providing “the opportunity for the forgiveness of sins to mankind.” Jesus’ propitiation extends as far as sin extends. Through Him, God was pleased “to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:18-20). See also Revelation 21:5 (God will make “all things new”). In other words, Christ’s work on the cross not only provided an opportunity for each person to be reconciled with God, but also set the stage for the restoration of the rest of creation, including man’s relationships with each other and nature.
When I reminded Danny of these passages, he demurred, claiming that “outside of man,” the creation – e.g., “birds and beasts,” “the land and sea, the moon, sun and stars” – “never needed any kind of restoration.” I don’t think that claim can withstand biblical scrutiny. The effects of the Fall extend far beyond man’s alienation from God. As Paul put it, “the whole of creation . . . groan[s]” as a result of Adam’s sin (Romans 8:22). All of creation is in “bondage” and subject to “suffering,” “decay” and “pain” (vv.18-22). The ground has been cursed, and our work made difficult and less fruitful (Genesis 3:17-19). Trouble and anguish characterize our relationships with one another (v.16). The institutions provided by God remain under His authority, but they too are tainted by sin and in need of redemption. This is true of government (e.g., Daniel 4:25-27; Dan. 3), the practice of religion (e.g., Genesis 4; 1 Kings 12:25-33), and our notions of justice and poetry (Genesis 4:23-24).
Just as the Lord’s redemptive work knows no bounds, so too must our work as His servants in this world at this time.
Genuine Christianity is more than a relationship with Jesus, as expressed in personal piety, church attendance, Bible study, and works of charity. It is more than discipleship, more than believing a system of doctrines about God. Genuine Christianity is a way of seeing and comprehending all reality. (Colson & Pearcey, How Now Shall We Live?, p.15.)
The scriptural roots of this understanding of Christianity reach back as far as Genesis 1. For the first five days, as described in Genesis, God directly carried out His creative work. On the sixth day, He created the first humans, making them in His image and likeness, granting them dominion over all the earth (Genesis 1:26-27).
From then on, the development of the creation [would] be primarily social and cultural: It [would] be the work of humans as they obey God’s command to fill and subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28). . . . [T]he task of exploring and developing [creation’s] powers and potentialities, the task of building a civilization, God turn[ed] over to his image bearers. “By being fruitful they must fill it even more; by subduing it they must form it even more.” (How Now Shall We Live?, p.295, quoting Al Wolters, Creation Regained.)
At no point has the Lord relieved humankind of this mandate. The Fall brought evil and sin into human history, distorting the created order. But it did not destroy that order or abolish our commission to tend, care and cultivate it. The Lord continues to bless the entire creation with His common grace – His work of:
sustain[ing] creation, holding back the sin and evil that result from the Fall and that would otherwise overwhelm his creation like a great flood. As agents of God’s common grace, we are called to help sustain and renew his creation, to uphold the created institutions of family and society, to pursue science and scholarship, to create works of art and beauty, and to heal and help those suffering from the results of the Fall. (Id. at xii.)
With every thought, word and deed we either cooperate with or frustrate God’s common grace. We promote righteousness and restrain evil, or we contribute to the broken condition of the culture.
Every private decision contributes to the moral and cultural climate in which we live, rippling out in ever widening circles – first in our personal and family lives, and then in the broader society. . . . That’s because every decision we make reflects our worldview. Every choice, every action, either expresses a false worldview and thus contributes to a disordered and broken world, or expresses God’s truth and helps build a world that reflects his created order. (Id. at 294.)
So, I ask you – I ask myself – what have I done today to serve as a faithful agent of God’s common grace? Have my words, thoughts and deeds reflected a sufficiently serious respect for the biblical mandate to cultivate a Godly culture? Or, as I recently heard David Wells put it, does the truth about God, including the truth of His cultural mandate, rest too inconsequentially upon me?
