The story so far
At the end our last article (Briefing #180), the picture regarding work was still fairly grim. Adam’s sin had lead to mankind’s loss of dominion in the world, with the result that work—which was an expression of his dominion—had become painful, difficult and frustrated. It was toil.
As the story unfolded, we saw that with Solomon it seemed that mankind might once more fulfil the mandate given in Genesis 1:26-28 to rule and subdue the earth. Yet Solomon was still under Adam’s curse and his work was still, in the end, toil (as seen in Ecclesiastes). We were left looking for another, for one who would restore mankind’s dominion and do away with the pain and frustration that accompanies all our life in the created order—including our daily work.
This Other is of course Jesus the Christ. What does the coming of Jesus mean for our daily work? Have we entered a new era in which we can expect work to be less frustrating and more productive? Does work have a new significance in the kingdom of God? What new possibilities are opened up for our work by what Jesus has done?
In order to answer these questions, we need to understand just what it is that Jesus has done, what is the nature of his dominion, and how, most importantly, we share in it.
The last Adam
When Adam was confronted by the delicious prospect of gaining wisdom like God, he grasped the opportunity and ate. Solomon was also attracted by God’s wisdom—he asked for it and it was granted to him. As the Bible’s story reaches its climax, however, a Man enters the drama who is God’s wisdom incarnate. With the coming of Jesus, God’s Word becomes flesh and walks among us.
In Jesus, we see humanity as we were created to be—the perfect image of God who rules the earth. In fact, we see more than simply another ‘Adam’ (remember the word ‘Adam’ means ‘man’); we encounter the final or last Adam whom the first Adam foreshadowed (see 1 Cor 15:45-49). These themes are reflected in the Gospels in a number of ways.
Firstly, in Jesus’ own life, we see a Man in loving fellowship with God. Jesus lives by the Word, in complete obedience to his Father. He is tested (in the Wilderness and in the Garden), but unlike both Adam and Solomon he comes through. He has an intimateand unfettered relationship with the Creator.
Flowing from this, Jesus also relates rightly to the creation, exercising authority over it, as humanity was created to do. He calms the raging storm with a word. He walks on the water. He scatters disease and death wherever he goes. Jesus is portrayed throughout the Gospels as the Lord of Creation, the Son of Man who convincingly and decisively exercises dominion over the world. In this, he not only acts on the divine mandate given to Adam, but fulfils it. One greater than Adam has arrived; the man from heaven. God himself has become man.
This is also reflected in Jesus’ teaching. Unlike the Scribes of his day, Jesus speaks with authority. His teaching reveals the Father, and the Father’s wisdom for living. Because Jesus alone has seen the Father and makes him known, he teaches us how to live in right relation to both the Creator and his creation.
At a broader level, Christ also displays his authority over the spiritual realm. His mission is a direct confrontation with the Strong Man (Satan), whose strength is seen in the enslavement of humanity to sin, demonic possession, disease and death. Rather than being mastered by Satan as Adam was, Jesus binds the Strong Man and plunders his house.
The story reaches its climax as the Last Adam dies as a ransom for many, and is raised to new life as the firstborn of many brothers. Through his pain and distress, he deals with the root cause of our pain and distress. In the obedience of Christ, even to death, the disobedience of Adam is answered and swallowed up, and mankind can once again relate to the Creator in unhindered fellowship.
The resurrection is a very important part of this. According to 1 Corinthians 15, it is the point at which the new ‘mankind’ begins:
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. (1 Cor 15:45-49).
Notice what this is saying. God breathed into Adam’s nostrils and he became the first “living being”, the progenitor of a vast dust-based humanity. In the same way, in raising Jesus from the dead, God inaugurates a new humanity, who will draw their life from the Last Adam, the life-giving spirit. We will bear his image, just as we have borne the flawed, earthly image of the first Adam. “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor 15:21-22).
In his resurrection, then, Jesus the Man is declared the ruler of the world. All authority is granted to him, and his disciples are sent to preach his Lordship throughout the world, in order that men and women everywhere might submit to him. In Acts, we see this beginning to happen.
Christ’s dominion and us
It is at this point that we must be careful. We have laid down the groundwork of who Jesus is, and how he came to reverse the curse of Adam—and it is tempting now simply to jump to how this affects ‘work’. Before we do this, however, we need to note four very important things about how the Lordship or dominion of Jesus relates to us now. Only with these things firmly in our minds can we draw right conclusions about how the big picture of the Bible relates to our daily work.
Firstly, the good news is that we can participate in the benefits of Christ’s work now, by faith. By being united with him, we share in his death for our sins and are raised to new life in him. By being ‘in Christ’, we are declared right with God now, and become part of the new redeemed humanity, one of the many brothers destined for glory. Even now, through God’s rich mercy we are seated “in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6; cf Heb 12:23), and share in his dominion.
Secondly, however, it is important to remember that all this is granted to us in hope. As Paul puts it: “Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Rom 8:24-25). We share in Christ’s dominion now, spiritually, as we bring our lives under his authority, and as we participate in the work of bringing others under his authority (through proclaiming the gospel). But the full possession and consummation of all that is ours in Christ lies in the future—the time when we will be resurrected with a body like his, when we will rule and judge the world as his holy people, when we will be co-inheritors with him of the heavenly kingdom (1 Cor 6:3; Rom 8:17; Rev 20:6). All this we long and groan for, but it lies ahead of us.
Thirdly, then, we continue to live now in a flawed, groaning, frustrated creation in which everything is not yet set right (Rom 8:18-25). Our dominion over the created world has not yet been restored. We still expect suffering, difficulty, pain and distress as the routine character of life. As much as we long for perfect health, world peace, economic justice, and prosperity for all, these things will never be a reality in this world. They belong to the freedom of the next world, as do we.
Fourthly, as we wait in faith and hope for Christ’s appearing, the basic character of our lives is to be loving service. Love describes the relationship we have with Jesus in his Lordship: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul” (1 Peter 1:8-9). In love, we submit to Jesus’ dominion and serve him, obeying all his commandments, and doing everything in his name. Love and service also describe our relationships with others. We are to follow the example and the commandment of our Lord in laying down our lives for others, focusing ourselves on them, and finding our purpose in serving them.
Conclusions
We have seen that the Bible is about a network of relationships—between God, mankind and the creation—and that the story of the Bible is largely to do with the unravelling of these relationships, and God’s initiative to restore and perfect them in Christ. Work is integrally related to this, as are all ethical issues, and having finished our big picture (rough sketch that it is) let us try to outline what this means for our daily work.
Work and toil
Even though we await a new heavens and earth, we are still committed to this one. It is important to notice that in sending his Son to redeem humanity, God declares his intention to ‘stick with’ his creation. He does not scrap the sinful, fallen world and start again. The Word of God enters the creation, is born as a man, lives and dies as a man, and is raised as a man. The resurrected Christ is God’s great stamp of approval for his creation, and his indication that he has redeemed it, and plans to transform it.
This is why Christians continue to respect the natural (that is to say, created) structures of life while looking forward to their transformation in the next world. We still rejoice in the goodness of marriage, even though there will be no marriage in the resurrection. We still work, even though the next world is described as “God’s rest”. Rather like the exiles in Babylon, we continue to “seek the welfare of the city” where God has put us (Jer 29:6), as we wait for the Eternal City, whose architect and builder is God. Work is a good, right and proper part of God’s created order. This is certainly the assumption of the apostle Paul in his teaching about work. He puts it as bluntly as this: “If anyone will not work; let him not eat” (2 Thess 3:10). We must be careful not to devalue the importance and goodness of daily work, nor to exempt ourselves from it.
However, our work will continue to be plagued by toil. Our glorious reign with Christ is something we look forward to in the next world, and so in the meantime our failure to subdue the earth continues. We will keep on being frustrated and defeated by our work, finding it a source of difficulty and distress. In this sense, we will still experience the toil and despair of Ecclesiastes (as well as its gratefulness to God whenever we are blessed with satisfaction in our work). This perspective prevents us from being too optimistic about our work, or investing it with too much significance. Our daily work is not the ‘answer’ to the world’s problems, nor is it how God will change the world and bring in his kingdom. It remains toil.
As we toil, however, we must remember that Jesus’ life, too, was toil and pain and distress. Throughout his ministry, he faced many temptations and struggles, and ultimately of course the humiliation and degradation of death at the hands of those whom he had created. He was a man of sorrows, a suffering servant. Note how the apostle Peter draws a lesson from this for the difficulties and injustices faced by other ‘suffering servants’:
Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the kind and gentle but also to the overbearing. For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:18-23).
Those who serve in their tasks, be it as a High Court Judge or a volunteer at a youth refuge, follow the example of their Lord and Saviour, Jesus the King. Though they are despised in this world, their hope is laid up in heaven where their treasures are stored (Mat.6:19ff.) Though their work is judged futile in this passing world they look forward in hope to the dominion that they will share with Jesus in the New Heavens and the New Earth.
Work and dominion
Precisely because we look forward to the next world, the toil and meaninglessness of Ecclesiastes will not be the last word on work for us. Because we now know the End towards which the whole of God’s purposes are moving, and because we know that we have a place in that kingdom prepared for us, nothing we do in this world can ever be the same again—whether work or marriage or raising children or anything. Work will be part of the ‘everything’ which we do in the name, and under the Lordship, of Jesus, the Man from heaven.
This is why the New Testament is far more concerned with our motivations and behaviour at work, and how we use our earnings for the sake of others, than with what particular job we do, or what we achieve through it. Work is just one more facet of our daily lives within the created order that is to be lived under the dominion of Jesus Christ, in loving service of him and of others. In fact, it is striking how many of the New Testament exhortations to work are framed in terms of ‘love’ (more on this in our next Briefing,).
Interestingly, this perspective helps us to see how daily secular work and ‘gospel work’ relate together. They are driven by the same truths and motivations. Because of the truth of Christ’s Lordship, we will want to bring our work under his dominion, doing it in a way that brings honour to him, working diligently and honestly, as for him (cf. Col 3:22-25). However, we will also want to see Christ’s dominion spreading everywhere in the lives of those around us—and so we will do all we can to support, encourage, pray for and actively engage in evangelistic enterprise in whatever ways are possible for us, whether at work, at home, with neighbours, at school, at church, or throughout the world.
Some, who have appropriate gifts and opportunities, will leave aside daily work and give themselves to this gospel proclamation full-time. However, the driving force or motivation remains the same. The love that drives us to work (so as not to be a burden to others, and to share with those in need) also compels us to proclaim the gospel of Christ. How we work that out in our own lives will depend much on how God has gifted us and the circumstances in which he has placed us.
