Faithful World

I recently listened to a talk on the faithfulness of God. Let’s just say it sums up everything that I’ve been working through and developing theologically, in terms of humanity’s purpose on earth and the connection it has to the Bible. 

NT Wright spoke at Mars Hill Church in Michigan back in November, and I was there to witness the earth-shattering beauty that was painted before me. Everything clicked; that man has some fantastically established ideals. Let me share with you the basics of his message* and the implications it holds for mankind and its flourishing commission. 


When addressing the Bible and its message, it is imperative to avoid viewing it as a collection of independent, self-standing books. Rather, the books house their own story, but they combine to form a larger, comprehensive narrative. This narrative often seems to be repetitive, but it is actually rhyming. It has different layers that ring together. 

The narrative is a layered narrative––there are micro-narratives within the main narrative. What is the big story? NT Wright explains: It centers on God and the creation, cosmos, and existence of everything. It deals with the creation and God’s redemption of everything. 

God has an innate desire to see everything created grow towards and reach a state of flourishing––to reach a Garden-like state of being. This is the outer most layer of the narrative. 

The story of humanity in God’s image and humanity’s call to be missionaries into creation is the second layer, the next layer beyond the outer one. 

This call of man to go into creation and redeem it, reflecting it back to God, shows a great explanation of Biblical vocation. Man is supposed to be a reflector, going into the world as it is presently, and finding redeeming ways to send glory and love back to God. 

The phrase is often mistranslated to mean not “of” the world; correctly, it is saying that God’s people are not from this world, but for it.

Mankind is called to be faithful to the rest of the world, as God was faithful to Israel, despite its defiant addiction to sin.

God’s faithfulness is shown because he never gave up on us. He wanted us to flourish. A classic example of this is seen in the story of Abraham. 

Next, the third layer into the overall narrative surrounds the story of God and the nation of Israel.

The resolution is seen in the fourth layer––arguably the most essential layer to the entire narrative. Jesus’ life is the resolution of God’s faithful work in creation. This layer contains the bulk of God’s faithfulness, seen as human flesh.

The influence of the layers and God’s faithfulness makes sense when viewing all of the layers from the inside to the outside: Jesus came to bring the Israelites to their climax, knowing that his rejection was unavoidable. Jesus rescues Israel, for the sake of Humanity, for the entire world, all for the purpose of flourishing. 

God set the ideal goal for faithfulness and love. We are to embody his example when we look to addressing the world. This is where Tom Wright’s talk became overwhelmingly brilliant to me. He said that people need to rediscover memory. We are the new exodus. We cannot forget where we came from, and we also need to remember the things we are a part of presently.

Also, imagination. 

We cannot dismiss art and things that are beautiful. This is the hardest thing for me to deal with––people ignoring or downplaying beautiful creations due to a lack of appreciation of worshipful art. Beauty is inextricably bound to truth and deep things. It honors God.

Beauty makes sense through the lens of the Gospel. God is leading us to the recreation of the world, which is already beautiful, by making it fully beautiful and great.  

We are to put up sign posts that recognize and acknowledge the world’s present beauty, pointing towards the beautiful future. 

This approach to the world mirrors God’s faithful approach to Israel; it acknowledges the beauty that is present all throughout the world (secular or not), and sends a redeeming, glorifying reflection back to God. We should celebrate God’s glory through beautiful things. 

Our job is to work at putting the world right again, in pieces, waiting on God to complete his work in the future. God puts people right so that they can work to put others right. 

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*All theological theories and philosophies were inspired or derived directly from NT Wright and the talk he gave on 11/20/2013. I do not claim to have originated these beliefs, though I full-heartedly resonate and agree with them. Please do check out Wright's books, as they fully expostulate the theories that have been spoken of here. If you want to listen to the talk that I have summarized, you may find it on Mars Hill Church's website.