{"id":5883,"date":"2018-09-02T04:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T04:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artiosmagazine.org\/?p=5883"},"modified":"2023-08-29T11:22:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T17:22:40","slug":"image-bearing-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baonline.cog7engage.net\/image-bearing-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Collective Image-Bearing Mission: Do You Accept?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat is your calling<\/a>?\u201d If we were visiting over tea, what would your gut response be? Would you think for a while before answering, or would the words drip freely from your mouth?<\/p>\n

Embedded within humanity is this deep-felt desire to not only know that our lives have meaning but also experience the peace of mind that we are indeed\u00a0living out<\/em>\u00a0that meaning. However, we often ask the wrong questions, and thus, arrive at incomplete answers.<\/p>\n

Human Calling<\/h3>\n

Asking the right questions begins with getting outside ourselves to embrace not our\u00a0personal<\/em>\u00a0uniqueness, but rather the uniqueness of humanity and then become enamored with the\u00a0collective goal<\/em>\u00a0of humanity. To be sure, the inhabitants of this planet clearly have no allegiance to a collective goal. However, this doesn\u2019t mean that the goal does not exist. It just means that we have to search for it.<\/p>\n

In Genesis 2\u00a0we find the first representatives of humanity entering into a partnership with the Creator. In the midst of creation, God had designed a paradisiacal garden that functioned as His temple. A place where heaven met earth. He made His presence tangibly known in this place, and the first man and woman served as His priests. How they cared for the temple-garden reflected how God cared for it Himself.<\/p>\n

However, unlike a temple made of stones, this temple was designed to expand. Paradise would not always be confined to this area among four rivers. As humanity increased in number, the garden would expand until it filled the entire earth. That is, until all of earth became a temple of God, where all of earth was caught up in heaven to serve as a place where God would be \u201cat home.\u201d God planned from the beginning to partner with humans to literally bless the whole earth. But they didn\u2019t know how the plan would work.<\/p>\n

Image-bearing Mission<\/h3>\n

The notion of calling is also inextricably wrapped up in the word\u00a0vocation<\/em>. From the root word\u00a0vocare<\/em>\u00a0(Latin: \u201cto call\u201d),\u00a0vocation<\/em>\u00a0embodies this sense of action related to a call. If humanity\u2019s call is to partner with God to bless the entire earth, the action associated with this call is to interact with the world as God does.<\/p>\n

We tend to relegate the term\u00a0image of God<\/em>\u00a0to physical appearance that represents a reflection of an invisible God. Yet humans were not designed as inanimate statues in the temple of an inactionable God. In his book\u00a0You Are What You Love<\/em>, James K. A. Smith asserts, \u201cThe \u2018image of God\u2019 (imago Dei<\/em>) is not some de facto property of homo sapiens .\u00a0.\u00a0. rather, the image of God is a\u00a0task<\/em>, a mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”The \u2018image of God\u2019 is not some de facto property of homo sapiens, rather, the image of God is a\u00a0task, a mission. – James K. A. Smith”]<\/p>\n

This action of imaging God is what N. T. Wright refers to in\u00a0The Day the Revolution Began\u00a0<\/em>as the covenant of vocation:<\/p>\n

The vocation .\u00a0.\u00a0. is that of being a genuine human being, with genuinely human tasks to perform as part of the Creator\u2019s purpose for [His] world. The main task of this vocation is \u201cimage-bearing,\u201d reflecting the Creator\u2019s wise stewardship into the world and reflecting the praises of all creation back to its maker.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story of humanity is our collective rejection of this vocation and with it, a refusal to partner with God in His vision to bless the entire earth with His manifest presence. The story of the Bible is the account of how 1) God is faithful to His original intent that all of earth will become His dwelling place and 2) He is committed to bless the earth by partnering with humanity in the rule of creation.<\/p>\n

Covenant Renewed<\/h3>\n

Consider the covenant God made with Abraham. This man and his descendants would take possession of a sanctified space of earth. There they were to faithfully follow God so that \u201call peoples on earth will be blessed through you\u201d (Genesis 12:3). This agreement was a renewal of the covenant of the vocation of image bearing.<\/p>\n

As Moses prepared to lead the Israelites into this promised land of blessing, where \u201cmilk and honey flowed,\u201d God once again renewed this covenant with this branch of Abraham\u2019s descendants. As they reflected God\u2019s rule of and reign in that space, all who came into contact with this reign would be blessed.<\/p>\n

Covenantal Law as a Schoolmaster<\/h4>\n

However, the Israelites demonstrated on their trek to Sinai that they did not know\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0to do this. Instead of mirroring God\u2019s faithfulness, they argued, complained, and exhausted Moses with personal disputes. Galatians says that God had to give them a covenantal law as a schoolmaster. This provided a structure by which they would learn how to love God and one another. Thus, they could act out their covenant with God to bless the whole earth. However, it is one thing to desire to do what is good and something else to physically carry out that desire.<\/p>\n

What makes Jesus\u2019 new covenant with humanity so revolutionary is that as the image of God, He imaged God perfectly (Colossians 1:15). Not only did He\u00a0show<\/em>\u00a0us how to image God in a way the written law could not, He also gave us the Holy Spirit to\u00a0enable<\/em>\u00a0us to live out that covenant of vocation that He called humanity to in the very beginning. In doing so, God made our\u00a0bodies<\/em>\u00a0the new temple \u2014 the new place where heaven meets earth. As the earth comes into contact with the rule of Christ in our lives, people will indeed be blessed.<\/p>\n

[bctt tweet=”As the earth comes into contact with the rule of Christ in our lives, people will indeed be blessed. – Amber Riggs”]<\/p>\n

Personal calling<\/h3>\n

So, what is your calling? It is to embrace your influence, great or small, to reflect Christ\u2019s life within you to wherever you are at any moment, with whatever gifts God has given you, bringing glory to God as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.\u00a0Amen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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A version of this article was published here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Here are some additional resources to help you embrace your leadership calling:<\/p>\n