Where We Began
Accounts of how the world came to be – cosmogonies, creation myths – are various. A warrior god slew a primeval chaos-dragon, and made the world from its carcass – that’s one prescientific version, popular in ancient Mesopotamia. The popular version in our day, is that nothing gave itself being, and organized itself through random mechanistic and material interactions. The Mesopotomian creation myth might be more persuasive. How does nothing cause something? And how can random material mechanisms produce reason, beauty, justice, and love?
That ancient account thinks of the world as fundamentally evil – made of dragon’s blood and dragon’s flesh, a power of chaos that at any point may rise up and destroy us. The modern account thinks of the world as fundamentally meaningless – matter fit only to be mastered and manipulated according to our own arbitrary wills. They are both very ambiguous accounts of the world, to say the least.
In contrast, Genesis says that in its origins the world is altogether good, and nothing but good, because it is nothing but the work of God’s Word and Spirit – a God who is infinite Being, and who can therefore m creation donate being to other things, (creatures). Moreover, Genesis says that man (both male and female) is made in his image and likeness, and therefore is capable of memory, reason, and will (or love), the three activities of spiritual life. Moreover, it indicates that man is made for God – to glorify him and enjoy him for ever. We are made for rest in the great Sabbath rest of God; to rest in him, as he rests in himself (Gen. 2:1,2): “thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee”.
Where then does everything go wrong, if evil is not in the world as created? Why are we not still in the original harmony and peace of Eden? Here again the narratives of Genesis illuminate our experience. It is not in the nature of things, not in the nature of man, not in the freedom of the will, but in the perverse abuse of this freedom, that discord enters the world, alienating man from God, male from female, man from nature, brother from brother, darkening the mind, inflaming the passions (Genesis 3 and 4, Romans 1, Ephesians 4). We do not begin where Adam began, with power to choose good or evil, but where Adam left off, with an inclination to do evil which affects everything (even the best things) that we do. It’s called the doctrine of original or inherited sin, and it makes sense of the flaws and limitations we encounter in every aspect of life. That’s why, with the best of intentions and the amazing power of modern science and technology, we have made and do make the world the dreary mess that it mostly is. That’s why we have such difficulty thinking straight, doing good, loving truly. That’s why we experience the world so often with guilt, fear, anger, pride, discouragement, and despair rather than delight.
Sobering as this account undoubtedly is, it is nonetheless full of hope. Because the evil is not in the nature of things, it’s not in God, it’s in the will. And though we cannot of ourselves overcome the bondage, God (of his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness) can, and (as he promised Genesis 3:15) God has done so, in Christ, and through faith in him and repentance, we are and shall be delivered “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God”. The doctrine of original sin is sobering, but it is integral to our hope. The disease indeed is bad, but the remedy, and the prognosis, is good.
It is this perspective, of creation, and fall, that underlies the season of shared spiritual disciplines we call Lent. As a community of penitent and forgiven sinners, who put our entire trust in Christ for our salvation, we are not only forgiven, but also being healed and made holy by the grace of his Spirit. That’s why we give ourselves together to the practice of good works in gratitude for his grace, that we may amend our lives, and repair the damage sin has wrought, to the healing of our souls, and of our world.