In “The Day the Revolution Began,” NT Wright states:

“In most popular Christianity, ‘heaven’ (and ‘fellowship with God’ in the present) is the goal, and ‘sin’ (bad behavior, deserving punishment) is the problem. A Platonized goal and a moralizing diagnosis—and together they lead, as I have been suggesting, to a paganized ‘solution’ in which an angry divinity is pacified by human sacrifice.”

In the previous post, we looked at how the biblical goal is not “heaven” but God’s New Creation, where the two current dimensions of heaven and earth are fully renewed, joined and filled with God’s presence. Creation was intended to be God’s Temple, the place where he dwells and heaven and earth are merged. The New Creation is the ultimate goal of God’s purpose for his creation.

Within his creation, his temple, God fashioned men and women to be his image-bearers. We are to be the living embodiment where heaven and earth interact. Image-bearing is a royal priestly duty of reflecting the world’s worship to God (priestly duty) and God’s order and care to the world (royal duty). As such, image-bearing is to serve, protect and expand “sacred space” throughout the world. Fr Thomas Hopko states:

“As the image of God, ruler over creation and co-creator with the Uncreated Maker, man has the task to “reflect” God in creation; to make His presence, His will and His powers spread throughout the universe; to transform all that exists into the paradise of God.” -Fr Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith: Vol 1 – Doctrine and Scripture

Only through worship of God are humans able to bring God’s care and order to his world. Humanity’s failure then is the failure at this vocation, namely idolatry. Rather than reflecting worship to God, humans reflect worship back upon creation and then become enslaved to the created forces they worship. Sin is the result as enslaved humans attempt to live and prosper within this corrupted and distorted reality. Sin then produces injustice, introducing further distortion and corruption into creation.

All of this leads to the deconstruction of one’s humanness. Humans are humans only as they are God’s image-bearers. When a human stops bearing God’s image through idolatry and the subsequent sin and injustice, they undergo the process of becoming non-human. So while there is a moral dimension to humanity’s failure, the moral failure is symptomatic of a greater failure, the failure of vocation.

This is Paul’s diagnosis in Romans 1:18-25, which he summarizes in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” His word choice  for “sinned” means “to miss the mark.” All have missed the mark and fallen short of God’s glory, which is genuine humanness as his image-bearers. Paul’s diagnosis, while containing a moral dimension, is primarily vocational. In other words, humanity’s moral problem (idolatry and the consequential sins) is wrapped up in our larger vocational problem (failure to be God’s image-bearers).

This stands in stark contrast to the popular version of biblical anthropology. In this version, God tells humans to keep a moral code (don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil). Humans fail morally and are punished with death.

In this story, Israel repeats this failure. They are given a moral code, the Law, but fail at keeping it. As a result of their moral failure, humans are destined for death and hell. However, Jesus is able to obey the moral law perfectly. Therefore, his death pays the penalty for the rest of humankind. Now Jesus’ moral righteousness is imputed to any who believe in him.

Contrary to this popular version, humans are created to live within God’s heaven-and-earth creation as worshipping stewards, image-bearers, a royal priesthood. New Testament passages such as 1Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:5-6, Revelation 5:9-10, and Revelation 20:6 press this point.

Paul also addresses this biblical anthropology in his own life and ministry. In 2Corinthians 5:18-21, Paul states that Jesus’ death has restored the human vocation, which he eagerly embraces and embodies through the “ministry of reconciliation.” This ministry is the royal priesthood in action.

This vocational focus helps us understand large portions of the New Testament that has been popularly viewed as moral or ethical teachings. Again, while there is a moral dimension, the primary focus is vocation.

For example, Paul states in 1Timothy 6:11-16:

“But you belong to God, so you must run away from all this. Instead, chase after justice, godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Fight the noble fight of the faith, get a firm grasp on the life of the coming age, the life you were called to when you made the noble public profession before many witnesses. I give you this charge before God, who gives life to all things, and King Jesus, who made the noble profession before Pontius Pilate: be undefiled and blameless as you keep the commandment, until the royal appearing of our Lord King Jesus, which the blessed and only Sovereign One, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will reveal at its proper time. He is the only one who possesses immortality; he lives in unapproachable light; no human being has seen him, or can see him. To him be eternal honor and power, Amen!”

Or 2Peter 1:3-8:

“God has bestowed upon us, through his divine power, everything that we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue. The result is that he has given us, through these things, his precious and wonderful promises; and the purpose of all this is so that you may run away from the corruption of lust that is in the world, and may become partakers of the divine nature. So, because of this, you should strain every nerve to supplement your faith with virtue, and your virtue with knowledge, and your knowledge with self-control, and your self-control with patience, and your patience with piety, and your piety with family affection, and your family affection with love. If you have these things in plentiful supply, you see, you will not be wasting your time, or failing to bear fruit, in relation to your know ledge of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.”

Such passages seem to focus on “ethics.” But, rather, they are addressing our vocation as royal priests, the living embodiment of heaven-and-earth interaction. The point of passages like these  is not simply to learn to be good and moral people since Jesus has forgiven our sins. Transformed character matters not as an end to itself, but because it’s required to reflect God into the world. So “ethical” passages exhort us to prepare for and engage in one’s vocation as the royal priesthood in service to Jesus the King.

Our restored human vocation is to be formed into Christ’s likeness so we can live our lives as though Christ were living our life. Jesus is the true Image-bearer and the true Royal Priest. So we learn and train into his likeness — his character and power — so we can reflect God into our world as he did through beauty, justice, compassion, reconciliation and healing.

This is why we were created and, as we’ll see next time, this is why Jesus died.