One of the reasons that C. S. Lewis continues to be a best-selling author long after his death is that much of what he wrote gains even more significance as the decades advance.  My primary hardback copy of Mere Christianity, for instance, has been referenced so often some of its pages maintain their integrity only with the help of Scotch tape.  Today I was again looking up what Lewis said about the importance of human freedom and the fact that sinful man often uses his freedom for selfish personal gain, and hence causes real harm to be done to others and to the earth (“God’s cosmic temple” a la John Walton).  Here is what Lewis said about such freedom” (from chapter 3, “The Shocking Alternative”):

Of course God knew what would happen if [his "higher creatures"] used their freedom the wrong way: apparently he thought it worth the risk. . . .  If God thinks that this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will—that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of really great importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings—then we may take it it’s worth paying. [Emphasis mine]

This is important in reference to the commonly heard statement on conservative talk radio that the earth is too big and complex for people to cause significant environmental damage to it or threaten its God-designed ecosystems.  To be blunt, that’s a foolish statement.  The reality is that God made people to be stewards of His creation.  To do that, we have been given powers and mental capacities that are virtually godlike—the point the psalmist David makes: “[The Lord] made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Psa. 8:5).

If we have the creativity and power to make bombs sufficient enough to blow the living world to bits in mere hours, we need to acknowledge that through our oft ill-considered technology and extensive use of the material world over the centuries we also have the power to do extreme harm to the functions of God’s good earth.

In my last post I made reference to the new book by John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One, in which he claims that Genesis one is really not about the creation of the material world, but about God’s taking the material world (which was already made) and making it to function.

Fittingly, the last function mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis is the human function—because mankind, the only creature made in God’s image, is the apex of His creation with the privilege and power to “rule” and “subdue” (1:26-31). Secular environmentalists and humanists don’t like to hear that—since they claim that such man-centeredness (anthropomorphism) is what has endangered the planet.  Yet the biblical fact remains.  Walton comments on humankind’s functions (pp 68-69):

All of the rest of creation functions in relationship to humankind, and humankind serves the rest of creation as God’s vice regent.  Among the many things that the image of God may signify and imply, one of them, and probably the main one, is that people are delegated a godlike role (function) in the world where He places them. It has already been mentioned that whereas in the rest of the ancient world creation was set up to serve the gods, a theocentric view, in Genesis, creation is not setup for the benefit of God but for the benefit of humanity—an anthropocentric view.  Thus we can say that humanity is the climax of the creation account.

Another contrast between Genesis and the rest of the ancient Near East is that in the ancient Near East people are created to serve the gods by supplying their needs.  That is, the role of people is to bring all of creation to deity—the focus is from inside creation out to the gods.  In Genesis people represent God to the rest of the creation.

We need to think long and hard about the fact that we “represent God to the rest of the creation.”  By our careless, hasty, and self-centered consumption of the fruit of the creation, we have now come to the point of destroying the fruitfulness of the creation—the “real harm” that Lewis says mankind is free enough to do.  We, followers of Jesus included, have not been doing a very good job in our responsibility to represent God to the rest of creation.  Hence the creation suffers and “waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” (Romans 8:19).

I used to think that all would happen only at the return of Christ.  But if we are children of God now, there is no reason that we cannot begin to act like children of God now in our relationship to the creation.  That’s why Francis Schaeffer believed that we needed to be engaged now in helping to bring about a “substantial healing” of all the rifts created by the Fall—which, of course, will not be complete until Jesus comes.  Even if one does not accept Schaeffer’s belief, we do understand from Scripture that if we know what is right to do and do not do it, we are acting sinfully.  Caring for creation, to the glory of our Creator, is and always has been one of our key functions.

Well, that’s enough preaching for a while!  I promise to get back to the wonder of creation in my next posts.

See you outdoors!

Dean