Marcus is the director of Living Leadership and an elder at Crofton Baptist Church in South East London. He has authored four books, including Fruitful Leaders and Gospel-Centred Preaching (with Tim Chester). Many people have benefited greatly from Marcus’ teaching and writing. I am thankful to Marcus for offering this guest post on such an important question. Remember, this guest post series is offered to mark release of Foundations – please do check out FourBigQuestions.com and encourage others to follow @4BigQs on Twitter and Facebook.
____________________________________
So God created Mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)
The two most foundational things about being human beings are:
- That we are creatures
- That we are special creatures – made in the image of God
Therefore when God blesses the man and woman, telling them to be fruitful, increase and fill and subdue the Earth it is as dependent beings, not independent ones.
In this dependency is the very foundation of life. Everything broken about the world can be traced back to rebellious, sinful desire to live independently from God rather than dependently upon his fatherly goodness as his dearly loved children.
This means that we are never more fully human than when we are consciously living in repentance and faith. A constant walk with God, is the thing that maintains our life and our joy because we were made for it – and forsook it back at Eden. A daily appreciation and thankfulness for the spilt blood of Jesus Christ is the thing that keeps us conscious of God’s everlasting mercy.
Confessing our sins, turning with hatred from evil, glorying in the cross brings healing and gospel transformation by the Holy Spirit. Why? Because when we do we are acknowledging and celebrating true creatureliness. We embrace our dependency. We delight not in God’s absence from our lives but in the closeness of his presence.
Biblical Preaching 