Redemptive Work
The stress of life can often feel confusing as we so quickly transition from one stage in life to another. No matter what stage you are in, Christianity offers a blueprint we can always look back on to see God’s design for everyday living. In this series, we look to God’s “blueprint” in Scripture to see what it means to flourish no matter where life takes us.
Scripture: Genesis 1:26-30, 2:5-8, 15, 3:17-19
In the beginning, God gave humanity a job description. Contrary to some common perceptions of work as a means to an end for heavenly leisure, Scripture reveals a different truth. Indeed what we find is that God’s design from the beginning is that we would work alongside Him in creating, naming, and forming the world around us. In this way, a biblically shaped concept of “work” is key for us to truly understand what God meant for His creation as He called us to have “dominion” and be his image-bearers in the world.
The Hebrew Concept of Dominion: "Radah"
In Hebrew, the word used to convey this partnership of dominion over the world is the word “Radah”. One Hebrew scholar defined it as “actively partnering with God in taking the world forward.” This is true in the sense that God’s plan for humanity was always that we would be His representatives in everything that we do. This is significant because it takes a principle that was exclusive to royalty in ancient times and applies it to the work of everyone— both farmers and businessmen alike. Furthermore, God calls us to also work the land and join in the pattern of creation by taking what is available in the Garden and developing it so that the Garden might be expanded to the rest of the world. As Tim Keller describes it,
“Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and “unfold” creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development.”
In other words, God’s plan for Eden was that it was never meant to remain a garden but to be developed into a creative cultural force for the flourishing of all. This is precisely what we see at the end of creation in Revelation 21:2, where all things are brought to their chief end. In this vision, we see Heaven and Earth joined together and the result is a holy city filled with all the trademarks of Eden but now it has been transformed. Where there were once raw materials, suddenly now there are streets and buildings. All of this points us to God’s master plan where His hope was always to work alongside humanity to bring about beauty in the world and have it be a joyful experience.
The Introduction of Toil
Sadly, this is not the kind of work many of us are familiar with. Rather, most of us would identify with what Lamech, the father of Noah, would describe as “painful toil” as he says in Genesis 5:29, “Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” This is the result of sin’s effects as it enters into the world through humanity’s disobedience. Where there was once trust and purpose in our partnership with God, now in our alienation there is disillusionment and a constant grasping at meaning in our work. Like Lamech, many of us long for the sweet release of relief from our work one day and have put our hope in the faint mirage of retirement. However, as many studies have shown, the quality of our lives is not determined by the amount of leisure time we can afford but by how actively engaged we remain in pursuing our life goals (see the Longevity Project). In other words, our longing for retirement to be the answer to our problems turns out to only be a fool’s hope. This then begs the question, if release is not the answer then what is?
Relief from our work
Fast forward to the time of Jesus who seeks to call us back to God's original design. He offers a new perspective on our "painful toil" through the invitation, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What’s interesting about this particular phrasing is that in Hebrew, the word for “rest” is the name Noah. In this way, Jesus is setting himself up to be the one who brings true “relief from our work and the painful toil of our hands.” He does so by repairing the relationship between God and man so that we no longer have to toil outside of His presence. Suddenly, in His presence, our work finds new meaning and purpose as we no longer work for merely ourselves, for possessions, or for earthly bosses but rather, we work for a God who first worked for us by humbling himself to the position of a slave so that we might once again live up to our status as the image-bearers of God.
This is the hope of Christian vocation and how it transforms our daily experience in the world. Our prayer is that you may experience the rest of God in your daily work no matter what stage of life you are in. Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent or in the twilight years of your professional career, there is a greater purpose that is yet to be found when God joins us in our work and redeems it in Jesus.
Study questions:
What does the word Vocation mean to you?
Would you describe your daily work experience as work or as toil? Why?
How do you picture your retirement? Are you still working?
In what ways does Jesus transform our view of work?
