"The Christian & Work" by Rod Bayley, 6 April 2008, Genesis 1-3

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In June of 2006 I saw large demonstrations in Melbourne and Geelong
over the Federal government’s changes to Industrial Relations laws.
Of course this was not new, because in November 2005 when the changes
were simply proposals, there were estimates of up to 500,000 workers
turning out to rallies across the country. It goes without saying
that the changes became a major discussion point in the run-up to the
Federal election last November, including comments from many Christian
leaders representing various church groups. And of course Work Choices
has now been ‘rolled back.’ Politics aside, the level of interest in
the changes is natural because work takes up a large part of our
lives. Some people work to live, some live to work, but however you
look at it, our working life is an integral part of our lives. All
this should present questions for the Christian, in particular: ‘Is
there such a thing as a Christian view of work?’ What does the bible
say on this important topic?

Well, the bible actually has a lot to say, but today I am simply going
to provide an overview of how work fits into the story of humanity in
the bible. We will look at work under four headings which span the
whole sweep of the bible: firstly, creation and work; secondly, the
Fall and work; thirdly, redemption and work; and lastly, new creation
and work.

Well, firstly, ‘creation and work.’ Lets begin at the beginning, and
look at Genesis 1, where we see God create humanity and introduce work
or give out the first tasks. Look at verses 27 and 28:
“So God crated man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them and said to
them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue
it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over
every living creature that moves on the ground’.”

Notice that there are two tasks given out at the very beginning by God
- there is a job description for humanity, we were made to work.
Firstly, there is work in the home sphere - bearing and raising
children; and secondly, there is work in the world - subduing and
ruling over God’s creation. In the home God says be fruitful and
increase in number. Now in our society the task of raising children
is basically belittled. And so mothers who bear this role in the main,
and who leave paid employment, are often embarrassed when they are
asked what they do - and so they often mumble quickly that they’re
‘just a mum at home.’ But they are engaged in divine service - it is
a God-given task. And note that throughout the bible the task of
raising children is for fathers as well as mothers. Some men switch
off at home as they think work is just at the office, or wherever. But
the God-given task of child rearing, or nurturing the next generation,
is for men as well as women, and the bible also points to the role of
the wider family network, as well as the church family.

Secondly, in verse 28 there is also work in the world. God has
entrusted his precious creation to us - we are to rule over it under
Him. And we see in chapter two that this involved working or farming
the land, developing it in other words; and also taking care of the
land, which refers to its protection and upkeep. Chapter 2, verse 15
says that “the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden
to work it and take care of it.” Now you might think to yourself, ‘I
can begin to see how a farmer ‘works’ the land, or how an
environmentalist or a zookeeper ‘takes care’ of the world in the words
of verse 15, but I just can’t see how my work fits into this.’ But we
need to realise that there is a broad principle within this section
that we are God’s co-workers - every job is covered by the principle
applied to working the ground.

Have a look at verse 5 of chapter 2 which provides this implication:
“and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant
of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on
the earth and there was no man to work the ground.” Back in verse 31
of chapter 1 we are told that creation is ‘very good.’ But although
it is very good it was not an ‘end product’ - it was not designed to
fulfill it’s potential on it’s own. It was a wonderful garden, but it
needed rain and it needed humanity. That is amazing - that God has so
ordered His creation that it needs you and me, for us to work in it,
that it might be completed. So God created the garden of Eden, but he
gave humanity the responsibility of cultivating it. And there you
have the first partnership, and the same principle has continued ever
since. As the English writer John Stott has said: “of what use to us
would be God’s provision of an udder full of milk if we were not there
to extract it. God is the creator, man is the cultivator - each needs
the other. In God’s good purpose, creation and cultivation, nature
and nurture, raw materials and human craftsmanship go together.” So
whatever work you do, no matter how mundane, it has great dignity
because we are co-workers with God. We are part of his plans for
creation - and as we work ultimately for God, we also work for others
and the whole community benefits.

In verse 31 of Genesis 1, we see that creation, including work, was
good - ‘it’s all good’ as the commercial once said. God’s assessment
of our world, which includes work from day one, is that it is ‘very
good.’ Work is not something that is due to the entrance of sin into
our world - it doesn’t exist because of humanity’s rebellion against
God which we’ll consider in a minute. No, work is something the
Christian should be able to rejoice in, despite the ups and downs of
our daily work experience now. God designed us to work, and so it is
central to His purpose for our lives, and something which brings
fulfilment for us.

Of course some people would consider such thinking to be crazy -
surely the only good thing about work is finishing it at the end of
the week, and so people say ‘thank God it’s Friday.’ But it is not
the case that work is something that is simply to be loathed and
avoided wherever possible. The coffee mug slogan might say: ‘I love
work - I can watch it for hours’, but that is not to be the Christian
understanding of work. It is not a nasty necessity but part of who we
are as humans made in God’s image or likeness. God is presented as a
worker himself in the creation account, where he works to put our
world together. Like God we are also to work, it is part of who we
are, and the Christian should therefore be able to also say, ‘Thank
God it’s Monday.’

But the final point to make which is established right at the
beginning of creation, is that work is not the goal of life - we don’t
merely exist to work. This is provided by God’s example of resting
after he had finished creating. Notice what 2:2-3 state:
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on
the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3And God blessed the
seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the
work of creating that he had done.”

The climax of creation is the Sabbath - God resting on the seventh
day. It’s not that God is exhausted and needs a break, because then
we would expect him to go back to work on Day 8. The rest he enjoys on
the seventh day is not the rest of inactivity - God is still active.
The seventh day in the creation account is the one day that goes on
and on - there is no end to it unlike the first six. God keeps
working in his seventh day by sustaining his creation. The Hebrew word
for rest speaks of ‘peace, satisfaction, and enjoyment’ - God longs
that we might enter his rest and enjoy His creation with him. That is
what Genesis 2 is about - a description of human beings enjoying God’s
rest in perfect relationship with him, and in perfect harmony with
each other and the world he made. We’re told that God blessed the
seventh day and made it holy - that is he set it apart as special,
it’s to be a day of rest. And that forms the basis of the fourth
commandment in Exodus 20, that God’s people should observe the
Sabbath, or the day of rest (Ex.20:8-11). So, God commands a day
off!.

You see if some have too low a view of work and despise it, others
live to work, they actually make it God. Their identity and self-
respect are based on their work - ‘I am what I do’ is the assumption
of many - they look to their job for satisfaction and meaning. But
work was never meant to be the goal of life - and we have that
understanding from the very beginning with the Sabbath. We need to be
able to say ‘enough is enough’, and keep the balance that God
intended. God didn’t design us as machines, mere units of production,
but as people made in God’s image, designed to live in relationship
with Him and others. This is important for us physically,
psychologically, socially and spiritually. No one has ever said on
their death bed, ‘Oh I wish I’d spent more time at the office.’ So
let’s not leave it till then to examine our lives and assess whether
we are getting sufficient rest.

Secondly, the Fall and work. Although work was part of God’s good
creation from the beginning, the frustration and struggles that we now
experience in our working lives are due ultimately to our rejection of
God. This is clearly portrayed in Genesis 3, the very next chapter.
It was an idyllic life in the garden of Eden, and yet tragically Adam
and Eve failed to obey God’s command not to eat fruit from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, and everything goes wrong as God judges
them for this disobedience. And the curse on men and women directly
affects the work given by God at creation in 1:28 - work has been
spoilt by human autonomy, doing things our own way. The work in the
home and in the world will now both involve pain and hardship. They
are still good - the good of creation has not been obliterated by
human rebellion, but it has been marred.

In chapter 3 verse 16 we see that child birth will now be made
painful, and there is pain in the marriage relationship which will now
be a battle, and our raising of our children also struggles under this
same principle - relationships are now broken and less than they were
made to be. In chapter 3 verses 17 to 19 we see that cultivating the
land is no longer an easy or pleasurable task as it was in chapter 2.
Rather it is now anxious and painful toil - we experience the land as
a hostile force against which we must battle. We now fight against
thorns and thistles, not to mention diseases, flood and drought.
Farmers know this well, but for most of us the sweat is limited to
dealing with the queues in Coles or Woolworths. But there is a wider
application to these verses - all of our work has been affected by
the Fall, our rejection of God’s rightful rule over us. There may be
some pleasure, and I hope you enjoy your work, but no matter how
fulfilling, it has been marred or corrupted by rejecting God and going
our own way.

Our work should be an arena for serving God and others and finding
fulfilment in part, but instead it often becomes a vehicle for
idolatry through the worship of a career rather than service of God,
for our own glory rather than serving others, for frustration rather
than fulfilment. It’s an arena for selfishness and greed so often.

Thirdly, redemption and work. Well, that all sounds a bit depressing,
somewhat negative. So can work be redeemed? Can God’s initial perfect
working world of Genesis 1 and 2 be regained? For the Christian, our
outlook on our fallen world where people openly reject or simply
ignore their Creator God, is now positive. We learn through the bible
that God has a solution to the problem of our rebellion which affects
all of life. For work to be redeemed, we need to be redeemed or saved
from our rejection. People sometimes think that work can save the
world - that our efforts will lead to a better place which will
ultimately solve all the world’s problems, ie. through more education,
better health, etc we can sort things out. Henry Ford, the founder of
the Ford Motor Company once said, “Work is the salvation of the human
race - morally, physically and socially.” Now, we can certainly
improve the world, and it’s a good thing to have better health and
housing, etc, but they do not save the world. The chaos of our world,
the problems in every area of our lives including our work, run deeper
than better education and living standards.

The bible states that the core problem is our rejection of God - to
fix things we would need to remove humans from the planet, or
otherwise fix our problem of rebellion. God’s solution to this
problem of human rebellion is to send his son Jesus Christ. Jesus
lived 2000 years ago in Israel - he was a historical figure whose four
biographies recorded in the bible are corroborated by the secular
historical records of the day. Jesus was born on earth that he might
live the perfect life that we fail to live, that he might live in
perfect obedience to God the Father. Jesus said in John’s gospel, “My
food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his
work” (4:34). And so Jesus was the perfect worker, whose particular
work was to die on the Cross for us. Having lived the life we failed
to, he then died as our perfect substitute - one who could die in our
place and pay for our rebellion against God. And so referring to his
unique work or role, he said as he drew his final breath on the Cross,
“It is finished” (19:30). Not only did he die, but miraculously he
rose from the dead on the third day and appeared before hundreds of
witnesses, who went to their own deaths testifying to the fact that he
had conquered death on our behalf, the ultimate consequence of our
rebellion. And so all those who trust in his death on their behalf
can be forgiven, and have the sure hope of heaven. Jesus’ unique work
can save the world, it can save you.

Well, what does Christ’s death have to do with work? It means two
things: firstly, if we have trusted in Jesus we now have a new boss -
we now ultimately work for God, to please him. So for example,
Ephesians 6:7 says “serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the
Lord, not men.” This will turn the idolatry of work into service of
God, it will turn the selfish pursuit of wealth for self into service
of others, and frustration should now be replaced by fulfilment.
That’s not to say that Christians instantly have a perfect attitude to
work, but they now have a new perspective. Secondly, we now have new
gospel work, a responsibility to share the good news about Jesus with
others so that they might enjoy the salvation we have received -
that’s our new second job. In Christ’s final words in Matthew
28:19-20 he describes this second job that Christians are given as
follows: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” We need
to realise that we have been commissioned for this gospel work also -
we are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Cor.5:11f).

This leads to our final and brief point - work and new creation. The
goal of humanity is not to get the best job, but to be in a right
relationship with God, and to live in harmony with each other, and
enjoy God’s rest. And so heaven is the goal, a return as it were to
the right relationships and unmarred service of the Garden of Eden.
Jesus promised his followers rest from their heavy burden in Matthew
11 (28-30) when he said: “Come to me all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest.” That promise is fully received in
heaven if we have placed our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our
rebellion.

But what does this mean - is heaven a place full of lounges or bean
bags where we laze around and have everything placed at our figure
tips? - I know the thought is appealing to many! What is the future of
work - what does the bible say about work in heaven, where it is
untainted by sin? Well in Revelation, the final book of the bible,
there are certainly promises that Christians “will rest from their
labour” (14:13), but the picture is not one of idleness. It would be
inconsistent with what we saw earlier if it were so, because God is a
worker, and we are made in his image or likeness and designed to
work. In Revelation 7:14-16 we have one of several descriptions of
heaven - you might like to look it up with me. From verse 14 the
apostle John states: “And he said, ‘These are they who have come out
of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Therefore, ‘They are before the
throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who
sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16Never again will
they hunger, never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon
them, nor any scorching heat.” Notice in verse 15 that there will be
work in the new creation. But it is joyful service in the presence of
God, in a perfect environment without human rebellion and all its
corrupting effects - this is the perfect working environment of
Genesis 2 restored.

I want to leave you with two questions: 1) Do you know the perfect
worker Jesus, who came to pay for your rebellion and provide the way
to be with God in new creation, or heaven? If not, and you want to
know more about what he has achieved for us in his life, death and
resurrection, then please speak with me after the service, or speak
with a Christian friend if you came with someone. There are red
booklets up the back which explain how we might make a fresh start
with Jesus as our boss. 2) Secondly, if you are a Christian here
today, do you have a new attitude to work - are you serving with
integrity at work as you seek to please your heavenly boss? And do
you realise your goal - to enjoy God forever and enter his rest?