Response to “Creation and Consummation: The Church as the Goal of History”

It’s always a dangerous thing to define yourself by what you’re against, more than what you’re for. 

The problem with it, so tempting in these polarised times, is that it leaves the thing you’re against still in the position of setting the terms and defining the ground. And from there, it can be difficult to make a positive case.

Protestant ecclesiology—the doctrine of the church grounded in the great Solas of the Reformation—can sometimes suffer from this defect. If Roman Catholic theology holds that “you can’t have God as your Father without having the church as your mother,” and that it is only through the duly authorised priestly ministry of the church that the believer is able to feed on Christ, then Protestant ecclesiology responds, “No! You don’t need the church to be right with God, and to be in a vital, living relationship with the Vine, the church is just the added extra.” 

One of the great virtues of S.E Wang’s article, “The Church as the Goal of History” is that it seeks to define the church and her role in the great purposes of God positively, rather than negatively. A second great virtue of the article is that it does so by thinking creation and redemption into one another. 

The article is structured around an examination and comparison of Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22. In the classic 4-chapter formulation of the Biblical story—creation, fall, redemption and consummation—this is an exploration of the connection between chapters 1 and 4. One of the fascinating points that the article drives home is the presence of eschatology, the “now and not yet,” right at the beginning, in Genesis 2. We see both the now - the presence and command of God to have dominion over the earth; but it remains at the same time not yet, it’s unfulfilled in the narrative. 

When the article comes to Revelation 21-22, the links between the end and the beginning are expertly highlighted. As Wang puts it, “all the elements of the original garden of Eden appear in perfected form in the new Jerusalem” (p. 14)

And the point is this—creation is itself telic, it has a goal, a purpose given it by God; and that purpose is profoundly related to the church, the New Jerusalem which in the awesome picture language of John’s Revelation comes out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Finally, here are God’s image bearers fulfilling the purpose for which they were created.

These are excellent insights, and significant contributions of the article. At the same time, I wonder if it overcorrects in its emphasis on the church.

The morphing of the image in Revelation 21 from city to bride raises the question of who is the bridegroom? The answer, of course, is Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I feel that the analysis of the article could be deepened by incorporating a more explicit Christology as the link between Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22. After all, the anthropological language of the image of God has its primary fulfillment first and foremost in Jesus, rather than the church. Jesus is the (capital-I) Image of God (Col. 1:15), and therefore as such is head of the church (Col. 1:18). 

In other words, it seems to me to slightly overstate the point to say that “the church is the goal of history.” I’d suggest that it is more accurate to say that Jesus is the goal of history, its destiny, specifically because he is its origin (all things have been created through him and for him, Colossians 1.16). But although that distinguishes Jesus from the church, it would be a mistake to allow Jesus to be separated from the church. Precisely because he is the image of God, humanity in its truest and most fulfilled, and by grace through faith we are in him, it would also be true to say that “the church in Jesus Christ is the goal of history.” I’d suggest that’s why in Revelation 21 the metaphor of the city is complemented by the metaphor of the marriage of the lamb and his bride. To omit this wedding would be to omit the crucial link between promise and fulfillment, which is the husbandly redemptive care and sacrifice of Jesus, the lamb of God who is always the slain lamb, bearing sin in ultimate sacrifice. 

Another area that I would like to see the article expand on is the consequence of the fact that the church in Jesus Christ is the goal of history. It seems to me that this plays out in at least two ways.

The first is that the church cannot be an optional extra in the Christian life, a potentially useful resource. No, the body of Christ is far more central to God’s purposes than that, and consequently deserving of our love and service and sacrifice, as an expression of our love and service and sacrifice to God.

And second, that eschatological vision is to be enacted by the church in the now. If the church in Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the image and likeness of God in creation, then that has profound implications for the vocation—and vocations—of Christians now in exercising dominion, if not over all the earth, then over the little part of the earth that God has entrusted to them—their homes, communities, workplaces, as well as churches. As Paul puts it in Colossians 1:4-5, it certainly is the eschatological hope that is laid up for us in heaven that keeps our hearts full of faith; and at the same time it energises our love and service in this world, seeking to bring more of the righteousness of God that is so clearly seen in creation and in consummation, to bear in this world now.

Of course, these dominion exercising efforts are only ever a shadow of the things to come, signposts of the kingdom at best. It is only the lion of Judah who is the lamb of God who is worthy to open the scroll, and bring about God’s final fulfillment of his purposes (Rev. 5:1-7). 

And so we cry, Come, Lord Jesus, Come.

One final note: I remember one of the first times I met S.E. Wang, nearly a decade ago. He said that the soul of China was empty—Communism had clearly replaced Confucianism, and at the same time had failed. And he made the point that now was a crucial time for the gospel, because under God’s good hand, it might be that the grace of God in Christ might be what fills the soul of China, rather than capitalism. This exemplified Wang’s wisdom, insight, theological groundedness and strategic awareness, all gifts that I and many others have come to love about him. He is a mighty instrument in the Lord’s hands.