Pastor Sunday Adelaja: THE FOUNDATION FOR AN ACTIVE CIVIC STAND
(thesis of the anointing service for August)
Genesis 3:16-18: To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ’You must not eat of it,’ "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
In this verse we can see consequences of the Fall of the man. When the Lord cursed the serpent for tempting the man, He also wanted to curse Adam for his part in the Fall. However, God refrained from cursing the man because from him comes the genealogy of mankind. If God had cursed the man, all subsequent generations would have been cursed. That is why God cursed the Earth instead of the people, so that the man would pay the price for his mistakes by hard labor on earth.
As the result of that curse the earth started producing thorns and thistles which symbolize everything that brings suffering and all the things that make life unbearable. Before that there were no thorns and thistles to be found on the earth at all. And now in every country, in every corner of the earth, in every place a man set foot, thorns and thistles can be found. They can be corruption, mafia, poverty, drugs and legalization of abortion, aggression, escalated of criminal activity and other lawlessness. In other words, thorns and thistles are everything that makes life unbearable. Such are the consequences of the Fall.
However, we often think that Jesus came just to redeem the mankind. Because of this understanding the Gospel of salvation was spread focusing us solely on the redemption and salvation of men. The Gospel which Jesus has brought is more comprehensive indeed. And this Gospel is the
Gospel of Kingdom. Its essence is in the fact that Jesus came not only to redeem the man, but also to redeem the earth. For the earth was cursed because of the man’s sin.
That is why
Romans 8:18-21 says:
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed, for the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope1that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.The fact is that we need to take the next step after we spread the Gospel – we need to go and take responsibility for the redemption of the earth. What symbolizes the earth? It means all the areas of one’s life and that means changing all formed foundations in mass media, politics, business, education, culture, sports, in spiritual and other areas of life; it is also promotion of moral values and etc.
All areas of a man’s life and activity must correspond with the standards of God’ Kingdom. This is the only way for the Earth to be redeemed from the thorns and thistles that bring pain, grief and death in all areas of life. That is why redemption does not belong to the man only, but also to the earth. God’s values and God’s life must come into every life’s aspect not only for people, but also of our entire planet we live. That is why it is not enough to seek the salvation of one particular city or even a nation. It is more important to solve the problems of Earth and society. This is the only way for redemption to come onto the Earth and into the nations. Otherwise any country will continue to suffer like those countries where there are no saved people. There are many countries where 90-100% of people are Christians, but the life of society has not improved. Why? Because the believers must come out of the four walls of their church and start doing something with an active civic position, which lets them take responsibility for all aspects of life, for solving the problems in society and bringing the deliverance and glory of God’s children into these areas of life. This is not only redemption, but also implementing values and principles of God’s Kingdom into all life’s aspects.
Thus, the Bible tells us that redemption is intended not only for all mankind, but also for the entire earth. We see the confirmation of this in the Gospel of
Mathew 27:29:…
and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt in front of Him and mocked Him.”Hail, king of the Jews!” In this verse we see that the Lord put a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head. By this fact God shows us that Jesus took on Himself not only the curse of the man, but also the curse of the Earth, to pay the price for redemption of the Earth just as God paid the price for all men shedding the Blood of Jesus Christ.
In the
Gospel of Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus pays attention to the fact that His disciples must take responsibility not only for nations, but also for the Earth, all aspects of life and people’s way of life and their moral values:
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." In this verse Jesus says that our mission is to change values of the entire nation, their way of thinking and their foundations. Just as Jesus brought values of God’s Kingdom onto the earth, we should bring these values into all areas of life. Precisely what Jesus meant when He said to His disciples:
“teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”We come to church to learn the principles of God’s Kingdom, to grow stronger in these principles so that they would become our way of life. And after that it is very important to go and restore God’s Kingdom on the earth and establish these principles in all areas of life. That is why we have been saved – to become saviors of people and the earth. We have been redeemed to bring the redemption. And the entire Earth and its creations have been suffering and moaning until we take responsibility and go and start bringing the Word of deliverance into all areas of life. I pray that God would open our eyes and help us to show His image and likeness on the earth, so that we could bring redemption and deliverance of our earth.
For more detailed learning this topic we recommend you to read the following books: “Churchshift”, “Spearheading a national transformation”, “The whole world is waiting for you” – the author Pastor Sunday Adelaja.
May the Lord bless you and your family!
Transformation Ukraine Conference
