nothing is yet in its true form

Lately I’ve spent a lot of time meditating on one of my favorite verses in the Bible. 1 John 3:8b tells us that, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” This verse fascinates me because it keeps me in constant wonder as to what this undoing of Satan’s handiwork truly looks like. I’ve often envisioned a vast army of angels coming down to the earth and destroying the fallen world, but I’ve decided that this vision is either incomplete or more likely misguided on my part. I can easily envision the army of God any way I like, but I highly doubt that God’s military looks at all like ours.

I’ve often heard the analogy that Jesus came on a rescue mission. He was sent into an enemy country in order to save the prisoners of war, but I think this analogy too is flawed. Let us first examine this enemy territory of which we speak. Genesis 1:31 tells us “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” This fact speaks to me that the world, or nature, is not inherently evil as many people view it. We are told that Satan may be the prince of the earth, but this is neither a permanent nor absolute position. The world as we see it now is not a different entity than the earth that God created in the beginning, but rather comparing our current earth to the newly created earth would be like, as C.S. Lewis puts it, comparing bread mold to bread.

I would like to propose a revised version of our rescue story. I can imagine that when Jesus arrived on earth, he probably said or felt something close to Galadriel’s – from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – sentiments when she said, “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was, is lost, for none now live who remember it.” But I do not imagine His desire was to do away with the place in its entirety, for after all He did take part in its creation. Jesus was indeed sent on a rescue mission, but his target was not necessarily only the comrade in arms lost in the foreign land.

C.S. Lewis touches on this topic in his work Miracles. He writes, “In the Christian story God descends to reascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity; down further still, if embryologists are right, to recapitulate in the womb ancient and pre-human phases of life; down to the roots and seabed of the Nature He has created. But He goes down to come up again and bring the whole ruined world up with Him.” I think this is what John was referring to when he said that the Son of God came to “destroy the works of the devil; Satan’s work is not creation, it is the corruption of creation (i.e. bread mold to bread, rust to metal, the tumor to the body). Good seeks out not only the prisoner of war, but He seeks to bring the enemy land home.

While I think my refined version of the rescue metaphor is more accurate than its predecessor, it still must be kept in check to the ultimate source from which we make our comparisons, analogies and metaphors: the Word of God. Malachi 3:3 tells us that, “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” We must remember that there are casualties in the rescue mission, just as some of the precious metal is lost in the refining process. Psalm 17:3, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests hearts.”

I do not claim to have a full understanding of how God works. But I am confident that He is a rescuer and refiner of His creation. He is not, as in other religions, simply waiting for us to come to Him. If that was in His nature, the Son would never have sought us out on earth. Rather from the beginning God has been searching for man and He continues to call out, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) God is in the business of relentless rescue and pursuit.