Creation and the Rebellion of Man with Dr. Hans Madueme
Today we have the privilege of getting to know Dr. Hans Madueme, the associate professor of theological studies at Covenant College. As you’ll hear, Dr. Madueme was born in Sweden and grew up in Nigeria and Austria, and he does such a beautiful job of addressing the topic of creation and the rebellion of man. We pray that as you listen to this conversation you grow in your knowledge and your love for God and that it makes you eager to pick up your Bible to know and love him more!
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How and why did God create us?
For what purpose did God create us?
What does it mean that man was made in the image of God? Is it only Christians who are made in God’s image? Or all people?
How does being created in the image of God help us value human life as we ought and offer us meaning and dignity?
How did we totally screw things up? What happened as a result of man’s rebellion? How does Adam and Eve’s rebellion impact us today?
How does Christ save us from our sin?
How does he redeem us and help us recover God’s image?
How and when will we be completely restored?
What would it look like for the church to live in light of these realities? How does it change the way we think about ourselves and the way we think about one another?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“It wasn’t like God was experiencing some lack and in order to fill that lack he created humanity. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so within the Trinity there are three persons in this eternal communion of love, and God is happy within himself. So he didn’t need us, but it was out of his grace and out of his generosity and his good pleasure that he made this whole universe, including us, to share his love with us and for us to be able to glorify him.”
Rational view: “There’s something that we possess as human beings - rationality or being able to reason, being creative - there’s something special that reflects who God is.”
Substantive view: “Every human being is de facto made in God’s image, and that is something sacred, that is something special.”
Functional view: “What we are called to do, that is describing God’s image in us.” (Gen. 1:28)
Relational view: “God is Trinity, he has made us male and female, so there's something about our relationality that captures what it is to be in God’s image.”
“I think there’s something helpful in each of those views.”
“In the New Testament when we actually see Jesus… There is a profound sense in which when we want to see God’s image in its perfection and fullness we look to Jesus.”
“Because of Adam’s sin, we all come into this world kind of bent out of shape. We are morally corrupt, we are broken, we are separated from God, we are dead in our sins, so we are sinners from birth - that’s pretty bad.”
“We’re not just morally corrupt or bent out of shape, we’re also culpable, we’re also guilty of that first sin.”
“All human beings are sinners who need Jesus.”
“In Genesis 3:17, it says that God cursed the ground because of Adam’s sin… Paul in Romans 8 actually expounds on that, and what he says is that the creation itself is groaning and waiting for the redemption that Christ is going to bring when everything is consummated.”
“Adam’s sin was responsible for the fact that creation itself is groaning, which is sometimes referred to as the cosmic fall.”
“Christians have seen that [the protoevangelium - Gen. 3:15] as a prophecy of the gospel, that a descendent of Eve would crush the head of the devil and the devil would bruise his heel when he was crucified on the cross, but that this Messiah would ultimately be victorious. This verse is so full of promise of the story that’s going to unfold in the following chapters.”
“Jesus is that perfect sacrifice. He makes atonement for our sins. The way the Old Testament sacrifices were supposed to do, Jesus does that in the consummate, final way.”
“Christ takes on the punishment that each of us deserves as our substitute in our place. Those who place their trust in him, his righteousness is, as it were, transferred or imputed to us.”
“As far as the east is from the west, because of what Christ has done for you - and that you have received that - your sins are washed away, your sins are canceled out - past, present, and future.”
“And the propitiation adds this other layer, in the sense that, because of our sin… God’s anger and wrath hangs over us. Because of our iniquity God is angry, but Christ is our propitiation, which is this idea that he turns away the wrath of God. Because Christ has been our propitiation, God the Father smiles at us rather than being angry at us. Christ’s death as a propitiation is a beautiful doctrine.”
“What Christ has done for us in the atonement is a Trinitarian work. It’s not one person of the Trinity pitted against the other.”
“When we are justified, our sins are forgiven, our guilt is placed on Christ and his righteousness, and we receive the righteousness of Christ. That’s a beautiful thing - that we are justified and now we are united with Christ, we have been grafted into the vine, and we are now connected, we're a part of the body of Christ. It’s now this pilgrimage where we are now walking with Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit we’re on this journey, and by his grace in a very topsy-turvy up-and-down kind of way, we are becoming more like Christ, we’re being conformed to the image of Christ, and that’s a work that the Holy Spirit does in us, he uses other people within the community of the church with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, we grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ.”
“We are saints. We are holy, we are set apart, we are holy now. But then there’s another sense in which we are growing in holiness as well.”
“There’s a human family. Because we are all made in God’s image, there is a human dignity. Even the secular language of human rights ultimately goes back to the image of God. There are lots of non-Christians who care about the underprivileged, the marginalized, and human rights...amen to all that! But that actually goes back to this doctrine. All of those concerns you have make sense because of this doctrine [of the imago dei].”
“We are embodied, we have our cultures and our heritage and all of that, but at the same time because we’re now in Christ, I have brothers and sisters… A person next to me might look totally different than me, but when we realize we're both Christians, suddenly it’s like I’m talking to a brother. We have this kinship in Christ.”
HYMN
RESOURCES
Created in God’s Image, by Anthony Hoekema
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How, why, and for what purpose did God create us?
How did Christ save us from our sin?
How does your understanding of the imago dei affect how you view your brothers and sisters in Christ? What about how you view non-Christians?
How does understanding your sin affect how you see and receive the redemptive work of Christ?
What are you going to do or implement as a result of what you’ve learned this week?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
Affiliate links used are used where appropriate. Thank you for supporting the products that support Journeywomen!
FOR MORE OF JOURNEYWOMEN
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Follow Us: Instagram | Facebook
Support the podcast by writing a review
