Christian Worldview Concepts

Christian Worldview and Medical Ethics - Part I

Redemption

God's remedy for the consequences of the Fall is to provide for redemption. The redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ extends not only to individual heart redemption, but provides the means for the ultimate redemption of all that has been corrupted by sin. While it is true that Christ died for our sins and to restore us to a right relationship with God, an important aspect of redemption is the restoration of the goodness of God's creation and the removal of the effects of sin as well. Romans 8:19-21 speaks of the entire creation, being subjected to decay because of sin, groaning in anticipation of its redemption — the coming of a New Heaven and New Earth. One important aspect of redemption is the anticipation that one day all pain, all sorrow, all suffering and all death with come to an end (Revelation 21:4).

Since we were created in God's image with rational, volitional and aesthetic capacities, and having received a divine mandate to care for the creation, to apply our capacities of reason, volition and aesthetics on God's behalf, we are called to live redemptive lives — to bend back toward the good that which has been tainted by sin and corruption. For example, because of the Fall, caring for creation is made more difficult, but we are to do so nonetheless. While the ground does not produce as it once did, it does produce and we are required to work to see that it does produce.

In anticipation of the coming consummation — the creation of a New Heaven and New Earth (Revelation 21:1) — believers are called to work at their various vocations in a redemptive way, using their skills to bend back the effects of the Fall toward their created goodness. For example, the physician imitates the Lord Jesus through acts of healing; not necessarily through miracles, but through genuine acts of compassion and the application of God-given skill. While the "cures" offered by the physician are simply an exchange of one disease process for another, for sooner or later everyone will die, those temporary cures are a taste of the ultimate redemption that comes through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ; a work that will one day be consummated in an eternal state where no pain, no sorrow, no sickness, no death will ever exist again.