Our Collective Identity

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Humanity images God in its unified state, but that unified state doesn’t erase the diversity of the many that humanity represents. In fact, it’s going to be precisely through innumerable cycles of dividing and being reunited as one that humanity images God. It’s the dividing and multiplying and then unifying again––the whole thing is an image of the divine life. It’s an image of God as a unified plurality that is eternally generating life.

Key Takeaways

• The ideal humanity is to rightly bear God’s image through oneness with others.
• The story of the Bible focuses on God’s work through one family, the nation of Israel, to bring all nations of the world into his own family.
• Within God’s design, oneness with others preserves unique identities. Apart from God, unity results in an assimilation at the expense of personal identity.

Disunity Is The Problem

In part one (0:00–7:30), Tim and Jon raise the question, “If the Gospel of Jesus is ultimately for all nations, why are four-fifths of the Christian Scriptures about one nation?” The only way to answer this question is to tell the whole story of the Bible. Tim explains that the story of the Bible starts broad, with a big picture look at God in relationship with all people. By Genesis 12, God responds to crisis within his creation by focusing in on the family of Abraham. But what God is doing for and through this one family is for all nations in the end. The story of the Bible works its way back to a focus on all nations with the story of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, bent on fulfilling God’s ultimate purpose of restoring all nations to himself. By the time we reach the end of the book of Revelation, we see the final state of humanity—a diverse group of nations, all unified in worship of the Creator. This means that part of the problem God is working to heal and correct throughout the story of the Bible is the disunity of humankind, people using their differences and distinct gifts to tear one another apart. Genesis 1-11 gives us a unique perspective on why the nations of the world are so divided, the rest of the biblical story begins to answer that question.

Unity Is The Solution

In part two (7:30–37:30), Tim and Jon discuss the ideal humanity according to Genesis 1 and 2. In Genesis 1, humanity is presented as the cosmic capstone in God’s ordering of heaven and earth, made to bear God’s image.

Genesis 1:27-28 And Elohim created ‘adam in the image of God [‘adam = humanity as a species] in the image of God he created him [him = humanity as a species] male and female he created them [them = the two genders who are one humanity] In the structure of this poem, the phrase “image of God” corresponds to “male and female,” who together reflect the image of God. Here we first encounter the theme of the unified family of God that repeats throughout Scripture, which is the family of human images of God, consisting of many who are different and also one at the same time. Genesis 2 takes us in for a closer look at what it means to be image-bearers. God calls his creation “good” seven times before pronouncing the very first “not good” in response to man by himself.

Genesis 2:18

And Yahweh said, “It is not good for the human to be alone. I will make an ezer-counterpart for him.” Tim explains that God calls man’s companion “ezer,” commonly translated “helper” in English, but more accurately conveyed by the word “deliverer.” This title is most often used to describe Yahweh, most often in military contexts (Exodus 18:4; Deuteronomy 33:7, 26, 29; Psalm 33:20, 115:9–11, 124:8, 146:5; etc). The Hebrew text conveys the idea that Eve “mirrors” Adam—they are different, but they reflect and match each other. Before God makes Eve, he presents a multitude of animals to Adam, so that he might name them. It’s like a divine object lesson: first, that humanity is meant to coexist with and peaceably rule over animals, and second, that any one human by themselves cannot become what God has called us all to become, together.

Genesis 2:21-23

And Yahweh caused to fall a deep sleep on the human, and he slept. And he took one from his sides, and he closed the flesh of its place. And Yahweh built the side, which he took from the human into woman, and he brought her to the human. And the human said, “This time, bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. This one will be called woman, for from man this one was taken.” Because the woman was different from the man, she was able to be a “deliverer” to him. Marriage is the image used here: it is the difference in their biology and gender that makes it possible for man and woman to fulfill the mission God gave them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).

Genesis 2:24

For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother, and he will cling to his woman, and they will become one flesh. The narrator of Genesis concludes with the moral of the story: humanity is made for oneness with others, in a union that does not erase personal uniqueness.

The Only God With One Big Family

In part three (37:30–49:15), Tim and Jon explore “the many and the one” imagery that winds throughout the entirety of Christian faith. Across centuries and geographic regions, Christians experience and understand Jesus differently, and each viewpoint lends itself to a more robust means of seeing and understanding God. The same is true for our understanding of humanity. The more we know a diverse array of other people and cultures, the more we get a well-rounded picture of what it means to be human. At the same time, this does not invalidate what we have experienced all along as individuals. Through the example of marriage in Genesis 1-2, we come face-to-face with a calling God has placed upon all humans: to pursue oneness with others. Ultimately, God means for humanity to be family. (Marriage is not the only way we find ourselves in a family—this is just how the narrator of Genesis points out an important motif that carries through the whole story of the Bible). Marriage creates small family units, and God’s ideal vision is for those families, which comprise nations, to ultimately become one big family of God that spans nations and ethnicities, time and space. To see human identity as primarily collective is unique to the Christian faith. Modern western cultures see human identity as an individualized reality. Other ancient or non-western cultures that emphasize family still see themselves as families uniquely chosen by their god, at the expense of others, usually to dominate other nations or viewpoints. Yahweh is the only God who wants to bring all the families of the earth into his own family, for the benefit of all.

Unity That Preserves Uniqueness

In part four (49:15–end), Tim and Jon take us to the first major turning point in the story of the Bible, the “problem” that arises within God’s good creation. In Genesis 3, the unity between Adam and Eve is broken. Notably, oneness is first broken between the two humans before it is broken with God. And their attempts to hide their shame follow this same order as well: man and woman hide their bodies from each other, and then they hide from God, too. From this point, the narrative arc of the Bible focuses on humanity going from one to many, the antithesis of God’s created design. In rebellion, humans try to achieve oneness on their own terms, an episode which the Bible refers to as Babylon. One way or another, humans will unify. The question is, will humanity unite according to God’s design, or according to Babylon’s? In God’s design, unity still preserves unique identities. But apart from God, unity results in an authoritarian homogeneity, assimilation at the expense of personal identity.