The Dutch theologian, preacher, politician, and cultural critic, Abraham Kuyper, coined the above phrase. To Kuyper, this present world is the Christian’s home — not just ultimately, but really and presently. One could even say that Kuyper was consumed with this vision of life. Listen to him again: “There is not a single square inch of the whole of human existence over which the risen Christ, who alone is Sovereign, does not say, ‘That is mine!’ “
There is a priestly activity involved in the believer’s use ofthe everyday blessings of this creation. Because he receives these gifts of God with thanksgiving and in the knowledge that they have come from Him, even these common things become holy. It is consecrated (sanctified) by the Word of God and prayer. Just as the Levitical priesthood consecrated the various offerings and sacrifices by prayer and the command of God under the old covenant, so this new covenant priesthood does the same with “everything created by God” (1Tim 4:4; cf 1Pet 2:5; Heb 13:15; Rom 12:1,2; 14:6). In this manner “every bush becomes a burning bush, and all ground, holy ground.”
Under the call of grace, every Christian is a priest, a part of the larger Christian priesthood, and therefore he is engaged in the priestly activity of sanctifying the whole of life, even in its “common garden variety” aspects, to the Creator-Redeemer God.
What a wonderful door to life is opened with this truth! I am now free to live, free to obey, free to use this world, free to give thanks to the Giver of every good and perfect gift. I am, in a word, free to be human in the fullest sense of the word! So, while we look for a new heaven and earth where righteousness dwells, we live out the days of our pilgrimage in training and anticipation of this, and we live as priests, acknowledging God in the whole of our existence. This is life indeed! This is the promise that Paul speaks ofwhen he says, “Godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1Tim 4:8).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One