Thus, if we want to be very specific, Satan’s beef was likely not so much with Adam getting dominion over the earth, but with him not getting dominion over Adam. It would be fine for Adam to be “head beast” over all the other beasts—but a viceroy of God? Not answerable to Satan? That would rankle—which suggests that Satan’s rebellion was even more a case of cutting off his nose to spite his face than it first appears. Not only was he rebelling, ultimately, against God, which he had to know was a bad idea, but he didn’t even want what Adam had! He just wanted Adam under his thumb; not the world. But if he couldn’t have that, he’d rather see Adam dead and get the world anyway.

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We discover that God uses death as a term to describe not summary execution, but separation—Adam dies by being separated from God (cf. John 1:4; Revelation 2:11; 21:8), and thus his body will eventually expire, as a flower will eventually wither when cut from the root. But although Adam is kicked out of Eden, and doesn’t have access to God’s council any longer, he retains dominion over the world. That is part of the creation—the dominion—mandate. It is the command, the purpose, given to man at creation. It is not rescinded in the curse; it is only made more difficult.

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If you are born of the flesh, you are born of Adam, and God puts you under the adoption of the devil, the serpent. If you are reborn of spirit (John 3:5), you are born of Jesus, into God’s family, and the Father adopts you as his own children.

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Indeed, healing is a natural effect of his presence! Not that he will always heal; but certainly we should hope for him to heal. We simply have to… …ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6–8) Unfortunately, when you don’t have to rely fully on God, you often end up doubting him. When you aren’t continually, intensely needing him, when you don’t feel utterly helpless without him, you end up doubting him.

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The gospel of the New Testament is cosmological—and the Western world’s moral crisis is a natural result of God’s assembly failing to preach this gospel as cosmological, in favor of preaching it as merely moralistic.

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Whereas the apostles front-load the gospel with Jesus’ resurrection for worldwide kingship, evangelicals front-load it with his death for sin. Thus, whereas the New Testament’s gospel is a message about all-encompassing, cosmic restoration and renewal through Jesus’ resurrection and enthronement, today’s gospel is a message about individual, moral restoration through Jesus’ death and atonement.

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In the New Testament, as I have already shown, the gospel is summarized in the message of who Jesus is and what he has done, which produces the same response of faith—not mere belief, but loyal reliance. Faith, when lived, looks like the ten commandments. It looks like obedience (Romans 1:5). It is passive in receiving Jesus (Romans 4:5), but active in abiding in Jesus (John 15:4–6; cf. 1 John 2:6). It is done to us in order to be done by us. Another way of saying this is that the law/gospel distinction is not in the text, but in the reader. To the regenerate man, all Scripture is gospel (cf. Psalm 19:7); to the unregenerate man, all Scripture is law (2 Corinthians 2:14–16).

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the gospel is inherently political. Doug Wilson observes that no one actually has the option of deciding between a theocracy and a more neutral political regime; theocracy is inescapable. There is always a god of the system. The question is not whether to have a god, but which one to have.

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The telos of the gospel is inherently political in this respect, and a primary demand of the gospel is to bring us to competence for rulership in the eschaton. Regardless of how you think that cashes out in terms of millennialism, you can’t simply divorce this key element of the gospel from the art of government, since it ultimately is the art of government. I’m not going to stake out a position on how Christians should navigate politics, whether individually or as congregations. I’m simply pointing out that we must navigate politics, because a key element of the gospel is rulership of the world—and that just is political.

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Whereas the apostles’ gospel was a challenge for people to serve Jesus, the evangelical gospel is an offer for Jesus to serve people.

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