PLAYING GOD, PART II
BEING THE BODY
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. – 2 Corinthians 5:20a
In the previous installment of this essay, I perused the idea of “playing God” in the accusative sense: going too far with our technologies. An important distinction was made between made between ill-advised meddling in things original, as compared to the righteous desire to bring some degree of restoration in a fallen creation. This led to the thought that there is indeed a positive aspect to “playing God.” As creatures made in the image of God, and as believers committed to being his ambassadors on the Earth, we must desire to “play God” in the sense of fulfilling his mandated purposes for us here. After all, God gave mankind dominion over Earth and its creatures, and mankind is culpable to use our intelligence to mitigate the mess we’ve made. Furthermore, for believers who recognize that the Church universal is the “Body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27), we realize that, by extension, we “play God” whether we like it or not.
When man and woman were first created, they were the closest thing to God in the universe:
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” – Genesis 1:26-27
This should have been something to celebrate, yet it was immediately called into question though Satan’s temptation concerning the Tree of Knowledge commandment: “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). The woman was tempted with knowing evil (the corruption of good and truth), which would not be beneficial to them; Yet she was also tempted with something she already had—the attribute of being like God. (And interestingly, this is still a tactic of Satan—to work upon our flesh to perceive a lack when there is plenty. We need to be able to say, like David in Psalm 23, “I shall not want.”) So, while we might be reticent to “play God” when it means getting in His way, we should all the more be eager to “play God” when it means carrying out his will. If we don’t think we are “playing God” in doing so, then how do we expect empowerment and effectiveness?
And yet, though created in God’s image, mankind is in a fallen state. This explains why those who believe in God might not think it a good idea for us to try to act in His stead, and why those who do not believe in God don’t care how we might go about trying. Yet the essential nature—the image of God—prevails in mankind, and furthermore, individual human beings can be regenerated:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. - 2 Corinthians 5:17
…as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. – Ephesians 4:21b-24
This is a matter both for individual believers, and for the Church at large. As individuals, we are not just to obey Christ, but to be Christian: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). As the church, we are quite literally Christ’s presence in this world:
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. – 1 Corinthians 12:12-14
So, how do regenerated believers, and how does the Church universal “play God?” On put another way, what are the activities that bear most upon God’s nature, that He wishes to partner with us in?
CREATING. God has given us creativity. This needs to be clarified, though, as there are two types of “creating”: The creating of something entirely original, out of nothing (Hebrew bara’), and the creating—or making—of something uniquely fashioned from something previous (Hebrew ‘asah). God has a capacity for creating that goes well beyond ours, yet we have the wondrous wherewithal to work with what he has given us. So, while there is “nothing new under the sun” in one sense (see Ecclesiastes 1:9-10), we are nonetheless gifted in recycling and repurposing what has come before us. And in a fallen creation, “repurposing” is noble and essential.
It is critical that we employ our energies and intelligences to freshen up this creation. This includes such activities as designing, building, and repairing—or, put in more poetic terms: envisioning, crafting, and restoring. Human beings can make beauty and benefit from just about any intellectual or physical material available, and to do so is godly, and God-pleasing. Producing works of art and functional designs, conserving and restoring beauty and health where it is threatened or fading—this is a good way to “play God.” And, in reference to the previous essay, this can in some instances involve bioengineering and medical endeavors.
RECONCILING. When Paul called believers “ambassadors,” (see opening scripture), he continued by explaining the main activity of that role: reconciliation. God, in Christ, accomplished His greatest work in reconciling Himself to mankind. To “play God” is to effect this accomplished reconciliation with as many human beings as we are able. When we lead someone to Christ, we are doing one of the things that God most wants. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4). Reconciliation is “making things right.” The activity of reconciliation is yet broader than the saving of souls. It is the healing of broken relationships, and the restitution for wrongful actions. God does not need to make restitution, but when we do so, we operate in the same Spirit that made things right in the first place. A God who declared His original creation “very good” (Genesis 1:31) has a vested interest in conserving the goodness therein, or restoring the goodness that has become corrupted. Whenever we make something right, we are acting as God does.
LOVING. G
ranted, “love” is quite broad, and can mean a number of things. Yet it must be said that this is God’s preeminent activity, and if you and I are truly to “play God,” we must love. Christ regarded loving God as the greatest commandment, with the second greatest being to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Love is defined in a couple of ways. One is obedience to Christ’s commandments. “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” (2 John 1:6, see also 1 John 5:3). This almost seems circular at first glance: To love is to obey Christ, which is to walk in love. Yet this scripture tells us that, by 
definition, to be like Christ is to love. When we want to love, we will obey. And when we obey, we love. We cannot love without “playing God,” and vice-versa, for “…God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16).
A second definition of love is to lay down one’s life for a friend (John 15:13) or a brother (1 John 3:16); both are broad terms, as “friend” refers to any associate with whom one is familiar, and “brother” is essentially a euphemism for the idea that all persons can ultimately be regarded as family. It refers to the concentric circles of immediate family, extended family, church family, ethnic or national association, and ultimately all humanity. Likewise, the laying down of one’s life can be read at various levels. Certainly, it refers to the willingness to literally die for another, as evidenced by the reference to Christ’s death earlier in 1 John 3:16. Yet it ultimately refers to deferring to another: laying down self-gratification in preference for the legitimate need of another. Philippians 2 elaborates on the attitude that God, in Christ, showed through incarnation, and exhorts us to “let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (v.3). So, ironically, perhaps the ultimate way to “play God” is not so much about tinkering with nature, or exerting control over another’s life, as it is about sequestering our will for the benefit of others. The very idea that God defers anything to human will—in the midst of his omnipotence and sovereignty—is the ultimate “laying down”; an enigmatic but tangible aspect of the ultimate Love.
So, to conclude: while we are careful not to act on God’s behalf by violating His original designs or stepping outside of our given authority, we must recognize that as humans we are made in His image, and as believers, we are His Body in this world. And thus, we must “play God,” and share in His work. We must be stewards of who we are, by creating (including repurposing nature), reconciling (restoring fallen mankind as we have opportunity, and making things right in our relationships), and loving (obeying Christ and laying down our will for the benefit of others).
© 2011 Chard Berndt
All Scriptures NKJV.
Upcoming articles
I’m working on “Playing God, Part II: Being the Body” for January, and also in the hopper is “Mining for Treasure: The Diligent Unveiling of Knowledge,” probably for February. I hope I have some readers still rolling, and you are always welcome to choose an archived article and have a read. I suggest “A Pilgrimage of Promise” from May 2009. Not too technical but with some great food for thought.