For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:18-25 ESV)
One of the hottest topics today is the environment. The Media regularly reminds us that we are poisoning our environment and that if we do not change this behavior our planet will eventually be uninhabitable. Hollywood movies regularly portray an apocalyptic scenario where our abuse of the environment has caused some catastrophe. In the last generation the great fear was a nuclear apocalypse. The great fear for my generation is an environmental apocalypse.
While in a supermarket recently I saw a shopping bag that had written on the side “I’m saving the planet. What are you doing?” There are many people these days who are on just such a mission. This issue raises all kinds of political and religious feelings. This should not surprise us. Mankind has a close relationship with the earth. This is where we live and we like it, in spite of the fact that nature can also be cruel to us.
But we often marvel at the beauty of the natural world. It is so amazing that we are tempted to worship it. All idolatry can be traced back to the worship of some aspect of nature. The human race originally knew about the true God who created the world, yet they chose to reject God and worship the creation rather than the Creator (Rom. 1.19-25).
God has revealed something about Himself through the natural world. The main revelation of creation is the fact that there is a Creator. We should be able to conclude that someone or something made the world.
Atheism and the corresponding philosophy of Materialism denies that the world had a supernatural origin. The Materialist believes that matter is eternal and the things that exist have come about through natural processes, time, and chance.
The knowledge of God has been rejected, as it was in ancient times, and human wisdom, which in modern times is called science, has been made the preeminent source of knowledge. Science has become the tool of Atheists, who are really philosophical Materialists, to explain the universe apart from God.
But this is nothing new. The world has always rejected the Creator. Men will be held responsible for the knowledge about God that was made known to them, which they have willfully and stubbornly rejected.
The Bible never tries to prove the existence of God. Creation itself is adequate proof of the Creator. The ancient peoples were not atheists, they were polytheists. So the Bible is not arguing that there is a God. The Bible is arguing that Israel’s God is the true God who made everything.
Mankind was to be the Ruler of Creation
The days of creation lead up to the creation of man, who is made in the image of God Himself, and who was set to rule over everything else God made. The natural world does not exist for its own sake and is not independent of mankind. The idea that man will one day be extinct, like the dinosaurs, and the natural world will continue on without interruption is not a Biblical idea. There is no reason for the heavens and the earth apart from mankind.
The world was made to be the home of mankind, just as Heaven is the abode of God. God made the world and gave it to man for his home. The creation belongs to the Creator. But mankind is like God’s tenant. Even before there was a curse mankind was given the work of caring for the creation. Work is not a result of sin. Sin only frustrates our work and death robs us of enjoying its benefits.
God made the world for us to inhabit and care for, all under God’s sovereign watchfulness.
Man was made in the image of God. All kinds of theories about what this means have been proposed. But actually this concept is rather simple. Man is God’s likeness on earth. God is in heaven, but man is on the earth where he is to represent God, serve His interests, and do His will.
A good synonym for the word “image” would be “representative.”
You and I do not have the time and maybe not even the ability to govern the United States. For one thing, the government is in Washington D.C. and we are spread out all over the place. So we elect representatives to express our interests in Washington D.C. Those representatives are supposed to be the image of the people of this country and do what the people would do if we could be there ourselves. That is the theory of a representative form of government. It doesn’t usually work all that smoothly. Sometimes the representatives don’t behave as they ought to and they don’t end up representing the will of the people.
Does that scenario sound familiar? It should. That is the story of the fall of man. Man did not represent God’s will on earth but decided to do his own thing. That rebellion has caused a huge disruption in the order of things. The will of the Creator is not being represented on earth as it is in Heaven. Something has gone terribly wrong. The original purpose for creation has been violated and a rebellion was started. We have been living with the effects of this rebellion ever since.
Something went terribly wrong with man and with man’s environment. Things are not as they should be. Something has been lost. After they sinned, Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden. To be cast out, alienated, or exiled is a major theme in Scripture. To be exiled or alienated defines the human condition. We are all exiles. The entire human race has been alienated from something and we all sense that this is true. But many people do not know why this situation exists. If we are ignorant of the Biblical doctrine of the fall of man we will never know this great mystery of human life.
Mankind is Alienated from Creation
Human life is in a state of alienation. And there is an intense desire in us to overcome this alienation. But our attempts to get back to Eden always fail. Human history moves in a cycle of frustration. We sense that something is wrong with life. We know we are exiles and we try to find our way home. We think we are making progress. Progress is the great deception and idol of the Modern Age. We are constantly being promised that eventually we will get there and all the sorrows of the human race will be over.
Something always happens that shatters the illusion of our progress. Science was supposed to be our savior. We would use science to conquer nature and make it serve us. But science has unlocked a Pandora’s Box of Powers that horrify us and that we now struggle to control.
The human race is desperately trying to overcome this alienation from the Creation. Science is modern man’s attempt. The ancient peoples proposed their own solutions and explanations for life’s problems, many of which still linger in our minds today. All the great civilizations that rise and fall can be understood as mankind’s attempts to overcome alienation.
The Tower of Babel was the first great attempt of man to build a utopian society. But God stopped the building of Babel. God stopped it after admitting that if a united humanity put their heads and hands together there would be nothing they couldn’t accomplish. And God thought that was a bad thing! Why?
God has frustrated man’s attempts to overcome the alienation.
The alienation of man from creation was imposed by God Himself because of man’s sin. God is not going to lift this curse until He is ready to do so, all in His time and in His way. The curse is not going to be lifted because of human progress but because of Divine activity.
God will not allow a rebellious humanity to have its own way. This is still God’s world. He will not allow wickedness to flourish. He will not allow the plans of men to rule the world. God is sovereign over the affairs of men. The human race cannot just take over the world and do what it wants. And the One enthroned in the heavens laughs to scorn all of our puny attempts to set ourselves up as the rulers of the world (See Psalm 2). As the hymn-writer said: “this is my Father’s world.”
Until the plan of God is complete and Creation is redeemed the human race is going to have to bear the consequences of sin.
It was God Himself who pronounced a curse on the earth after Adam and his wife had sinned:
“…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17-19).
The Creation would not cooperate with the man. Frustration would be mankind’s destiny. Man would toil but his efforts would be frustrated by a cursed environment. It is not the work that is cursed. God had already given Adam work in Eden. Work is not a curse. But the work of man would be frustrated because the ground he works is cursed. This is not just a commentary on the difficulty of agriculture. It is a general statement about all of man’s toil upon the earth.
All of man’s endeavors are marked by frustration. We do not get out of life what we want. We do not get out of our work what we put into it. The harvest does not equal the labor. And what little we do get we cannot enjoy because eventually we die and leave it all behind for someone else.
The book of Ecclesiastes is a commentary on the Fall of Man. The singular quality of human life after the fall is “futility.” Life is like a dog chasing his tail. Solomon considered human life according to the wisdom God gave Him:
“What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 2:2-23).
The frustration is in working all of your life for something and then not being able to keep it. As Job said, “naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart.” We often say “you can’t take it with you.” No one ever sees a U-Haul truck following a hearse to the graveyard! And for every wealthy man who must leave his wealth to another, there are many more who die with nothing to leave behind at all! Millions of people in this world toil only to remain in poverty. In spite of what we are taught about the American Dream most people live, work, and die poor.
Creation will not submit to our wishes. It is actually killing us. We spend vast amounts of time and money in vain attempts to keep nature at bay. The world is against us from the day we are born. Nature always has the last word. Even if you are young, strong, and beautiful now there will come a time when your strength, health, youth, and beauty will be gone. And there is nothing you can do about it! We are not in control of nature. It is trying to kill us and it will always be successful! There is no science in the world that can save us from this curse. Only God can save us.
Creation will be Redeemed
God is not just saving souls. God is actually going to save Creation. Creation was cursed because of man’s sin. So Creation will also be redeemed. God’s plan of salvation is cosmic in scope. There is really no realm that has not been somehow affected by salvation through Christ. Part of this great salvation is the redemption of creation. Whatever is in the future for the children of God involves a renewed earth. We are talking about a physical environment where the saints of God will live forever.
The ultimate destination of the saved is the New Heavens and Earth. Believers who die before the Lord comes are with the Lord in some sense in heaven now. But that is not their final home. The glory of the saints will be seen in a new earth that will be released from all the effects of sin. God will lift the curse that He imposed on nature.
The language Paul employs to speak about this new world is that of redemption and liberation. Paul is emphasizing what is coming, not what is going. Obviously, when the new world comes the old world has to go. There are other New Testament writers who mention this as well. For example, the Apostle Peter writes about the destruction of this present heavens and earth in a fiery cataclysm:
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10).
In the Revelation, John the Apostle actually sees the passing of this world and the birth of a new heavens and earth:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more (Revelation 21:1).
There is a tendency for some Christians to focus on this fiery cataclysm. There is a part of us that is fascinated by how the world will end. Have you noticed all of the Hollywood movies about the end of the world? But there is no hope and no Gospel in that.
This world must end. But that is not the focus of the message of the Gospel. The focus of the Gospel is not what is going but what is coming. The old creation has to go in order for the new creation to come. Those is Christ have already been made a new creation in order to fit into the new creation that is coming (2 Cor. 5.17).
Glory means that something is revealed. When a new skyscraper is being built it is covered over with scaffolding. When the building is done then the scaffolding, which was always meant to be temporary, is taken down and the new building is revealed. So it will be with this present creation. When it is taken down the New Creation will be revealed. Everything that is temporal is going to be shaken so that what is eternal will be all that remains (Heb. 12.27-28).
This redeemed earth seems almost heretical for Christians who tend to over-spiritualize everything. Everything spiritual is good. Everything material or physical is bad. Doesn’t the Bible teach that? Actually, that is Greek philosophy not Biblical theology. God is perfectly comfortable with material things. He created the stuff that the world is made of! Matter is not inherently evil. The creation was not bad. Creation was good.
Salvation is not about being separated from everything material so we can just be spiritual. So when we all get to heaven are we going to be little spirits flitting from cloud to cloud for eternity? I think not. The hope of glory is not looking forward to living in a non-physical, spiritual, immaterial existence. The Christian is looking forward to having a new body in which to live in a new earth.
Fallen men cannot live in a perfect world. And redeemed men cannot live in a fallen world. This is what creates all of the struggle, tension, and suffering for the believer now. The believer has a redeemed spirit in an unredeemed body which is in an unredeemed world. But the New Creation and the Old Creation cannot coexist forever. What belongs to the old Order is temporal and is passing away.
Death is a constant reminder of the transient nature of this world. The world is falling apart, like a crumbling house. One day it will fall down completely. But when this world finally comes down this will be the time of glory for the children of God. The biggest difference between sinners and saints is in what will happen when this world passes away. Sinners will suffer endless grief and loss. Saints will receive what they have been waiting for!
What are believers waiting for? Full redemption! The redemption of our bodies and of the Creation. Full redemption actually means no more death. Our bodies and our world are both subject to corruption and to death. But believers are waiting to receive immortal, resurrection bodies that will no longer be subject to this bondage of corruption. We are not longing to be unclothed, to be without a body, but to be clothed (2 Cor. 5.1-5). These new bodies will not be subject to death and the saints will be glorified immortals just like our Lord (I Cor. 15.50-55).
The Anglican scholar and preacher N.T. Wright uses a helpful metaphor for this resurrection body that every believer will receive. Imagine going to the hospital to see a very sick friend or relative. Perhaps this person is so sick that he or she could die. When we see someone who is that sick we often say something like “he is just a shadow of his former self.” Well, believers are just shadows of their future selves! There is some glory in us that God put there when we were born again that is going to burst forth when these mortal bodies pass away and the Lord comes again.
Jesus is Himself the firstborn from the dead! His resurrection is a picture of the future of the redeemed human race. Just as Jesus overcame death all those who are in Him will do the same. In fact, because of the resurrection of Jesus, the entire human race is going to experience resurrection (See John 5.28-29). But for some this will not mean glory. It will mean the eternal misery of an unredeemed soul in an immortal body. The doctrine of the resurrection body is why we also believe in the eternal torments of Hell.
The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of the Gospel. Without the resurrection there is no hope for anything after this life. Why do we not just live for the moment and become hedonists? Because we believe there is something else worth waiting for. If there is no resurrection of the dead, that is, if Christ has not risen, then we might as well just enjoy ourselves as much as we can before we die. Christians are not against physical pleasure. We just acknowledge that these earthly things are temporal and we have the hope that there is something much better for God’s children.
In this world God’s children are known for how they suffer. We groan, along with the Creation, as a woman groans with labor pains. Any woman who has ever given birth knows that labor pains are not enjoyable at all. However, the result of labor pain is something that brings joy. Labor pains are not the pains of death. Labor pains are the anticipation of a new life. Believers are groaning in pain, but it is not the hopeless pains of death. We are in labor, along with the Creation, in anticipation of a glorious new creation.
The destiny of the saints is glorious. Christ did not die and rise again just so we could have something like an eternal holiday. The Saints are destined to rule and reign over the New Creation.
The Saints will reign over the World to Come just as Jesus exercised authority over this natural order. When Jesus was here in this world He performed a number of miracles that were signs of God’s Kingdom having come to earth. Christ’s walking on the water, healing diseases, and multiplying loaves and fish, all show that these elements of creation were subject to Him. But these miracles point to something else in the future. Someone has called the miracles of Jesus “previews of coming attractions.”
The writer of Hebrews hints at this future glory and connects it to the present glory of the resurrected and exalted Christ:
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor… (Hebrews 2:5-9).
And everyone who is in Christ will share in His glory, just as those in Adam have shared in Adam’s fall and the curse pronounced on this creation. But Jesus is the glorified progenitor of a new, glorified race of men. When those in Christ enter their glory, and are fully redeemed, including our bodies, then the creation itself will also be glorified along with the children of God.
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece The Lord of the Rings, one of the main characters is Aragorn. When we first meet him he is called Strider, a Ranger from the North. He was something like a wandering warrior who lives out in the wild. But we learn that Aragorn is more than what he seems to be. Actually, he is a king who has been living in hiding and obscurity his entire life. Before he can ascend to the throne he has to suffer, live in exile, and fight for his life. Only when the great evil is defeated can Aragorn become king and fulfill his destiny.
King David was also a king who had to wait for his throne. Samuel the prophet anointed David king when Saul was still king over Israel. David had to wait for many years before Saul was killed in battle and David was actually recognized as Israel’s king. And before that time came David had to fight many battles and face hardships, including running and hiding from Saul. David was a king waiting for his throne.
This is exactly the situation for the children of God in this world.
The children of God have not yet been revealed in their glory. We have not yet begun to reign. But doesn’t the New Testament say that we are Kings and that we are already reigning with Christ? We are kings even now, but we are waiting to receive our authority and kingdom. There are some things that God’s children will only receive in the World to Come and should not expect to have now in this present, evil world.
We must learn to live in hope, or in anticipation, of the New Creation. This means we don’t place our hope for the future in anything connected to this present world. This world is passing away, including our own bodies, even as we go about our daily business. This world will always disappoint those who place their hope in it.
But those who hope in the Lord will never be disappointed. And someday the meek will actually inherit the Earth.
