Creation is one of three critical pictures of redemption – the other two being “exile and exodus” and “Israel”. For some, this post may not be among the most interesting. But from the author’s perspective, it has proven one of the most important to understanding Scripture. Scripture begins with a description of the creation of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1) and ends with the creation of a new heaven and a new earth “for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1). Creation frames Scripture, highlighting its importance to God’s redemptive plan.
Creation studies have tended to be “apologetic”, focused upon defending the veracity of Scripture or undermining scientific claims of evolution. While such studies are well intended, there is risk of obscuring the amazing redemptive message of Scripture. Our brief study has the purpose to reorient creation studies to reveal God’s redemptive purposes for His people.
Redemption Pictured as New Creation
That the Bible begins and ends with a creation narrative shows the first creation was certainly not intended to be God’s only or final creation act. John affirms God’s true purpose is found in the final creation that seems a cipher for redemption accomplished. There must be some purpose then in the initial creation account and it would seem that its purpose should link to redemption. Examining the differences between the first and final creations is insightful. In the final creation, there is no sun, no more night (Revelation 22:5), “no more sea” – a cipher for “the deep” (Genesis 1:2), and trees of life but no tree of knowledge of good and evil. These differences reveal that the final creation is fundamentally different from the first creation. The final creation is unlike the first creation, lacking the physical phenomena that are the basis for our current creation (the sun, the sea and the rhythmic day-night cycle that defines our world). The final creation appears to be spiritual, in which God and Christ are its light and physical water has been replaced by spiritual “living waters” (Revelation 7:17; John 4:11, 7:38; cf. Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13; Zechariah 14:8).
It appears John intends his readers to see a deeper meaning through these differences, with the first creation serving as a model to facilitate understanding of the final creation. He intends to help us visualize restoration to God’s presence, something inherently difficult as God is spirit and we are fallen, physical beings separated from Him. The spiritual nature of the final creation is affirmed by the absence of the deep, the sun, the moon, darkness, night, mourning, sorrow or death, concepts that are other-worldly. Even Jerusalem is new and spiritual, descending from heaven. There is no longer an earthly Jerusalem or temple in view (Revelation 21:2, 22). The city’s numerically symbolic dimensions, its description using stones emblematic of Israel’s priesthood, its gates and foundations numbered to the Patriarchs and Apostles (vs 11-21), all indicate that John intends his reader to visualize something non-physical. While John’s meaning may be arguable, inarguable is a foundational difference between the starting and ending point of Scripture. Scripture has moved from a first to a final creation, in which the first creation is physical and the last is spiritual. Implied is God’s redemptive work transforms His physical creation to a new and better spiritual creation.
It is a required step as our current physical creation is in bondage to sin and thus subject to decay and destruction (Romans 8:19-25). It is incapable of enduring for eternity. Similarly, we as creat-ures are part of creat-ion and thus we must also be transformed to stand in the presence of a holy God for eternity. Crucially, God does not simply save His people, but transforms them into the image of His Son, taking us from a first carnal and physical existence to a final pure and spiritual eternal existence suitable to stand in God’s presence. The transformation is consummated in resurrection, when we receive spiritual bodies that are imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42-54) and we have been made holy. Holiness is critical as John testifies “nothing impure will ever enter it [the new Jerusalem], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). The Lamb’s book of life is a cipher that defines the path that brings one out from the old creation and into the new creation. Essential is recognition that like John, the present creation cannot be our focus. Rather, it is simply a model to facilitate understanding the only important creation, the final eternal creation, the one every Christian seeks to secure. Critical to securing it is knowing when it begins.
The Inaugurated Beginning of the New Creation
From creation to new creation, the entire corpus of Scripture is a history of God’s redemptive efforts to restore fallen mankind. Man’s sin brought great offense requiring atonement so relationship could be restored, where restoration is viewed as a new creation. An important question is when the new creation begins. John testifies that the old creation had passed away at the completion of the redemptive program (Revelation 21:1), and one might logically conclude that the new creation coincides with the passing of the old creation at the return of Christ (the Parousia).
Ancient Israelites believed the Messiah would deliver them from fiery destruction, restoring them to a new creation so they sought the Messiah’s appearing as the signal of their deliverance. The Messiah would destroy their enemies and usher in Israel’s golden age fulfilling the Abrahamic promise. But this did not occur at Christ’s advent. Many in the church hold largely to the belief that the new creation will occur at Christ’s Parousia, a belief rooted in 2 Peter 3:10 combined with the reality that the present creation still persists. But there is substantial evidence that the new creation came with Christ’s first coming. Hints include: Genesis opened with “in the beginning” – so also Mark 1:1, describing Jesus’ mission as a new beginning, John 1:1,2 employing the same Greek phrase ‘Ἐν ἀρχῇ’ en archē (in the beginning) used in Genesis 1:1 (LXX) signaling a recapitulation of creation, John spoke of Jesus as light in the darkness, echoing Genesis 1:2-3 and Jesus as the creator of all things (cf. Colossians 1:16). Each signals a new creation. Calling Jesus “the Word” that “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14) also signals that Jesus is a new creation, a man uniquely different from the old Adamic physical race of men.
Paul also provides testimony of new creation in calling Jesus the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). Adam was the first man of the old creation. The parallel shows that Jesus is the first man of the new creation for without a new creation, there would be little sense in introducing a new Adam. Where Adam was our physical father, Jesus is a new man who is our spiritual father. Introduced is a new type of men “born of God”, rather than men born of natural descent (John 1:12-13). This new “beginning” stands in contrast to the former creation in that it is a new spiritual “race” of men that is not by physical descent but spiritual descent through belief in Jesus’ name (John 1:12; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:13). For this reason Paul can refer to believers as a new creation, saying “the new creation has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).
Relevance to Christians Today
Important is that our eschatological age – the inter-advent age, is a time of transformation from the old creation to a new creation. The transformation will become apparent in a future post. In the interim, the current age is described as a separating and purging of evil from which only the holy and pure remain (e.g. Isaiah 34:1-35:10; the parables of Matthew 13). The old creation is physical and easily seen with natural eyes. The new creation and kingdom of God is spiritual and can only be seen with “spiritual” eyes.
The Christian walk consists of turning one’s back on the current fallen creation and learning by faith to dwell in an unseen new creation that is infinitely better. Seeking holiness and maintaining purity are requisite for entrance into God’s kingdom. It implies that there is also a transformation of God’s creatures. Turning from sin and its fallen creation while turning to God and His new kingdom is deeply embedded in Christian teaching and manifest in the ordinance of baptism in which the believer dies to self – the old carnal man, and is resurrected in newness of life by the Spirit. Baptism is a sign to the world that the believer has left the old fallen creation and entered God’s new creation and kingdom in inauguration. Our “exodus” journey is complete in consummation upon death when we depart the old life and the old body subject to sin and dwell permanently with Christ in heaven. As will be seen in future posts, the same process is manifest in Israel as a community where Israel was corporately put to death (see Ezekiel 16:38-42) with the promise of resurrection to newness of life to follow (see Ezekiel 37). Importantly, God does not merely save His creatures and His creation, but He transforms them so that they are fit to spend eternity in the presence of a holy God. It means all creation must also be holy, most notably His people. Regarding the new creation, important is recognition that God through Christ is preparing a place for us that is a totally new creation (John 14:3).
Second, Figure 1 allows a convenient way to sort Old Testament narratives, institutions and history from corresponding New Testament realities founded in Christ. It facilitates understanding the Old Testament by providing a framework to arrange important redemptive events foreshadowed in the Old Testament and their New Testament reality in Christ. It deepens one’s appreciation of the Old Testament bringing new relevance to its study. Importantly, it exalts Christ who was the One in whom God has already accomplished redemption in inauguration, giving us a token and sign that He will accomplish redemption in consummation at His Parousia.
Finally, our introduction has affirmed the deeper redemptive truth foreshadowed in creation. It is not so much the first creation that is of critical import, but what the first creation foreshadows – the restoration of all that was lost in Adam’s fall. It is the new creation that must be our focus as the new creation represents the completion of God’s redemptive program and our restoration to God through Christ Jesus.
Forward to The Deep – The Place of the Dead