Introduction
At the end of six days God finished creation of our current, physical cosmos. Genesis records creation was finished using the word כָּלָה kalah. Yet later narratives use kalah in ways suggestive there were other creation activities yet to be addressed.[1] All that God had planned to create was not yet completed.
Kalah is widely used, often in mundane ways as when one had finished speaking or finished a task (e.g. Genesis 17:22; 18:33; 21:15; 24:15; 24:19; 24:22; 24:45; 27:30; 41:53; 44:12; Exodus 5:13-14, 18; 34:33; Numbers 16:31; Deuteronomy 20:9; 31:24; 32;45; Judges 3:18; 15:17; Ruth 2:21, 23). It is also used to describe the end of supplies, kingdoms and peoples, often translated “consumed” (Genesis 41:30; 43:2; Exodus 32:10-12; 33:3-5; Deuteronomy 7:22; Joshua 8:24; 10:20). However, references to the end of peoples, particularly the end of the Israelites may have eschatological significance (e.g. Exodus 32:10-12; 33:3; Numbers 16:21, 45; 25:11; Deuternomy 28:21; Joshua 24:20; Isaiah 24:13; 27:10; 29:20; 32:10; Jeremiah 5:3; 8:20; 9:16; 10:25; 14:6, 12; 16:4; 44:27; Lamentations 2:22; 4:11; Ezekiel 4:6-8; 5:12-13; 6:12; 7:8; 13:14-15; 20:8, 13, 21; 43:8; Hosea 11:6; Amos 7:2; Zechariah 5:4; Malachi 3:6).
Of particular note is the completion and dedication of the tabernacle and temple (Exodus 39:32; 40:33; Leviticus 26:16, 44; Numbers 7:1; 1 Samuel 3:12; 1 Kings 6:9, 14, 38; 7:40; 8:54; 9:1; 1 Chronicles 18:20; 2 Chronicles 4:11; 7:1, 11; 8:16; 24:14; 29:17, 28-29, 34; 31:1, 7; Ezra 9:1; Ezekiel 43:23, 27; Daniel 11:36; 12:7; cf. Leviticus 16:20, the annual atonement of the Holy Place). Jewish sages believed that creation was not completed until the temple was erected, establishing God’s presence with His people. Employment of kalah in completion of the tabernacle and temple provides a link between creation and temple. It follows then, that the destruction of God’s temple signals His abandonment of His people, a type of de-creation resulting from their sins.
Implications From New Testament Passages
When discussing completed things or things ended, the New Testament, does not use the Greek equivalent of kalah found in the LXX. However, the Greek τελέω, teleō and τελειόω, teleioō show similar meanings. As with the Old Testament, there are mundane uses yet with Luke 18:31 and 22:37, we note Jesus had a goal. His mission had an end, a completion. Whatever new things He was introducing (e.g. the new covenant in contrast to the covenant of Sinai, a new law code in contrast to the Sinaic code, a new “twelve” in contrast to the twelve sons of Jacob, a new “seventy/seventy two” in contrast to the seventy elders and Nadab and Abihu, a new church in contrast to the Israelite assembly), He had a goal in mind and an appointed time and appointed place for its ending and completion. Given that Jesus was envisioned seated on the right hand of the Father following His elevation to heaven, it would seem that He took His rest, much as His Father, following the completion of creation. Consider John 4:
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Though Genesis speaks of God’s creation as completed, Jesus claims that He is appointed to finish the work of His Father. Jesus’ words expand upon Genesis, telling us that Yahweh’s work was not finished. There was more to be done (see also John 5:36). With Jesus’ declaration, He must finish the Father’s work. His work was salvific work, the work of deliverance and healing. Jesus had a greater creative work to finish, the work of re-creation, of salvation and restoration of all thing (John 17:4). Yet Jesus also prays for His disciples and all believers that God would “finish” unity in them that the world might see that Jesus was sent by the Father, leaving still more work to be accomplished after His glorification. The oneness sought by Jesus hints that His followers are a “work” of God the Father and Christ, a new creation, that like the first creation and Christ’s other new “creations”, had an appointed time and place for completion.[2]
Jesus’ declaration “it is finished” affirms He finished the work that the Father gave Him (John 19:28-30). Where His earlier declaration (John 17:4; cf. Acts 13:29) seemed more focused upon the work He was given to accomplish “on earth” (vs 4), it follows that Jesus’ Golgotha declaration pointed toward His mediatorial work in heaven. Jesus would not only glorify God on earth, but in all creation.
In these declarations, there is implication the work of God the Father has now become the work of Jesus, the Son of God and Son of man. As God in the Genesis creation-narrative had delegated authority to man as mediator and restorer of the earth, in the new creation, God the Father delegates all authority in heaven and on earth to the Son of Man. In each however, there is work left uncompleted. In Genesis, it is the reclamation of the earth outside the garden and in the new creation it is the reclamation of all creation through the testimony of Jesus as mediator and restorer of heaven and earth. Jesus’ work creates a new spiritual heaven and earth that not only restores man to God’s presence but places him unrestricted in that presence forever.
Yet there may be deeper meaning. Paul affirms Jesus has given us “work” to finish:
24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. (Acts 20: cf.2 Timothy 4:7).
Paul acknowledges that he has completed the work given him and he is ready to spend eternity with Christ. Yet in petitioning the throne to take a “thorn” from his flesh, he receives an ironic and unexpected answer that God’s power is completed or finished in weakness. Spiritual victory and spiritual power accompany physical weakness and suffering. Those in search of worldly victory and power will find it alludes them. One must be willing to suffer in the flesh, borne out in the forerunner of our faith, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:10). He was likewise finished and completed through suffering. There is an inference that Christ was perfected through suffering and Paul is also being made perfect through suffering. We also are called to live lives that show Christ’s work in us completed and perfected (James 2:22; 1 John 2:5; 4:12, 17-18). It is completed when our faith is put into action and love for one another is seen in the body of Christ.
John similarly saw a fulfilling, if not perfecting in completion of God’s eschatological plan. He had a vision of an angel descending with a little scroll proclaiming “there will be no more delay” (Revelation 10:6). The mystery of God will be completed, suggesting a climax in God’s eschatological plan. Though the words of the seven thunders were sealed, we know that John was commanded to eat the scroll, which would taste sweet in his mouth but turn bitter in his stomach (vs 9). The similarities with the scroll with seven seals suggests a parallel. The death of Christ as God’s lamb made Him worthy to open the seven-sealed scroll. It hints of an eschatological climax with similar martyrdom of the saints, “perfecting” by finishing their testimony in death. That John prophesies to the nations and peoples of the earth (vs 11) suggests he is recording a future global testimony through martyrdom. Those that are martyred may represent the larger body of Christ, who like their master are perfected through suffering and death.
Support for this position may be found in Revelation 11:7 where we are told that “two witnesses” (vs 3), “when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them” (vs 7). A number of expositors have argued that the two witnesses represent the testimony of believers at the end of the age. That their testimony is finished or fulfilled with their martyrdom, supports the thesis that the little scroll represents the bitter end of the sweet saints through martyrdom. That they are resurrected after three and a half days and “went up to heaven in a cloud” parallels the events of Christ. Their resurrection and ascension is vindication of their righteousness and holiness. This event appears to be a climax in God’s eschatological plan.[3]
Teleō also appears in the seven last plagues that completed God’s wrath (Revelation 15:1), executed by seven angels that emerged from God’s temple. Their exit closed the temple until the seven plagues were completed (vs 8), finishing the judgments of God upon a wicked world. The markers for finishing the testimony of the two witnesses and finishing the judgments upon the earth anticipate the end of God’s eschatological plan, pointing to the completion of the new creation, echoing completion of the first creation (Genesis 2:1-2). Support is found in Revelation 17 where the prostitute Babylon was drunk on the blood of the saints (vs 6), making her complicit with the martyrdom of God’s people. She is destroyed by the beast and the ten kings (vs 16), “until God’s words are fulfilled” or completed.
The final occurrences of teleioō appear in Revelation 20 where Satan is chained and locked in the Abyss until a thousand years is completed (vs 3). During this period, he is not allowed to deceive the nations. While Satan is locked in the Abyss, John sees thrones, upon which were seated the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus (vs 4). They had not worshiped the beast nor taken his mark. They had overcome, and they “came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (vs 4). We are told this is the first resurrection but John first inserts a parenthetic remark that “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended” (vs 5). We are then told “blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years” (vs 6). Despite the exegetical difficulties of the passage, one can conclude that those who suffered martyrdom and were faithful to the end, receive a reward of reigning with Christ. The implication seems to be that they are perfected through suffering much as Christ was and thus, like Christ, they receive a crown and authority to rule. This appears to be the great reward for being perfected in suffering. There is no judgment and thus no fear of the second death. Resurrection precedes that of the unrighteous, and with resurrection, comes reigning with Christ.
Relevance to Christians Today
Kalah‘s consistent application to the completion of the tabernacle (and temple) hint of its relationship to creation. The great emphasis on temple in John’s apocalypse also supports this thesis, pointing to God’s redemptive goal as completion of a new creation. That kalah was so consistently applied to the completion of tabernacle, temple and its sanctification also hints that a greater temple shall be completed in the new creation. That Jesus declared Himself to be a temple (Matthew 26:61; Mark 14:58; John 2:19) and was sanctified given His sinless life, supports that the new creation includes a new temple, a spiritual temple finished in Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
Creation of the cosmos in Genesis did not complete the construction of a temple in which God could dwell with man. The tabernacle, the Solomonic temple and second temple all seem to foreshadow a coming greater temple. That Christ’s body was a temple foreordained for destruction, also points to the weakness and unsuitability of any physical temple. Its destruction was a forerunner to the destruction of a greater spiritual temple, Jesus Christ. It also points to Christ’s resurrection body as the new spiritual temple. Christ’s resurrection body, as a spiritual body, would be a far better temple than His physical body before His death. This was the unfinished work of the Father that was from the beginning entrusted to the Son, the erection of a greater temple through resurrection, a temple not subject to decay, allowing God to ever “tabernacle” with His people (see Revelation 21:3).
That Christ was perfected through physical suffering hints that believers must follow Christ, enduring physical suffering, putting their weak carnal nature to death, overcoming by the Spirit, for it is not by might or power, but by the Spirit that we overcome. Putting off the weakness of the flesh anticipates that we are a key facet of the new spiritual temple structure. If we live by faith, showing love and unity of spirit, then we prove we have been perfected in Christ. There is no reliance upon our own strengths or abilities. The carnal nature is dead, and like our master, we are resurrected in the power of the Spirit.
That John so strongly emphasizes love and unity as signs that God’s perfecting work in us is finished, is not coincidental. His apocalypse urges the churches to overcome, laying out how God’s work in us will be finished. The new creation it would seem, will be completed in suffering, climaxing in martyrdom of the saints. No wonder then John urges us to be perfected in love given that greater love has no man than to lay down his life for another. And this appears to be what will transpire as the end of the age approaches. Overcoming will require the saints to love God in measure that brings willingness to lay down our lives as a testimony of the love of God. As Christ’s death was a seed that brought forth many seeds, believers should expect many are called to martyrdom so that another greater harvest of souls occurs through our testimony of love. In light of the bitter outcome saints face, John encourages them with assurance resurrection, reigning with Christ for a thousand years. Saints will share in the joys of their Lord, perfected in suffering and resurrected to true spiritual life. God will in effect, perfect a priesthood that brings peace to God’s new creation.
While it may seem a stretch to suggest so much derives from one word kalah, each of the words and phrases that represent key creation themes do not stand on their own. They are interlocked and interdependent in a way that brings greater meaning to bear. This will be seen as we build upon the redemptive themes introduced thus far. With the next few, a comprehensive outline begins to take shape. Man has been specially constructed and placed as the pinnacle of God’s creation to serve in the role of priest-king, mediating between God and creation, while evidencing righteous rulership in dominion over the earth.
A second, perhaps more faint outline is also taking shape: That God ordained from the beginning the creation of a second spiritual man (Jesus) to accomplish what the first man could not. Being weak in the flesh, the first man failed. But the second man, being full of the Spirit has succeeded, completed and perfected through suffering in the flesh, overcoming by the Spirit, now reigning with God on high.
The difference between the two men is the keystone of the two creations. Though the first creation was completed in six days, there was more work to be done. That work has been completed by Christ and in partnership with Him, one should expect the second creation will be completed in six “days”, after which all creation can rest for eternity.
[1] Given that there are over 200 occurrences of kalah, we will attempt only a survey to show typological reinterpretations that relate to eschatology.
[2] John envisioned the appointed time(s) as the days of the voice of the seventh angel for the mystery of God, after the two witnesses had finished their testimony for their martyrdom, after the seven plagues of the seven angels and at the end of the thousand years. John envisioned the appointed place(s) as unstated for the mystery of God, the public square of the great city spiritually known as Sodom and Egypt for the martyrdom of the two witnesses, the heavenly temple for the seven plagues poured out on the earth and the great white throne in heaven for the resurrection judgments on unrepentant men.
[3] If our interpretation is correct, it supports an earlier suggestion that the new creation is a progressive process in which the saints are corporately perfected through suffering as the end of the age approaches, a necessary purification before they can serve as the Bride of Christ and dwell with a holy God. Given that John spoke of many antichrists, it is possible that evil men, behaving like antichrists, recapitulate martyrdom of saints at various times and in various places throughout our age, all serving as part of the corporate purification of the saints before the escalation to the final Antichrist at the end of the age. The saints corporately recapitulate Christ following the same path of suffering and humiliation as Christ.