As promised, here is the follow up to my previous post on the resurrection and the new creation.
As I tell co-workers and friends and family that there exists a new creation with Jesus as the firstborn, and a Kingdom with Christ as king. I often receive comments along the lines of: so how do you explain ISIS? Slavery? Racism? Rape? If God is really renewing or recreating the earth, why are things so terrible?
You may remember this passage from the first part of this post.
1 Corinthians 15:24-27
Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.
So you have the apostles traveling around in a world that believes Caesar has placed all peoples in subjection to him, and they proclaim Christ as king, and the firstborn of a new creation. They state that this Jesus of Nazareth who was, and is, and is to come has been placed above creation as a new Adam. This is revolutionary.
They are then however met with this challenge, "if all things are in subjection to him, why are things so screwed up?!" It is similar to another question I get all the time, "why would a good God allow so much evil in the world?"
To these people I usually offer the idea that there is a "now and not yet" at work in God's new creation, and that those living within the Kingdom of God are able to experience it in part. At the very least this response usually conjures up some curiosity, and it is that curiosity that encouraged me to write this series for you fine folks.
In the first century AD/CE, there were many who found it difficult to believe that God was renewing and recreating creation. The apostles had to respond to those who doubted that the Kingdom of God was actually advancing and that God's new creation had begun.
The Author of Hebrews offers us this encouragement.
Hebrews 2:5-8
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.
The author who is technically unknown, assures his readers that everything really is in subjection to him [Jesus] but at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
Now, but not yet.
Paul also apparently had some doubters within the Roman church.
Romans 8:18-25
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.
It is within this hope, this belief that God is making things new, that we discover salvation. Paul challenges his readers, "hope that is seen is not hope..." Though creation is groaning, we wait, and we hope, and it is this hope that changes everything. Hope is a contagious thing.
"Hope for America" was the campaign slogan for one candidate who promised to bring "new things" to the people of his country. He promised to restore, rebuild, and provide hope for Americans that were currently feeling hopeless under the old regime, and we collectively believed him. We voted him in, and at best he has offered hope to a select few that fall within his voting demographic.
People want hope, they just don't want it from God, and they don't want to place it in kingdoms they cannot see, or new creations that don't seem to be changing much of anything. That is why it takes a certain revolutionary spirit to believe and proclaim the gospel. For me to share that God's Kingdom is here and now, and still not yet fully requires a hope that often looks like groaning. While I watch the principalities and powers of this present age rise up and destroy each other I groan, but I cling to the hope of the Kingdom. It is this hope in the Kingdom of God that would cause me to find a treasure in a field and sell all I own to buy that field. When I say the Lord's Prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I cling to those words with hope.
You can tell Peter was also clinging to the hope of a fully established Kingdom of God and a new creation in this letter. Peter goes all out apocalyptic in this portion of his letter but we would be wise to take note how it he ends this section.
2 Peter 3:1-13
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 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.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
We are waiting for a new heavens, and a new earth. I love Peter's radical faith, he believes that even if God should melt the heavenly bodies, he will keep his promise to bring about a new heavens and a new earth. That my friends is hope.
The revolutionary nature of the gospels is something that must be shared.
In a world that believes hope can come from a political party we need to proclaim something radically different, hope in the Kingdom of God that is now, and not yet fully.
In a world that believes that violence can bring peace, the followers of Jesus must proclaim radical non-violence.
In a world that believes all of creation is fallen and destined to destruction the followers of the Messiah will be called repairers of the breach, and the restorers of neighborhoods. Those who are adopted sons of God will stand and say, look to Jesus, the firstborn of the new creation, and all things are being reconciled to him.
My friends, the gospel is revolutionary, and my short series has not even begun to uncover the beautiful masterpiece that God is composing. Be challenged, be encouraged, and live with hope.