18
CREATION HOPE
For it is indeed God ’ s earth :
created ‘ good ’ and revealing the goodness of its creator ; belonging to God ; part of ‘ the heavens and the earth ’ that form the cosmic temple of God ; and filled with God ’ s glory . And it also our earth , entrusted to our habitation while remaining in God ’ s ownership . So in the beautiful complementarity of Genesis 1 and 2 , we are created in God ’ s image to exercise God-reflecting dominion as ‘ kings ’ ( Genesis 1:26-28 ), and we are located to serve and keep , as ‘ priests ’ ( Genesis 2:15 ) – a combination of kingship through servanthood that was modelled by our Lord Jesus Christ , the perfect image of God . There is abundant material here to build a strong biblical case for the moral obligation of godly use of and care for creation in the way we live , work , trade and do all the things we are authorised to do on God ’ s earth . I have expanded these points in great detail elsewhere . 1
But as well as just looking back to the original creation and our role within it , or looking around at the glory of God expressed in the praise of creation and the fullness of the earth , don ’ t forget to look forward to God ’ s ultimate purpose for creation . It ’ s a very encouraging direction to look ! So preach creational eschatology as well . Our Christian attitudes and ethics for the earth should reflect its destiny , not only its origins .
Creation is included in the scope of God ’ s redemptive purpose
Actually , the first thing we need to say is that creation needs redemption . From the very beginning of the Bible , it is made clear that sin and evil have affected the natural order as well as human and spiritual life . ‘ Cursed is the earth because of you ’, said God to Adam . I think the primary focus of that statement is on the earth as the ground , or the soil (’ adamah , rather than ’ erets in the text ), in relation to human life and work , rather than on the geological structures and functioning of the planet . Nevertheless , Paul does make the clear theological affirmation that the whole of creation is frustrated , subjected to futility in some sense , including ‘ decay and bondage ’ – and will remain so until it is liberated by God and ‘ brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God ’ ( Romans 8:19-21 ). And that is the future God has for his creation .
The truth is , then , that just as creation shares in the effects of our sin , so we will share in the fullness of creation ’ s redemption . Creation suffers with us and because of us . But we will rejoice with creation when God liberates it along with us from all suffering and death . For God ’ s ultimate purpose is ‘ to bring unity to all things in heaven and earth under Christ ’ ( Ephesians 1:10 – one of the most astonishingly and creationally universal and cosmic affirmations in the Bible ). We are not going to be saved out of the earth , but saved along with the earth .
Where did Paul get such an idea from ? Clearly from the scriptures , the Old Testament . For the prophets certainly included creation in their understanding of salvation , or as we might say , they included ecology in their eschatology . Here are just a few texts to soak in , from that perspective .
Isaiah 11:6-9 : The messianic era will include environmental harmony .
Isaiah 35 : The restoration of God ’ s people will herald creational abundance .
Isaiah 65:17-25 : The new heavens and new earth ( a glorious picture that provided images and vocabulary for Revelation 21-22 ).
Psalm 96:10-13 : The rejoicing of all creation , when God comes to put things right ( which is what it means for God to ‘ judge the earth ’).
Now we should not smile dismissively at all this as if it were just a case of ‘ Old Testament earthiness ’ – some kind of primitive , earthbound materialism that then gets transcended by the more spiritual message of the New Testament . Not at all . That kind of Platonic dualism simply won ’ t do – either in the Old Testament or the New .
Paul speaks of a new liberated creation being brought to birth within the womb of this creation – whose groanings are the labour pains of creation ’ s future as well as our own . That is his wonderfully pregnant portrayal ( forgive the pun ) in Romans 8:18-25 . And we , who ‘ await the redemption of our bodies ’ ( v . 23 ), will inhabit the new creation in our resurrection bodies , modelled on the prototype resurrection body of Jesus , ‘ who , by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control , will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body ’ ( Philippians 3:21 ; cf . 1 John 3:2 ). That is one reason why the bodily resurrection of Jesus is so vitally important for our doctrine of creation . The disciples thought the risen Jesus was a ghost , but he deliberately demonstrated to his disciples that he was fully physical – with body parts , flesh and bones , and the ability to be touched and to eat food , light a fire and make breakfast ( Luke 24:37-43 ).
The bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is God ’ s Yes ! to the whole physical created order . The risen Jesus is the first-born of the new creation . And we shall be like him – fully and bodily human in a restored creation .
At this point we need to address a question : what is meant by the language of fiery destruction and dissolution that we find in some descriptions of ‘ the end of the world ’? We need to see that this is the language of :
Purging , not obliteration
Some people struggle with the whole idea of the redemption of creation because they believe that the future of the universe is total obliteration in