As Mankind Goes, So Goes Creation

As Mankind Goes, So Goes Creation

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration . . . in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves . . . groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

— Romans 8:19-23

Even after the fall, the destiny and the redemption of the earth remain indissolubly united with the existence and development of the human race. The redemption of the earth is, in spite of all, still bound up with man. . . . Man is the instrument for the redemption of the earthly creation. And because this remains God’s way and goal, there can be a new heaven and a new earth only after the great white throne, i.e. after the completion and conclusion of the history of human redemption.^a

— ERICH SAUER

Why does creation so eagerly await our resurrection? For one simple but critically important reason: As mankind goes, so goes all of creation. Just as all creation was spoiled through our rebellion, the deliverance of all creation hinges on our deliverance. The glorification of the universe hinges on the glorification of a redeemed human race. The destiny of all creation rides on our coattails.

What possible effect could our redemption have on galaxies that are billions of light-years away? The same effect that our fall had on them. Adam’s and Eve’s sins did not merely create a personal or localized catastrophe; it was a calamity of cosmic, not just global, proportions.

Astronomy was my childhood hobby. Years before I came to know Christ, I was fascinated by the violent collisions of galaxies, explosions of stars, and implosions into neutron stars and black holes. Entropy, the second law of thermodynamics, tells us that all things fall apart. Even the remotest parts of the universe reveal vast realms of fiery destruction.

But we should not look at things as they are now and assume they’ve always been this way. Isn’t it reasonable to suppose that the pristine conditions of God’s original creation were such that stellar energy would be replenished, planets would not fall out of orbit, and humans and animals would not die? What if God intended that our dominion over the earth would ultimately extend to the entire physical universe? Then we would not be surprised to see the entire creation come under the Curse, because it would all be under our stewardship.

Consider Paul’s words about the central importance of Christ and the corresponding magnitude of his redemptive work: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20, emphasis added).

The gospel of God’s Kingdom isn’t good news just for us—it’s good news for the animals, plants, stars, and planets. It’s good news for the sky above and the earth below.

If we think of redemption too narrowly, we can be fooled into thinking that Heaven must be fundamentally different from Earth—because in our minds, Earth is bad, irredeemable, beyond hope. Indeed, “the teaching that the new creation involves a radically new beginning,” writes theologian Cornelius Venema, “would suggest that sin and evil have become so much a part of the substance of the present created order that it is unrelievedly and radically evil. . . . It would even imply that the sinful rebellion of the creation had so ruined God’s handiwork as to make it irretrievably wicked.”^b But let’s not forget that God called the original Earth “very good”—the true Earth, as he designed it to be (Genesis 1:31).

The breadth and depth of Christ’s redemptive work will escape us as long as we think it is limited to humanity. But as Paul explains,

By him [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:16-20, emphasis added)

How will the effects of our bodily resurrection be felt by the entire universe? In exactly the same way that all creation suffered from our fall into sin. There is a direct connection, a metaphysical and moral link, between mankind and the physical universe.

Romans 8 contains a profound theological statement that extends the doctrine of the Fall far beyond what we might have expected. But in doing so, it extends the doctrine of Christ’s redemption every bit as far.

We should expect that anything affected by the Fall will be restored to its original condition. Things will no longer get worse. When they change, they will only get better. That will be true of our bodies and our minds and human culture in the new universe. And there are no grounds to imagine that the God-created link between mankind and the physical universe will cease. Why shouldn’t it continue for all eternity?

Many Christians seem to assume that the present universe will be permanently annihilated. But if this were the case, what analogy would we expect Paul to use for what will happen to creation? An old man dying? A mortally wounded soldier gasping his final breaths? Those images would fit well with a belief that the universe will come to a violent, final end. But Paul doesn’t use analogies of death and destruction, he uses the analogy of child-birth: “The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22).

Does something in you long for the coming redemption? Look at other people; listen to the cries of animals, to the oceans, and to the wind in the trees. Do you see and hear evidence of this groaning for something better . . . for the world to be made right at last?

Thank you, Lord, that a far better world will be reborn out of this one, because sometimes we are so weary of this world the way it is. We praise you, Lord, for the extent of your redemptive work and how it points to the wonders of your character and your love. We are so excited to know there is an eternal future ahead for your creation, which we have yet to see as you intended it. Yet if its beauty can sometimes shine so brightly even under the dark clouds of the Curse, what will it be like to see it in all its glory? Thank you that you are far bigger and greater than we have imagined and that your redemptive work is likewise far bigger and greater.