The Re-genesis

Read: 1 Corinthians 15:20-28

Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23

IN WORD

When the first humans relinquished their divine privilege of governing the world with God, they invited a host of side effects into this world. The worst of these is death, a horrific, unnatural characteristic of the unKingdom. The image-bearers, the icons of God, cut themselves off from life through their treason in Eden. Only a miracle, some kind of re-genesis, could restore true, lasting life to the walking dead.

That’s exactly why Jesus came—to effect a re-genesis, a new creation. He promised abundant life to those who come to Him in faith, and He breathed His Spirit into His disciples before He left them, just as the Father had breathed life into dust in Eden and brought a man to life. The exact icon of God came to fulfill our original assignment, and then He died our death in order for us to be filled with His life. It was an unforeseeable restoration, though prophets had hinted at it and forecast its coming. The one died and was raised for many so that the many might live in Him.

We dare not reduce this life to a spirit-only disembodied existence. The resurrection of Jesus, the second Adam, was thoroughly physical. Our resurrection could not possibly be “less than.” The firstfruits are not different fruits. They are simply first. We will be raised just as He was raised.

IN DEED

Imagine that. This Kingdom will be filled with bodies that long ago walked this earth and then died. The God who created every atom in the universe certainly knows how to reconstruct a physical body, and He will do it according to our original glory, adding the glory of Jesus’ resurrected body to the design. The aches and pains will be gone. The inconvenience of physical setbacks and needs will become irrelevant. And death will be no more. Live in that hope, fully expecting the comprehensive restoration of the genesis to come.

ADDITIONAL READING: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The seed dies into a new life, and so does man.

GEORGE MACDONALD