The Resurrection and the New Creation
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he [or she] is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 [esv]
Most of you who have spent a Sunday or two at church have heard this one. It has often been used to guilt new converts to become more "churchy" and less "worldly". While this understanding is not entirely incorrect, it misses a far larger message that we must engage directly in order to understand just how revolutionary the gospels are. What I would like to propose, (and i am not alone in this belief), is that the physical, literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus started something within our own space and time that can only be described as 'New Creation'.
NT Wright, who is one of the most prominent New Testament Biblical scholars of our current time, translates the Greek text of 2 Corinthians 5:17 like this.
"Thus, if anyone is in the Messiah, there is a new creation! Old things have gone, and look - everything has become new!"
If you want to check his work, and know your way around an interlinear, be my guest.
http://biblehub.com/interlinear/2_corinthians/5-17.htm
Since this series has been a few months in the making I would like to quickly recap some central themes that are needed in order for us to progress further.
The first part of this series I attacked violence head on, I demanded that the followers of Jesus adopt a belief in radical non-violence. I gave hard evidence that it is not only what Jesus himself advocated but also many prophets before Him, and the early church fathers after Him.
After advocating so strongly for non-violence in part one, I felt it was necessary to explain exactly why the prophets, Jesus, and the early church writers and fathers rejected all forms of violence. To do this I had to explain (though briefly) the concept of the Messianic Age. The idea that the Messianic Age had arrived, with Jesus as its King, was central to the message of Jesus, and the early church. When this Age arrived, several things happened, and while I elude to some, and briefly touch on others, this blog post left me feeling as if more needed to be said.
So I continued the series with Jesus and the Kingdom of God, which I explained was Jesus' declaration that the Messianic Age had come and that this was the good news. In many evangelical circles today the good news has been diluted to be little more than Jesus took a beating from God on your behalf so that you can go to heaven when you die. I explained that Jesus makes it very clear that he is already sharing the good news, and it is about the Kingdom of God, and it is "at hand". Jesus teaches this using messianic scriptures from Isaiah and other prophets to explain that God the Father is doing what he said he would do and Jesus states "I only do what I see the Father doing." The Kingdom of God is Jesus' invitation to partner with God in this new Messianic Age.
Now we can begin.
"If anyone is in the Messiah, there is a new creation!"
Let us begin with the gospel of John. Or rather let John begin with a New Creation scene which has often been taught as an old creation scene.
John 1:1-5 [ESV]
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Why do I advocate that this is a New Creation and not exclusively the Genesis chapter 1 creation? Aside from all of the other evidence we will get to in this post, which is promising to be quite long, we have a clue that may have been missed by even those who have spent their entire lives in church. In Genesis 1 we have a beautifully written poem, and within that poem, is this line.
Genesis 1:3-5 [ESV]
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
I want you to look at the two passages I just shared. Look at the underlined portions of these passages. In the Genesis passage each "day" the night eventually overcomes the day, the darkness overcomes the light, and this was a cycle all ancient near eastern cultures wove into their mythologies and creation stories. John however offers a new creation narrative. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John is beginning his gospel with a brilliant Genesis parallel that offers us some new creation twists.
For example...
John 1:9-13
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
"Those who received him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."
Jesus' name as it was spoken in his day was Yeshua, a version of Joshua, which means salvation.
Isaiah 56:1
Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation [YESHUA] will come, and my righteousness be revealed.
Those that believe this, have been given the right to become children of God. John is inviting us into this new creation not as wretched fallen creatures, but as children of God. There are many other passages within John that we could linger on, but we must move onto Acts.
In Acts 2 we have a nifty little upper room scene which will be familiar to some, and yet I would ask you to read it anew, in light of the new creation.
Acts 2:1-4 [ESV]
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
First off, the day of Pentecost, also known as the "festival of first fruits", (more on that later) was a time to bring all the new harvest, new grain, new wine, new, new, new.... creation.
Second, from heaven a rushing wind, that we all know and love as God's own spirit, is poured out upon the followers of Jesus. This parallels Genesis, where God breaths his breath, or spirit, into man. In Hebrew the words for breath and spirit are the same. Here we have God breathing something very new into the early church, and the evidence of this is that they began to speak in other tongues, or more literally, languages, as God's spirit enabled them.
Peter then goes out into a crowd of people from "every nation under heaven" and addresses the crowd and they all heard him in their own languages (Acts 2:6). This is big folks.
Do you recall a little event in Genesis in which people from all the earth gathered together in order to make a tower (Babel) which would reach to the heavens? This story ends with God confusing the languages of all the people, creating division, and the tower project is abandoned.
In Acts 2 we see God is beginning to restore the world, and in this moment he is lifting the curse of Babel. I have argued, in my earlier post on the Messianic Age, that God has also lifted (in part) the curse of "The Fall" in Genesis. If you continue to read Acts 2, Peter gives a stellar street sermon. He warns against the end of the age, using imagery that Jesus used, and offers an invitation into the beginning of a new age.
In Romans chapter 5, Paul teaches his readers that even though Adam sinned and the world had continued in sin and death after him, in the new creation, Jesus now offers us a new way of life. Read it for yourself here.
In 1 Corinthians 15, we have a passage so loaded with goodies that I must refrain from indulging in all of the nuances and points back to my previous posts within this series. Verses 1-11 set the stage with the reminder that this whole belief structure, the entire gospel, hinges on the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. He then goes on to explain in verses 12-19 that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and that is why Jesus has been raised. He continues into verses 20-27 which we simply must read.
1 Corinthians 15:20-28
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 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. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
In this paragraph we have firstfruits used two times, which we brought up earlier in Acts 2. We also have the throwback to Genesis "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." There was Adam, now there is Jesus. To quote Switchfoot, "there's a new way to be human, and its nothing we've ever been." There is another, albeit less obvious tie back to Genesis in the line, "For God has put all things in subjection under his feet." In Genesis God puts all things into subjection under Adam, but now all things are in subjection to Christ. New things are happening people, "new creation" things.
In Colossians we have another clear example that a new creation was at work, and at the end of this passage I underlined that through Jesus all things on earth and heaven will be reconciled to himself.
Colossians 1:15-20
He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And 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, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
This post has grown long enough, you may have noticed that I labeled this post as "Part 4a", this is because I really cannot split this current portion from the next, and yet for your sake I will.
To conclude this part.
We see that Paul, and the writer of Acts, as well as others (I didnt even get into Revelation), believed that a new creation was beginning right here within our own world to restore creation to the Father. We discovered that Jesus acted as a new Adam, in a New Creation, and the evidence of this belief could not be more clear. We learned that there will be a resurrection of the dead in which we will be given new "bodies" and live in an imperishable new world. From removing curses, to restoring life to the dying we see God is giving us signs that his New Creation has begun.
In "Part b" we will explore the concept of the "now, and the not yet" and show that the disciples and early church writers had to defend the belief in a new creation against those who doubted.
Peace