4. The material creation is a fundamental of our worldview.
Christianity is unique in the relationships it ascribes to the three prime actors in the cosmos: God, people, and the other material parts of the universe. These relationships can best be illustrated with a graph:
These relationships form a satisfactory framework for the biblical worldview: God’s ideal pictured for us in the Garden of Eden, which found people (Adam and Eve) in unbroken fellowship [friendship] with God, their creator. God, as Creator, was unquestionably in ownership of the earth (Psa. 24:1). Nonetheless, God, the Owner and Creator of the earth, entrusted the earth to the creature He had made in His image: man. Mankind’s role as spelled out in Scripture was that of stewardship.
This setting was truly paradise—the perfect picture of peace on earth. With all the relationships functioning and with God in lordship over all, we had the ideal environment pictured by the Hebrew term shalom. The Bible simply but eloquently declares this primordial scene to be “very good.” In English, “good” is rather broad and nebulous in meaning. The Hebrew word for “good,” however (towb), contains all these nuances: pleasant, agreeable to the senses, excellent, valuable, rich, prosperous, glad, happy, kind, of benefit, and morally right. Now that’s truly a definition of Paradise!
Of course, we know that such a state did not last long. After Adam’s sin, it crashed. All the relationships were broken, and even though the material world did not lose its inherent goodness, God made it resist the sinful purposes of people as a disciplinary and protective measure (the "curse") ensuring that mankind would not rise to arrogant ascendancy over the earth. Yet he has tried. And as a result the earth groans:
[Photo from: http://breadsite.org]
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits 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; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. (Rom. 8:19-23)
This passage is one of the most hopeful texts in the Scriptures, for it foretells the coming restoration of all things spoken of by the prophet Isaiah and mentioned in Luke’s account of the Acts of the Apostles:
Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:19-21).
Paul also refers to this glad time:
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:19-20, NKJV).
Paradise will indeed be regained, and that Paradise is a promise not only for people who have placed their trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but also for the entire creation that was “subjected to futility” by God on account of the sin of Adam.
The entire material creation will once again experience joy.
One of the sad
misconceptions of the conservative evangelical church has been the understanding that we are “aliens and strangers” on the earth. In truth we should be aliens and strangers to the world---to the ungodly and rebellious world system ruled over by Satan. This world system is going to be destroyed and its diabolical ruler vanquished for eternity. And as a long and glorious celebration of our Savior’s victory, we are going to reign with Him on this very earth which so many of us now abuse and malign. When we attain our final and complete adoption as children of God, we will embrace a good earth healed from the curse where, as Isaac Watts exclaims, thorns no longer “infest the ground.”
Isaac Watts
It is unfortunate in a sense that Watts titled the hymn in which that phase appears "Joy to the World!” He took his inspiration for his stirring lyrics from Psalm 98 that exults:
Oh, sing to the LORD a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The LORD has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. Sing to the LORD with the harp, With the harp and the sound of a psalm, With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the LORD, the King. (Psalms 98:1-6, NKJV).
Perhaps we ought to re-title the song of praise “Joy to the earth,” for that is indeed the very first line of the second sta
nza of Watt’s carol. It is Satan and rebellious mankind that blight God’s good earth. The Genesis account of the Fall makes it clear that the earth did not sin; the creatures did not sin; the earth is not evil. How ironic it is that the people of God today readily embrace so much of the doomed world’s political and economic systems that suppress and abuse the gifts of the creation, and yet malign the earth—which will be restored!
As we move toward the annual Advent celebration, let's sing this song with a better understanding of its meaning: though sung as a celebration of Jesus' First Advent, it is in reality a description of His Second Advent. What was promised at Christ birth may soon be fulfilled at His Second Coming. Let us thrill at the wonderful harmonies woven by the composer of the Messiah, George F. Handel:
Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.
[Hear Michael Bolton's rendition of this carol on YouTube]
Dean Ohlman is the host of RBC Ministries website: "The Wonder of Creation." You can read more of Dean's writing at the RBC site: http://www.wonderofcreation.org/
