Creation and New Creation GOD AND CREATION © 2011 David W. Opderbeck Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution / Share-Alike

Creation and New Creation

GOD AND CREATION

© 2011 David W. Opderbeck

Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution / Share-Alike

TELOS

• Does creation have a goal or purpose (a telos)?• If God knew or could have known that evil, sin and suffering

would corrupt creation, why did He create?

• How would you answer Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor?

TELOS AND FREEDOMInstead of taking men's freedom from them, Thou didst make it greater than ever! Didst Thou forget that man prefers peace, and even death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil? Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering. And behold, instead of giving a firm foundation for setting the conscience of man at rest for ever, Thou didst choose all that is exceptional, vague and enigmatic; Thou didst choose what was utterly beyond the strength of men, acting as though Thou didst not love them at all -- Thou who didst come to give Thy life for them! Instead of taking possession of men's freedom, Thou didst increase it, and burdened the spiritual kingdom of mankind with its sufferings for ever. Thou didst desire man's free love, that he should follow Thee freely, enticed and taken captive by Thee. In place of the rigid ancient law, man must hereafter with free heart decide for himself what is good and what is evil, having only Thy image before him as his guide. But didst Thou not know that he would at last reject even Thy image and Thy truth, if he is weighed down with the fearful burden of free choice? They will cry aloud at last that the truth is not in Thee, for they could not have been left in greater confusion and suffering than Thou hast caused, laying upon them so many cares and unanswerable problems.

-- the Grand Inquisitor

THE TELEOLOGY OF REDEMPTION: COSMIC CHRISTOLOGY

Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. -- 1 Peter 1:17-21

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. -- John 1:15

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through 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. -- 1 Col. 1:15-20


• What themes about Christ, creation and redemption are evident in these passages?• Christ is chosen – elect as the redeeming lamb – before the creation of the world

• Christ is “revealed” by his resurrection

• Christ is the agent of creation

• Christ is “before” – preeminent over – all creation

• All creation “holds together” in Christ

• God reconciles all things in creation through Christ – Christ is the agent of cosmic redemption


• In sum:• The telos of all creation is Christ

• The power of God is revealed in Christ’s resurrection

• The telos of all creation, then, is resurrection: new creation

THE TELEOLOGY OF REDEMPTION: NEW CREATION

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”


I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.


Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

-- Rev. 21:1 – 22:5


• What familiar and unfamiliar elements do you notice in the description of the new creation?• God dwells directly with people• There is no curse of death• No sun or moon to mark seasons: only God’s shekinah “light”• The cultural products of kings and nations are brought into it• The primal water / river is present• The “tree of life” is present (notice its symbolized description)

• I.e.: As in Eden, humanity is in the unmediated sacramental space of God’s presence


But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, 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 he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. -- 1 Cor. 15:20-28


• What does Paul’s vision that God will be “all in all” suggest?• “Before” this creation is the Triune God

• Sustaining this creation is the Triune God

• “After” this creation is the Triune God

• What remains is purified: all that cannot be taken up into the life of the Triune God is purged


A conclusion:

The Bible’s vision of creation is a vision of the Triune God, from eternity past to eternity future.

Creation has always been about the love, beauty, power, and glory of the Triune God, even “before” it came to be

Creation, in all its beauty as well as all its suffering, has always been moving, by the sustaining power of Christ the suffering lamb, towards the goal of participation in the life of the Triune God

The resurrection of Christ the lamb reveals that the Triune God who is love, beauty, power, and glory will be “all in all”


A conclusion:

From first to last; from beginning to end; in suffering and joy; in gain and loss; in deepest time and farthest space; in gluons and quarks and quantum probabilities; in billions of stars arrayed in spiral ballets; in billions of galaxies each with their billions of stars; in adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine’s spiraling dance; in planting and harvest, in drought and rain, in work and rest, in life and death and resurrection,

everything is summed up in God.

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Creation and New Creation GOD AND CREATION © 2011 David W. Opderbeck Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution / Share-Alike