#Living earth new hope full

The successive covenants he makes find their basis in his prior pledge to all he has made.Ĭreation and new creation are the bookends of the Bible. In short, God is committed to his creation. 23:5), and with Israel after the Babylonian exile (Isa. This reference is seen in the covenants with Noah (Gen. The successive covenants in Scripture, talk of an everlasting covenant ( berith ‘olam) made with creation. When God cuts a covenant with Abram, Abram was asleep (Gen. But the Hebrew word berith ( covenant) can often mean a one-sided pledge. We think of a covenant in contractual terms, between two informed, consenting parties. How do animals, trees, and rocks respond? But God declares: “And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground” (Hos. It sounds strange in English to enter into a covenant with creation. God has entered into an eternal covenant with creation. It goes to the core of our reason for existence. They are bestowed with vice-regal authority to manage the development in God’s world, to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. God’s image bearers are given a purpose within the temple. The Garden of Eden is the exemplar of what it looks like when heaven and earth meet. 1:26, 27).Īll later tabernacles and temples within the history of the people of Israel are a reflection of Eden. The images in the temple are not made of wood or stone, but are human flesh and blood named Adam and Eve (Gen. God is not a lifeless statue within this temple, but he walks and talks within the garden (Gen. It is not a static, lifeless building but a growing garden. In the Ancient Near East, the home of a god was a temple, and Eden is presented in these terms. Genesis 1 begins with the creation of the heavens and the earth, but then narrows in to a particular garden called “Eden.” This garden is where God dwells with his people on earth. Humans are made in the image of God to have dominion. The New Jerusalem will descend to earth (Revelation 21), and the beauty of God’s creation will be restored and renewed. When Jesus returns, it will not be just for a visit, to pick us up and take us elsewhere. This begins in Eden where he walks with Adam in the garden (Gen 3:8), and it continues as God’s glory is beheld in the tabernacle, in the temple, in the incarnation, in the crucifixion, in the resurrection, and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through the Bible God shows his commitment to fix this problem by descending to earth to address the issue of sin.

But this problem is not because the earth is second rate. Suffering pervades every part of our lives. Of course, the world is not all that we would want it to be. God did not hold back when he created this world by keeping the best for heaven.

#Living earth new hope full

It is full of beauty, color, and creativity. The earth that God created is not a functional, monochrome, utilitarian machine. God did not hold back his best when he created the earth. Understanding God’s plan to renew the earth connects what Christians learn on Sunday mornings with the rest of the week-shaping their mission as they discover purpose in all their daily work here on earth. 1:1) and ends with “a new heaven and the new earth” (Rev. The story of the Bible begins with “God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. It is not surprising, therefore, that Scripture talks of the fulfilment of this rescue as “new heavens and a new earth” (Isa. The scope of this rescue operation encompasses all that has fallen. God, not Satan, will have the final victory over what God has made. The opening chapters of Genesis explode this misconception. In the light of this, it is surprising that so many Christians view the earth as transient at best and something to be forsaken at worst. Through all the twists and turns of the biblical story, God remains committed to his creation. The Bible does not begin with the problem of sin it begins with the beauty of the earth. The Bible begins at Genesis 1, not at Genesis 3. We do not know all the details of what this will look like, but we know that “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). Our bodies will also be raised in a way that will allow us to live in the new heavens and the new earth. This resurrection is the firstfruits of the general resurrection (1 Cor. After his resurrection, Jesus’s body was clearly transformed, but it was still the very same physical body that was laid in the tomb. The grave of Joseph of Arimathea was empty. We should not confuse the resurrection and the ascension. Jesus was raised to earth, not to heaven. This article is part of the 10 Things You Should Know series.