WHILE IT IS DAY

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

The future is here in Christ. The eschatological is present in the Christological. “In Christ” we are completely new creations, because, as the representative of both God and man, He has reconciled us to God through His life, death, and resurrection and has given us the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our future glory (Rom. 8:23; 2 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1:14). Our salvation is an eschatological salvation. Our justification is in anticipation of our glorification. As Paul said, “we were saved in this hope” (Rom. 8:24).

When God created the universe He called it good and since the fall His ultimate purpose has been to bring reconciliation to what’s been broken by sin (Eph. 1:9-10). The fulfillment of God’s cosmic purpose has been made possible through the incarnation. Christ is the mediator, all authority has been given to Him because of His faithful obedience on the earth (Rev. 5:9; Rom. 3:22), thus it is “in Christ” that God brings to pass His end-time purpose to redeem all of creation.

God cannot dwell with humanity with sin still present, “lest He break out against them” (Ex. 19:24). As it has been said, there was no one who could pay the penalty for sin but God, and yet there was no one who ought to pay it but man. Though it was required of us because of our trespass, in our fallen state we could do nothing to bridge the gap between ourselves and the Father; we could offer no solution through our own ingenuity to fix the chasm which stands between heaven and earth. Therefore it was necessary that one God-man should pay the penalty and bring reconciliation.

2,000 years ago Christ “made peace” through His blood on the cross and initiated the seemingly impossible process of reconciliation (Col. 1:26). Though all things are not yet made new on earth, all things “in Christ” are new because He is “before all things” (Col. 1:17) as the “firstborn from the dead” (Rev. 1:5). The covenantal promise of eternal life that fits properly in a curse-free earth is present in a sinless Man. Christ’s future is our future, therefore what is realized for Christ is available to us. He brings the “power of the age to come” into this present age of brokenness (Heb. 6:5). He is “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), and as such He “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17). The kingdom of God is here for the one who is in Christ as a guarantee that it will be here in fullness in the age to come (2 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1:14).

“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth…” – Isaiah 65:17

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul quotes Isaiah 65:17 and applies what is cosmic and future in its scope to the individual believer in the present. Isaiah 65:17 is an encouragement given to a covenant people in compromise from the “God of hope” (Rom. 15:13) who is calling them to shake off the dust and believe in His promises. In this passage the Lord is calling to the unredeemed present from the vantage point of the redeemed future and bringing the promise of that end-time reality into the despairing here and now. This is a God who brings the eschatological into the experiential present and thus motivates the believer to partner with Him in making that which is presently a feeling an earthly reality.

Notice that “I create” is in the present perfect tense, not the future tense “I will create”. The point is that God is in the process of redeeming the earth now; He is not passively waiting for a day in the future when He will become so irritated with injustice so as to destroy everything and start again from scratch. He is not the pessimist we often conceive Him to be. He loves creation and He is masterfully orchestrating human history to cause the greatest number of people to love Him at the deepest level, all while using the least severe means necessary to accomplish it. From the beginning of salvation history He has declared His goal to have an earth freed from sin and “filled with the glory of the Lord” (Num. 14:20).

Isaiah reveals that Gods desire is that the redeemed would cooperate with Him in making His plan a reality. Notice the motifs “heaven” and “earth” and how they return in 66:1 – “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?” The Lord has given hope in 65:17 by assuring that He is presently in the process of redeeming creation, He then calls on the redeemed in 66:1 to partner with Him in this. Since God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, he has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18). The Son of God has made peace with us through the blood of the cross and we are now “sons of God” in Him. As such, we are called by Christ to be “peacemakers” for the earth (Matt. 5:9).

This ministry of reconciliation is primarily an office of prayer. Just as Christ, the Apostle and great High Priest of our confession (Heb. 3:1), has brought us near to the Father through His intercession (Heb 7:25) so should we, as His Body, do the same for the earth. This is His primary ministry, thus is should be ours as well. We have a part in “hastening the Day of God” by living lives of prayer and holiness (2 Peter 3:11-14), aligning our will on earth with His will in heaven.