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The Resurrection and New Creation
April 25, 2019
On the first day of the week Jesus rose from the dead. John 20:1 is clear about this. But what is the significance of the “first day?” God created the cosmos and rested on the seventh day (Saturday) which became the Sabbath. One would naturally expect Jesus to rise on the Sabbath, commemorating God’s faithfulness to His creation. So, why did Jesus rise on the first day? The answer to the question above is at the center of Christian theology and hope: Christ’s resurrection marks the beginning of the New Creation.
A common thematic thread woven throughout the Old Testament is that of a return to Eden. Adam sinned and allowed death to enter the world (Rom 5:12) and wounded creation beyond repair. God begins his plan to restore the world back to Eden in Gen 12 when He calls Abraham. Like Adam, Abraham and his descendants are chosen to “be fruitful” and to “multiply” (Gen. 1:28; 22:17). Thus, God’s plan to restore His creation and defeat the death that reigned through sin-centered on Israel, the people of God.
However, time and time again Israel failed to prove faithful. The cry “how long O Lord” (Ps 13) stretched on for hundreds of years and Eden was nowhere in sight. Yet the hope of New Creation became even more pronounced through the Prophets. Isa 65:17-19 which reads,
"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth:
And the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create:
For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people:
And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
And the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create:
For, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people:
And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
This hope of the New Creation, of the defeat of death and restoration of Eden, continued through the Second Temple period (some call this the intertestamental period). Yet, as before, the world seemed to grow even darker with one evil empire after another conquering and persecuting the Jewish people. Would the world ever see the New Creation? Would death reign forever? What of the promises of God?
John 20:1 begins with the simple phrase “the first day of the week” and then adds “when it was yet dark.” Just like John ch. 1 and 1John 1, here the Apostle is intentionally echoing Genesis 1. Genesis tells us that when God begins creation—the first day—"darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Likewise, at the tomb, the world is yet dark, for the light of the world has gone out.
John soon tells us that Jesus is alive (vv. 14–18). Just as the word of God spoke “let there be light” broke into the world of darkness and put chaos into order in the first creation (Gen 1), there Christ, the word made flesh and light of the world, has now broken into the darkness and, thus, has created a new order. Not only this but just as the “Spirit moved upon the face of the deep” so now the same Spirit has raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:11). That is, at the resurrection, God began His New Creation in and through Christ, the new light of the world. That day—the first day of the week—was the first day of the New Creation.
Yes, Christ will return. Yes “all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). However, the NT is clear that the New Creation for which the world has longed is present now within the body of Christ. Paul says “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor 5:17) and “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Eph 4:24). This notion of the New Creation thriving within the believers is central to all Christian theology.
The New Creation began at Christ’s resurrection and now moves outwardly through all who join Christ. Each human who receives Christ again lives out Gen 1/John 20. God speaks His word, the Spirit moves over the darkened and chaotic heart, and life emerges in the form of New Creation. That is, converting unbelievers to Christ expands the New Creation, one life at a time.
Within the believer lies the New Creation. It witnesses, not only that Christ has risen, but that He will return, with the new heavens and new earth following close behind. This is why we preach.
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