Theology for the Masses

Before moving on in the narrative of the Bible, I want to look at new creation, union with Christ, and how they play into Obtaining the shalom that was forfeited by Adam. Adam rebelled against the creator I AM in the garden of Eden. A curse was placed upon Adam and his posterity. I AM then set up a community, a kingdom, called Israel. But this community failed to bring back shalom. A king was promised by I AM who would come and restore peace to I AM’s creation. I AM fulfilled this promise, many centuries later, in the person of Jesus Christ. He was that king who purchased shalom by his death and resurrection here on earth. For humanity to gain back that peace we saw that humanity must submit themselves to Jesus and trust wholly in what he did to achieve peace. I AM unites that believer to Jesus so that they can take part in the new community centered around a new covenant and exist in shalom. Before we move on from this pause in the action, I want to look at new creation and the role it plays here in humanity and the created order returning to shalom.

In the beginning after I AM had created the world and all that was in it, he created a master to rule over that creation. He called that master Adam, the first human being. He gave Adam a very basic set of rules: a.) populate the earth and b.) do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was it. Adam however failed to obey I AM and did indeed eat the fruit of that tree. As punishment I AM cursed his creation and its master, taking peace away from it. The creation is said to be fallen from where it is supposed to be. I AM promised that the seed of the woman would undo what Adam had done.

The next move I AM made was to create the people of Israel. He started with Abraham and Sarah, a barren couple who were probably henotheists if not full pagans, in Ur (modern-day Iraq). From those two persons he grew a nation that numbered in the millions that he settled into one of the most strategically important land bridges in the world, Canaan (modern-day Palestine and Israel). This community were given laws and rituals to live in peace and to show the world the shalom they were missing out on. All Israel managed to do was illustrate just how fallen this world was and is. In spite of that I AM had commanded the people of Israel they proved to be no less corrupt than the pagan nations around them. One who were to read the whole story would see that Israel is a story of depravity and failure. Even the man after I AM’s own heart was a murdering, lying adulterer.

Israel illustrated one key point: all those born of Adam’s race were rebels who rejected I AM and his shalom. It was their nature to hate I AM and instead of seeking him as they were supposed to do, they spurned him and looked for peace in armies, money, pagan nations and false gods. This was I AM’s curse: to remove peace and leave them in their rebellion for eternity. The nation of Israel pointedly illustrated that even with I AM’s law humanity was sinful by nature.

I AM’s solution is a new creation. I AM is going to make a new creation with a new covenant under a truly righteous and just king. In this new creation I AM would return shalom and make the creation so that peace would never leave it because in the new covenant I AM promised to ensure its members’ obedience to I AM. In the person and work of Jesus I AM did two things. First, I AM executed his wrath against the former creation and its rebellion. That was Jesus’ death. Second, I AM made his new creation, which was Jesus’ resurrection. His new life was the first of the new creation. Not only did Jesus death execute I AM’s wrath against that old creation, it served as the ratification of the new covenant that the High Priest Jesus mediates to the new creation of which he is king.

But is I AM going to abandon his first creation? Is it doomed to feel I AM’s wrath for eternity? In the words of Paul of Taursus, “May it never be!” Just as he did in the exile of Israel and Judah, the two sister kingdoms that came from Abraham’s race and David’s throne, I AM has preserved for himself a remnant chosen by grace. This remnant is comprised of men and women from all ages and races that span all of history (even those who lived before Jesus). How does I AM get this remnant into the new creation? How does God recreate them? The answer is Jesus. But how?

It has already been seen that Jesus was seen as the perfect righteousness for a sinner to stand on when called to account to their creator. We have seen that Jesus death was the place were I AM executed his wrath against rebel sinners who hate I AM and forfeit his peace. It has been seen that Jesus’ resurrection is how a creature of Adam’s race becomes a new creature who is totally obedient to I AM and are vindicated by I AM because of Jesus’ vindication. It has already been seen that through faith the sinner who belongs to this remnant receives this promised salvation and restoration to peace with I AM, with fellow members of the covenant, and the world around them.

But if they hate I AM and rebel against him, if that is their nature and what it means to be human, how does I AM get them to trust Christ and rest upon his work as theirs? How do they become this new created community? The same way that I AM created the former creation so to does I AM create the new, his effectual word.

In the story of Israel, I AM spoke the created order into being. As creator he declared that something should exist and it did. In the story of Jesus, the Logos (as John’s Gospel narrative calls Jesus) speaks and Lazarus walks out of the tomb. As a judge declares a criminal guilty and declares his sentence his words effect the verdict and sentence. I AM commands his remnant to be created a new and enter into Jesus’ kingdom.

He commands the remnant to be united to Jesus. His word then effects union with Christ. His effectual command, a command that effects what it orders to happen, awakens faith in the remnant throughout history. They are by that God-created faith united to Jesus to become one body, one people, one kingdom. They become the new creation where peace is restored. Through union with Christ the remnant becomes united to Jesus’ death and I AM executes his wrath against the sinful remnant. Through union with Christ the remnant becomes united to Jesus’ righteousness and now have a right standing before their Creator-Judge. Through union with Christ they are united to Jesus justification and vindication and are now justified and vindicated by I AM. They are united to Jesus as the new creation and become members of the new creation. As Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away – look, what is new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NET).

All who are in Adam and part of the creation he represents know nothing but rebellion and disobedience and death, life apart from shalom. All who are in Christ and the creation he represents know only I AM’s mercy and grace and love, life with shalom. They know of the life to come because Christ has placed within them the Holy Spirit of I AM, so that this remnant of humans will know that their participation in the new creation has been secured by Jesus.

Now in the next post, the story of Jesus and his newly created community will begin as I AM begins his ushering in of the new creation, the creation that experiences shalom.