The Longing of all Creation

How does our resurrection affect the rest of creation? From beginning to end, the biblical storyline ties the fate of humanity to the fate of all creation. When humans fell, creation fell. When humans rise, creation will also rise. Thus, the doctrine of bodily resurrection has tremendous ramifications for God’s entire creation, for this present age as well as the age to come. My aim is to offer you a glimpse of the unimaginable glory that awaits us, which we will share with God and all He has made. 

The bodily resurrection of believers will reverse the curse upon creation. When Adam rebelled against the Creator, his sin impacted all of the created order. Wayne Grudem summarizes the biblical account of the fall, “When Adam sinned God cursed the ground because of him, so that it brought forth thorns and thistles and would only yield food useful for mankind by painful toil.”¹ This curse continues until now, for “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (Romans 8:22) The imagery of childbirth suggests that the agony is intense but temporary. This groaning has an end: “the revealing of the sons of God.” (Romans 8:19) When God raises his people on the last day, “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21) All of creation will share in the resurrection glory of Christians. As Grudem writes, this means “there will be no more thorns or thistles, no more floods or droughts, no more deserts or uninhabitable jungles, no more earthquakes or tornadoes, no more poisonous snakes or bees that sting or mushrooms that kill.”² The chains of the curse will be broken forever. Rather than corruption and toil, “There will be a productive earth, an earth that will blossom and produce food abundantly for our enjoyment.” 

Furthermore, the resurrection of believers would be incomplete without the renewal of creation. Herman Bavink argues, “The rebirth of humans is completed in the rebirth of creation. The kingdom of God is fully realized only when it is visibly extended over the earth as well.”³ Indeed, the biblical narrative ties the resurrection of humans with the consummation of God’s kingdom. Christ will return and raise up his people, and “then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.” (1 Corinthians 15:24)  When humans receive new life, death will finally cease, for “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:26) This defeat of death is necessary for the consummation of God’s kingdom. If believers are renewed but creation remains subjected, then Christ cannot deliver the kingdom to his Father. In other words, the resurrection must extend over all of creation, or else God’s kingdom is incomplete. Hence, Isaiah 11:6-9 says the reign of the King will bring total harmony to the natural order. 

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord    
as the waters cover the sea.

What exactly is “the glory of the children of God?” To answer that question we must also ask, what is the nature of our resurrected bodies? Will God create some new, heavenly, non-physical bodies? Or will he use the same substance that is present in this creation? At first glance, Scripture may seem to indicate that resurrected bodies will have an entirely different substance than our current natural bodies. For example, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” (1 Corinthians 15:44) Similarly, “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” This seems to indicate that the resurrection will be only spiritual, not physical. However, in this context “flesh and blood” likely refers to what is sinful and perishable. It does not refer to all physical substances, for it says that “this mortal body must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:53) God will not erase our physical bodies altogether; he will simply erase their perishability. In other words, our bodies will no longer decay and die. So in the new creation, the souls of resurrected believers will be united with their physical bodies. 

Though these bodies will be physical, their splendor will far surpass anything we can imagine. Our new bodies will share in the glory of Jesus’ resurrected body! What does this look like? Well, Scripture describes Jesus’ heavenly body in several places. During the Transfiguration Jesus unveils his true glory to the disciples. “And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:2) Notice especially the words “sun” and “light.” With those words in mind, read Revelation’s describes the new Jerusalem. “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”  (Revelation 22:23) Does this literally mean the sun and moon will not exist in the new creation? That’s up for debate. Personally, I believe there will be a sun and moon, for they are part of God’s original, good creation. The point of this verse is that Jesus’ radiance will far surpass the sun. All other lights will appear dim next to Jesus. Our minds cannot comprehend such dazzling glory! One look at the sun and we go blind. Who can fathom an even greater brightness?

But there’s something even more stunning: our bodies will also have that glory. Philippians 3:21 says Jesus “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” More specifically, Matthew 13:43 repeats the imagery of the sun: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Try to imagine not only Jesus’ body shining like the sun, but all of the saints shining together with him. This will be the glory that our physical, resurrected bodies. It is another way in which the Son will share what is his, as he prays to the Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.” (John 17:22) We will never become God; we will always remain creatures. Yet for all of eternity we will enjoy the glory of Jesus, including in our physical bodies, which will be made like his. 

This glory that we share with the Son will reverberate throughout all of creation. Once again, “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21) So there is an unbreakable link between the resurrection of Christ, of humans, and of creation. Jesus rose from the dead, and those who are united to him will follow in his footsteps. When Jesus returns in all his glory, believers will receive a glorious body like his. At that moment, the curse of the fall will be reversed, the Kingdom of God will be consummated, and all of creation the enjoy the freedom and glory of the children of the King. 

The doctrine of our bodily resurrection is so much greater than we can we can imagine. The glory of the Lord and the glory of his children will truly fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.

1. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 836 ↩︎
2. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 836 ↩︎
3. Herman Bavink, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 768 ↩︎