When will new creation begin?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions. This last week, of course, we celebrated Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Sermon focused on or One of the foci of the sermon was the new world that Jesus began with his resurrection. A new creation where every wound will be healed, every sin redeemed, every death resurrected, everything broken ever will be restored in the new creation.

So the question is, when does this new creation get here?

And of course, in terms of end of time, we don’t know when Jesus will come back and complete his work of making everything new. When will the new heavens and new earth be here that we see at the end of Revelation or other places like Isaiah talking about the new heavens and new earth. But there is a sense in which it has already begun.

2 Corinthians 5 We are new creations in Christ. A new work has begun in us already. Or Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live, but he who lives in me. This newness has already begun in us. You also have Romans 8:15 as we are already now by the Spirit adopted as sons of God.

And so like that has started, a new life has begun in us. So it’s not just Christ new in his resurrection, it’s all of us in him are also new. As of right now it has begun, but it is not complete yet. Theologians talk about the already and the not yet of Scripture as we have it already, and also we don’t have it yet.

In the very same chapter of Romans 8 where it says that we have been adopted as sons.

Romans 8:15 if you drop down just a few more verses, Romans 8:22 we are groaning with the rest of creation, awaiting adoption as sons. And so we already have it, and at the same time we’re awaiting it. This new creation has begun, but it is not complete yet. We are waiting for this new world, and so we experience that in our lives of this newness and also this oldness.

At the same time you become a Christian, you have God’s Spirit in you.

That has really happened, and we can experience it. We feel it, for lack of a better word. We have a tension, a push and a pull going on within us. We feel drawn to God by his Spirit within us. And also we’re still entangled in the things of this world.

It’s like there’s two selves, the new one that’s alive and the old one that is a dead part of this world in rebellion against God. And we’re awaiting when that old one is completely gone, and all that remains is the new one that we will sin no more, when the only self that remains is the one that has been made alive in Christ.

When will this new creation begin? It’s already begun. And it’s also not already begun because we’re waiting for its complete fulfillment. So thanks for the question. We’ll see you next time.