Highlight: Will The Earth Be Destroyed?

The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 is talking about creation groaning with eager expectation to obtain the freedom of the children of God.

Maybe we can just read the verse right here. I have Romans chapter 8 pulled up. We'll just read this brief section here so that you can see.

Romans chapter 8 and 19. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

So I think, I mean, here's what needs to be said about this. This for Paul is all bound up with the resurrection, right?

Redemption has implications for all creation, okay?

Now where the 2K error is, and if you look at the way that, you know, Van Drunen handles this particular passage with the dualistic perspective, the text really gets mauled and muddied because in his perspective, it refers to a creation that is just meant to pass away and it's meant to give way to the new creation.

It's not meant to be redeemed. It's not meant to be restored. It's not meant to be reconciled to God.

It's meant to be euthanized. It's going to pass away. There's nothing left and guess what?

There's good news though. Our bodies do make it out, right? So he maintains his orthodox

Christianity by allowing for the resurrection to be maintained here. But here's the thing.

Creation is groaning with eager expectation for the children of God, which means that the calling of the

Christian and the calling of God's people is to set life free unto the glory of God.

It's been imprisoned. It's been bound up by sin and the heart of men reaching expression, the actions of man and his thinking and his behavior.

It's under bondage and the down payment that it will be restored, renewed and reconciled to God for Paul is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And of course, there will be a final consummative element of that in which our bodies are raised in a glorified fashion.

So that's there, but it's not, you know, Pastor Luke read the verse at the beginning of the show, right?

Christ is not making all new things, right? There isn't a created order that's going to just dissolve and give way to this greater thing.

Christ is making all things new. You know, when you talk about the gospel, it's not just about redeeming our bodies.

It's not just about that, but our souls, our minds, our relationships, our work, right?

Our vocation, our action in the world. And Paul says elsewhere that that foundation is built upon and the fire tests those works and ultimately our works in some meaningful sense because of the outline of the biblical narrative, creation, fall and redemption, those works follow us into eternity and some meaningful sense.

Obviously we don't know the details of all that, but there are aspects to our work, our calling, our vocation that God has put in our lives that will follow us and in some way be a part of what we do in the final state.

So our position in Romans eight here, where was it?

So verse 21, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Their argument is that it's just going to be burned up and then there will be a new creation.

Our position is that when creation set free from bondage, it's made new.

It's not being burned up. And then even verse 25. So a translation, what you do matters.