Understanding the two creations...

[Scuba]

All throughout the Bible we hear of God's promise to make a new heaven and a new earth.

 

(Isaiah 65:17) - "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

 

(2 Peter 3:13) - Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

 

​This new creation started with Jesus at His birth in Mary.

 

(Revelation 3:14) - “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.

 

This is not saying that Jesus was a created being, Jesus was in fact begotten of the Father through a miraculous conception in Mary. What John is saying is that Jesus is the beginning of God's new creation. What we see in Jesus' life and teachings is the standard for those who want to be part of the kingdom of God. Through Jesus' obedience to the logos of God, God was creating a new man through Jesus. A man created in righteousness and holiness.

 

(Ephesians 4:24) - That you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

 

This new man, that we are to put on, is the righteous character of Jesus.

 

(Galatians 3:27) - For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

 

Jesus became the new man created in righteousness and holiness through His obedience to the logos.

 

(Hebrews 5:8-9) - Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.

 

We put on Christ by imitating how He lived. By walking how He walked and by interpreting life as He interpreted life.

 

(1 John 2:6) - The one who says he belongs to Christ should live the same kind of life Christ lived.

 

Some people believe it was God's pre-incarnate Son in Genesis who created but as we have already seen so far that it was God alone working through His Spirit who created in Genesis. Nowhere in the Old Testament do you find God working or speaking through a pre-incarnate Son. As a matter of fact, Hebrews clearly tells us that God did not speak through His Son in times past, but rather, it wasn't until these last days that He is speaking to us through His Son.

 

(Hebrews 1:1-2) - God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. 

 

The confusion in the above verse comes from the words, "Through whom also He made the worlds". The word, worlds, in the original language is the word, age, and is referring to the world to come, not the Genesis creation. Listen to how he confirms this later in the context. 

 

(Hebrews 2:5) - For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.

 

The world to come is the new creation understood to be the kingdom of God. The world to come is spoken of all throughout the New Testament.

 

(Matthew 12:32) - Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.

 

(Luke 18:30) - Who shall not receive much more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.

 

(Mark 10:30) - But he shall receive an hundredfold, now at this present, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life. 

 

​The world to come is referring to the new creation of which God created through Jesus, not the Genesis creation. Right now the kingdom of God is spiritual. It has to do with living by kingdom principles now and making Jesus your Lord and King now. 

 

(Luke 17:20-21) - Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

 

(Luke 16:16) - “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.

 

When Jesus comes He is coming to remove out of His kingdom things that don't belong.

 

(Matthew 13:41) - The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.

 

This is the new creation the God created through Jesus, not the Genesis creation. This new creation in the kingdom of God and has to do with the church, rulers, principalities and powers in heaven and on earth. This is not birds, trees and fish and so on in the Genesis creation. The new creation has to do with the government of God under the ruler-ship of Jesus. Listen.

 

Colossians 1:15-18 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

 

Jesus is the firstborn from the dead in the above verse, not the firstborn of Genesis creation. He is before all things as preeminence, not in time. He is the ruler, the head of God's government, the beginning of this new creation, the firstborn from the dead so that He could be ruler of all. Jesus is the beginning of God's new creation.

 

You might be asking, "who was the "Us" in Genesis" when God said, "Let us make man in our image". It is true that God said, "let us make man in our image" but when He actually did the creating it was Him alone who created mankind.

 

(Genesis 1:27) - So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

 

(Nehemiah 9:6) - You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them, and You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.​

 

(Isaiah 44:24) - ] Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself.

 

(Malachi 2:10) - Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers?

 

Again, even Jesus Himself confirms it was God alone who created us.

 

(Mark 10:5-6) - And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, 'God made them male and female.’

 

​So who was the "Us" in Genesis? All throughout the Old Testament you find God surrounded by His heavenly host of angels. When God said, "Let us make man in our image" He was speaking to His heavenly host of angels, who were present at creation and shouting with joy at the creative work of God.

 

​(Job 38:4-7) - “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

 

Listen to the NIV Study Bible comment.

 

“God speaks as the Creator-king, announcing His crowning work to the members of His heavenly court.” The verses cited are: Genesis 3:22, 11:7, Isaiah 6:8, I Kings 22:19-23, Job 15:8, and Jeremiah 23:18. These verses convey to the attentive Bible reader that the heavenly abode of the Creator is filled with the ministering angels who attend the Almighty and to whom He repeatedly refers when using the plural pronoun “Us.”

 

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew... Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:1-8)

 

Before Jesus was born through Mary, YAHWEH was alone. This is confirmed time and time again throughout the Bible. 

 

(Malachi 2:10) - Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers?

 

(Isaiah 44:6) - “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.

 

(Isaiah 45:21) - ...Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.

 

(1 Corinthians 8:4) - Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.

 

We even have YAHEWH swearing by Himself because He had no one else to swear by.

 

(Hebrews 6:13) - For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself. 

 

God, working through His Spirit, miraculously conceived Jesus in the womb of Mary and for the reason or because of this, Jesus is called the Son of God.

 

Luke 1:35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.