Believers eagerly
await their adoption and redemption, when they will also finally be declared to
be the sons of God (a name with a long history---Adam, Israel, Jesus---which speaks a great deal as
to the ideal that stands behind this usage), with this declaration becoming
final when the believer fully experiences the power for resurrection that
raised up Christ from the dead and gave Him a new, glorified body. This is the ultimate hope of those that confess
Jesus as Lord.
When will this take
place? It will take place when the one called Lord, Jesus the Christ, the
crucified and resurrected Messiah of Israel and Lord of the world (this is the
essence of the Gospel message), finally consummates His kingdom and its
attendant renewal of the Creator God’s once good creation. This kingdom and renewal was inaugurated and
set in motion when Jesus stepped forth from out of the grave. This
kingdom and this renewal will take place when the words of the Psalmist are
taken up throughout the world, and it is truly and finally said among all
nations, “The Lord reigns! The world is established, it cannot be
moved. He judges the nations fairly” (Psalm 96:10).
It is with this
declared that the sky is encouraged to rejoice, that the earth is instructed to
be happy, and the sea and everything in it are commanded to shout. When
this time of renewed creation takes hold, under the eternal Lordship of the
Creator God and His Christ, which will be plain for all to see as every knee
bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, that all who long
for that day will say along with the Psalmist, “Let the fields and everything
in them celebrate” (96:12a). Again, why
will they celebrate? They will celebrate
because they will have been freed from their subjection, their thorns, and
their thistles.
Those that
participate in the kingdom of the Creator God come to earth (which is happening
whenever and wherever people speak and live as if Jesus is already Lord, and
will happen in consummation on some great day) will say, “let the trees of the
forest shout with joy before the Lord, for He comes!” (96:12b-13a) Why
does He come? Not only does He come to finally bring in what is expected
to be the glorious freedom of those that have come to be called His children,
but “He comes to judge the earth!” (96:13b). That said, it must be said
that, according to the expectation of the Psalmist and covenant people of the
Creator God (Israel), the Lord’s act of judging is not merely a casting down in
condemnation, for their Lord also judges with liberation!
The Lord judged
Israel and delivered them from the bondage of Egypt. The Lord sent forth
His judges in Israel to deliver them from their bondage. The Lord poured
out the judgment of His wrath upon Jesus as He hung on the cross (Jesus
representing Israel and so taking its curses upon Himself so as to fulfill
Israel’s purpose and so usher in the new age), so as to deliver the whole of
the world from the inescapable bondage of death. Yes, when the Lord
judges the earth, it is the final consummation of the judgment against death
that was delivered through the crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. In
that judgment, His children and His creation will be finally liberated from
their long, dark night.
Along with Paul, the
Psalmist saw this clearly, as he would go on to write, “Let the sea and
everything in it shout, along with the world and those who live in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands! Let the mountains sing in unison before
the Lord! For He comes to judge the earth!” (98:7-9a) If one has
eyes to see, and are willing to put aside notions of the destruction of the
earth in some type of cosmic conflagration, the message of God’s restoration
and renewal of creation, because of His judgment, is written large upon the
pages of His Word.
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