5.3 Creation Restored
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
This text is about your knowing of Jesus as He is. Jesus is the One who is SENT, and God the Father is the One who SENT Him, thus we called Him, Jesus Sent. God sent Jesus into the cosmos and into your heart to seek and to save that which was lost.
More than that, as you have seen, God placed this requirement upon His Word, the Lord Jesus, Sent into creation. – My word… shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11).
God All in All. Paul then describes for us this Word, in a final returning to the Father, having accomplished the Father’s purpose, having found and redeemed all that was lost. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).
This is the first and the final statement regarding God’s intentions for the end of all things, the rule over every other verse on the topic in the Bible. God accepts nothing less than all creation restored back to Him.
For of God and through God and to God are all things, to whom be glory into the age. Let it be so (Romans 11:36).
A Place for You. The question, then, is what does “that God might be all in all” have to do with you and with knowing Jesus as He is?
Jesus said this to His disciples on the evening before His crucifixion. And if I go and prepare a place for you [inside of Father], then I am already coming and will receive you towards Myself, that where I AM, you might also BE. And where I am going {the word denotes submission into Father}, you know the way (John 14:3-4).
First, we know that Jesus is speaking of His “form” in the now, that is, as a life-giving Spirit, in which He is continuously “going to,” that is connecting with the Father and continuously receiving us into Himself as He lives in our hearts, all here now. And thus the “place” prepared for you is inside of Father’s heart.
The Where and the Way. But second, consider this simple fact of logic that Jesus was presenting to His disciples. When you drive away from your house, you could go in many different directions. Which road do you choose? The way you choose to go on any given trip is determined entirely by your destination.
Jesus said, “I am the way.” Then He said, The one having seen Me, has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am inside of the Father and the Father is inside of Me? (John 14:6 & 9-10). You have learned that this relationship is what Paul called “symmorphy,” and that this is our destination as well.
Setting Creation Free. Now, this is one view of our destination, but Paul gives us another view. Living inside of Father is inward, but Paul sets before us the great task outwardly that Father and us, Father and you, will accomplish together. That great task is setting creation free, or as Peter said it, “The restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21).
Now, our purpose in this book is that you might know Jesus as He is. Yet your knowing of Jesus takes place inside of a very definite context and timeframe. We cannot know the way that Jesus is unless we know the where He is going with us. Here, then, I want to place before you this great outward destination towards which you and Jesus together are going.
Unveiling the Sons of God. For the earnest expectation [the eager anticipation] of the creation awaits intently for the unveiling [removing the cover from off] of the sons of God. Indeed, the creation was made subject to vanity and purposelessness, not willingly, but through being subjected on the basis of hope that creation itself also will be made free from slavery and corruption into the freedom [liberty] of the glory of the children birthed out from God. Indeed, we know that all the creation groans together and travails together until now (Romans 8.19-22).
Look around yourself. You see a creation staggering under darkness and purposelessness. You see a creation attempting to live in defiance against life and truth.
Subject to Vanity. Look again. Paul said that this creation and everything in it is, in actuality, eagerly anticipating with the groanings of travail for something not yet known. That something the New King James version calls “the glorious liberty of the sons of God.”
What is the problem with creation? The problem is that God is invisible; that is, God is not known. All creation is subject to vanity, both heaven and earth together, living and dead, because God is not known. And God cannot be known except He be known through other persons, as Jesus said, The one having seen Me, has seen the Father.
You Know. Then, Jesus extends this same destination to us – In that day you will know that I am inside of My Father, and you inside of Me and I inside of you (John 14:20). And John also says – We know that if He becomes visible [to us], we will be just exactly like Him, because we will be seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
This is what Paul means by “the cover being removed,” the Father in Jesus, seen and known through you. And this is also why it is so important for you to KNOW that God created you weak. You are incapable of “doing” God or of setting creation free. If this is to be, it must be God Himself in you.
Swallowed up by Life. A large part of knowing Jesus as He is, then, is found in you and Him together setting creation free, bringing the knowledge of God to every created thing. Creation set-free by God seen-and-known is the destination that informs us of a large part of the Way that is Jesus living inside of your heart.
It is evident that creation is not free in the present moment. Thus, it is also evident that this glorious liberty into which God has placed us has not yet been revealed. Yet according to the gospel, the first part of creation set free is your own physical body, when your physical body is swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:5).
The Resurrection. Paul presented this great immediate goal of the gospel, the re-union of heaven and earth, your own physical body made incorruptible and immortal, in a number of different ways.
Not only that, but even we ourselves, possessing the first-fruit of the Spirit, we also groan inside ourselves, eagerly expecting the adoption [set forth as sons], the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23). – If by this manner, I might arrive [at my destination] into the resurrection out from the dead. Not that I have already obtained or come to completion; but I am aggressively pursuing, that I also might seize hold upon that {the resurrection} for which I also was seized hold of by Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:11-12).
Your body brand-new is God’s great gift to you, your great gift to God, and the first part of creation set free.
The Difference. So, what will be the difference between you unveiled as a son of God, Father then seen through you, and you right now? Will you be wiser? Will you be stronger? Will you be more righteous? Will you be more anointed? No. No. No. And No.
The one and only difference between yourself right now and you as you are unveiled as a son of God is that then you will believe what God says and now you do not yet believe. And when people see and know God through you, what will be the primary thing they will know of you? – Kindness.
You do not become Kindness, that is, just like God, by fake human achievement as the serpent suggested, but by knowing Jesus as He is and by believing that God is telling you the truth.
Three More Parts of Knowing Jesus. Here are three more things that are essential to knowing Jesus.
13. God is personal, invisible, and symmorphic. That means that God is a Being who reveals Himself through other persons, thus a believer can know God only personally inside him or herself and only through the permission of their faith.
14. Sin is falling short of one’s created place. For a believer, that means not abiding in Christ and Christ in them through faith. It means unthankfulness, self-hatred, and contempt for others.
15. God accepts nothing less than all creation restored back to Himself. This the purpose for which He sent Jesus into us, to share form with us, to make us just like Himself, thus making God visible and known to a creation that does not know God.