Remember when we tackled the book of
Job and then got into a study of why bad things happen in this life? One of the
main reasons
(for bad things) we discussed was the fact that this world is not what God
created it to be. Let’s look at it.
Like much of Paul’s writings, he
packs 10 pounds of meaning into a five pound bag of words. He’s talking about
the glorious benefits of our salvation in Christ: past, present and future. And
before he talks about us, he takes the broader view of all creation and gives
us insight into how our sin affected it.
I’ve hammered this home again and
again, especially at the beginning of year one, but it bears repeating: You
cannot understand the rest of the Bible, nor life, without knowing,
understanding, and believing the first three chapters of the Bible.
Let’s focus on the second part of that statement for a moment. A few months ago
as of this writing, a major hurricane battered the Northeast U.S., leaving a
lot of people homeless and devastated. Every year we read of earthquakes,
hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, etc., which destroy peoples’ homes,
livelihoods, and even take lives. Why do these things happen?
Well, the ultimate reason anything bad
happens at all in this life is because of sin—maybe my own personal sin or
someone else’s—but there’s something more to it. When he was created, Adam was put in charge
of the entire world. He had a perfect world in front of him: He had no experience
of disease, pain, hardship, or death. But then he (and his wife) chose to
disobey their Creator, and in that moment. . . everything changed.
Bringing sin into the world had a
lot of effects, but the one in today’s passages is the effect it had on the
physical creation. Adam was head over physical creation, but only so long as he
was under the headship of the Lord. Once he rebelled, creation rebelled under
him as well. That’s why creation doesn’t work the way we like. That includes
everything from mosquitoes biting us to earthquakes and floods which kill
thousands.
But there’s a further aspect of this
we need to consider: This was a terrible thing for creation as well as us. Our sin negatively affected the world,
which in turn negatively affects us. Genesis quotes God as saying that he would
curse the ground for Adam’s sake. We
have to experience horrible things in this world, but so does everything else. We
get frustrated, sick, hurt, and dead, and so does everything else.
But Paul’s passage add a whole new
light to all this. The coming of Jesus changed everything. That's why Paul doesn’t call the condition of our world a curse, but birth pangs. Think about that. A woman
in birth is in incredible pain (or can be), worse than almost anything she can
undergo. When God told
Eve she would bear children in pain, he wasn’t kidding. But her pain has a purpose.
She produces a child, and (ideally) at the end of it she says that it was all
worth it. Her pain on one end is more than balanced by the joy she has when she
looks upon her newborn. And in this world, the only way she could completely
avoid the pain would be to not get pregnant. So in that way, her pain is
completely necessary to the end result, the child.
The Lord subjected the creation to frustration. Why are you or anyone else
frustrated? The only reason anyone gets frustrated is if they know of something
better. The reason why creation is “frustrated” is because deep within
it, there’s an unconscious echo of what it once was, an intuitive knowledge
that this is not the way it’s supposed to be, and a whisper of what one day
will come. Just like us.
Just like with us, he's not subjecting creation to frustration for no reason. He subjected it to frustration in
anticipation of liberation. Liberation of who, or what? Well, as God’s
children, one day we’re going to be liberated from these sinful bodies and souls,
cleansed, and given brand new ones which will never wear out. We get liberated,
and creation will be “brought into” that. Which we’ll discuss more tomorrow.
In the meantime, let’s focus on the
fact that—just like us--this world is not what it was, nor is it what it should
be, but it also isn’t what it will
be. When you see the “birth pangs,” take heart.
Father God, it’s really heartbreaking to
read and see people and all creation broken in front of me. But I know that the
reason it’s so frustrating is because I know that there’s something
better—behind us, and in front of us. Help me be patient.
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