In the
second place, Christ’s redemption is not a second, new creation but a
re-creation. Things would have been much
simpler if God had destroyed the entire fallen world and replaced it with a
completely new one. But it was his good
pleasure to raise the fallen world up again and to free from sin the same
humanity that sinned. This deliverance
consists in the reality that Christ delivers his believing community from all
sin and from all the consequences of sin, and therefore causes it to completely
triumph over death as well. Death is the
last enemy to be annihilated. And the
power of Christ is revealed in the fact that he not only gives eternal life to
his own but in consequence also raises them on the last day. The rebirth by water and Spirit finds its
completion in the rebirth of all things (Matt. 19:28). Spiritual redemption from sin is only fully
completed in bodily redemption at the end of time. Christ is a complete Savior:
just as he first appeared to establish the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of
believers, so he will one day come again to give it visible shape and make his
absolute power over sin and death incontrovertibly manifest before all creatures
and bring about its acknowledgment. ‘Corporeality
is the end of the ways of God.’
- Herman Bavink, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, p. 694
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