A whole new creation!
A spiritual antipasto.
Three days into creation, God spoke — just like He had done the prior two days. But on this day, His Word caused stuff that had no cellular structure, no metabolic process, no genetic instruction, no reproductive capability to suddenly burst into a world of metabolism and adaptation and reaction and reproduction and growth and homeostasis — a world filled with life.
And that was the first instance of abundant, generative life springing forth from the earth — the first signpost of a far greater miracle yet to come. On this first third day, God’s powerful Word brought life out of barrenness. And a time would come when this would happen again.
Creation wasn’t an isolated event that happened only across the first six days. God’s dynamic creative activity continued after we humans put His creation into a tailspin. The first-ever third day foreshadowed another third day when the creative groundwork of prior days would again explode into life — new life, resurrected life, life initiated (again) by the Word of God, a whole new order of existence, but this time a life that would overcome death itself.
On the first third day, God’s spoken Word brought the abundance of life out of the barrenness of the earth—life that was abundant with fruit, the very first-ever fruit, fruit with seeds that would keep life going.
And in much the same way, at just the right time, on another third day, out of the barrenness of Christ’s tomb came the Word, bringing the abundance of resurrection life. In Christ, the continuing creative power of God had reached its climax and transformed the old creation—the one marred by sin and death—into a new creation where death is defeated and life triumphs.
In Christ, we are not returned to an ancient kind of life, the one that God had originally intended. Instead, we are given a new kind of life, a life that participates in God himself. It is not a life that merely extends our current existence. It is a profound transformation into the likeness of Christ, the first fruit of this new creation.
And in that first-ever fruit of a brand new creation were the seeds of life ongoing—you and me! Our very lives are the seeds sown in the soil of Christ’s resurrection — a resurrection that brings forth new life in us, new life marked by the power of the Holy Spirit, that same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, now enabling us to live in brand new ways that reflect a new reality—a whole new order of existence inaugurated by Christ.
So, live boldly. You are part of this new creation. And your life is a testament to the transformative power of resurrection, characterized by life overcoming death. Your very existence proclaims to the world that death is not the end but the beginning of eternal life in Christ.
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! — 2 Corinthians 5:17 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. — Romans 8:11
This spiritual antipasto has an accompanying call to worship:
The first fruit of a new creation.
As Jesus Christ died, we, too, have died. As He was raised from the dead, we, too, have been raised from the dead. As He walks in new human life, we, too, walk in new life.