Episode Transcript  

We are supposed to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ for fifty days, an entire Easter Season, so to help us not take for granted what Jesus has done and just slip into the busyness of April, this next series of meditations is written to help us really appreciate the Resurrection of Christ and the practical impact it has on our day-to-day lives. 

One

The Orders of Being

The greatest opening line of all time is, unsurprisingly, the opening line in the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning, God made it all. He made all the orders of being, He created all the levels of the cosmos.

I’m reading a book on physics right now that said inflationary cosmology modifies the big bang theory by inserting an extremely brief burst of astoundingly rapid expansion during the universe’s earliest moments in which the size of the universe increased by a factor larger than a million, trillion, trillion in less than one millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. 

God made everything, everything! Light, and stars, and the sun and the entire unaversive in 10 to the minus 30 seconds or one nonillionth of a second. And in that instant, He made the trees and plants, flowers and grass to cover the earth. And He made the birds, and the beasts and the fish. And then, to cap off His achievement, God made the human person. The microcosm of creation, the perfectly balanced synthesis of the cosmos.

Our bodies were made from the same chemicals as the planets and stars. Our capacity to be nourished and to grow and reproduce, like the plants. Our ability to see and feel and desire like the animals. And our capacity to know the truth and freely choose the good, like the angels. Man and woman, in the very structure of their nature, serve as the representatives of all creation.

And so it was that, sadly, when that first man and woman fell, all of creation fell, all of it was wounded.

Two

The Fall in the Garden

At the center of the world, the Lord built a garden. And in that garden, He placed the man and the woman. And in that Garden, humanity fell. And each part of the created order was wounded in us.

Our chemicals lose their immortal bond, and we will decay. Like the grass, we spring up and then we die. Our animal desires and functions are hard to control and satisfy. Our intellect is clouded, our will is weakened. And the whole cosmos, which we betrayed by our sin, is now untrustworthy.

The elements threaten us, thunderstorms, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes. The plants, many of them, are poisonous to eat or touch, and we control their growth with difficulty. The animals run from us or turn on us. The garden has turned into a jungle and a desert, where we fear and exploit nature, instead of cultivating it as a cathedral for the praise of God.

And eventually, we succumb to the forces of nature, we die, and the fire turns us to ash, or the dirt below our feet opens its mouth in the shape of a grave and swallows us whole. Man is no longer right, and the cosmos is no longer right for man. Because the whole world is fallen in Adam.

And that would be the last word. Except that now, the whole world has risen in Christ.

Three

Christ Comes

Then the Son of God came. He dove into the cosmos He had made, and as He dove, He assumed, that is, He appropriated to Himself each layer, each order of created being. He became a full human man, and by becoming a man, He became material, and He became a fragile life form, and He became a mammal. When He took flesh, He became the new representative of the cosmos.

Listen to how the author of Hebrews puts it, he describes Jesus as talking to His Father, “When Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me… then I said, “Behold, I have come to do your will O God.”’” (Hebrews 10:5-7).

Through that body, through that full humanity, Jesus, in obedience to the Father, came to save the universe. And He did. 

Four

The Rise of All Things in the Garden

Man fell in a garden, and so the cosmos, of which man is the representative, fell in the garden. But if the first Adam falling could cause the universe to fall, then the New Adam, by rising, could cause the universe to rise.

Do you remember who the first person to see Jesus after His resurrection was? It was Mary Magdalene. But she didn’t recognize Him. Do you remember who she thought He was? She thought He was the gardener. And she was right. 

He was the original Gardener, the God who built the world, and planted a garden in the middle of it. And He is the New Gardener, who has made the world again. In a garden, the human race and the cosmos had fallen. There, in that Garden, the human race and the cosmos had been restored to glory.

Five

Go Outside – Look at the World Made New

The human race and the whole universe are destined to be transformed and glorified in Heaven because of what Jesus has done.

Romans 8:19-22, “I think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet unrevealed, which is waiting for us. The whole creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal his sons. It was not for any fault on the part of creation that it was made unable to attain its purpose, it was made so by God; but creation still retains the hope of being freed, like us, from its slavery to decadence, to enjoy the same freedom and glory as the children of God. From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free. For we must be content to hope that we shall be saved - our salvation is not in sight, we should not have to be hoping for it if it were - but, as I say, we must hope to be saved since we are not saved yet - it is something we must wait for with patience.”

Easter happens in Spring, when a world that seemed dead comes back to life. And that’s the story. Christ was dead, but He is risen. The human race was lost, it’s redeemed. The whole cosmos fell, now it’s destined for glory. So, how about two concrete resolutions for today?

Go outside today, and look at the world, the new universe all around us, that Christ has made new, and charged with the promise of glory, by his Resurrection.

Second, yes, we still have spring allergies, yes, we still have chronic and terminal illnesses, and yes, we still die, but now, because of the Resurrection of Christ, we have proof that they really are only a slight momentary affliction. Christ will raise up and glorify everything. So, let’s hold on to the promise of a glorious future and strive with patience and cheerfulness in your struggles today, knowing that whatever we face today, if we face it with patience and cheerfulness, is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory. 

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.

• Spend time outside appreciating the world made new and reflecting on the effects of Christ’s Resurrection.

• In everything you struggle with this week, remember that the afflictions are only temporary because of the victory that we have in Christ.

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