Reading Genesis the Way God Intended

How to Read the Early Chapters of Genesis

Why Genesis 1 & 2 Cannot Be Harmonized

The Not-Yet Redemption of the Body in Ephesians 4

One of the most important lessons for anyone struggling with sin to learn about the nature of biblical soteriology is that the body is not redeemed yet. In fact, not only is it not redeemed, because it is corrupted, it continues to be corrupted the rest of your temporary life here. This means that not even the physical thing attached to your spirit directly, a thing the spirit pervades, is redeemed until the Lord returns and the physical resurrection of the body occurs.

One of the texts that tells us this is Ephesians 4:18-24.

⸀ἐσκοτωμένοι τῇ διανοίᾳ ὄντες,* ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τὴν οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς,* διὰ τὴν πώρωσιν τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, οἵτινες ⸀ἀπηλγηκότες ἑαυτοὺς παρέδωκαν τῇ ἀσελγείᾳ εἰς ἐργασίαν ἀκαθαρσίας πάσης ⸂ἐν πλεονεξίᾳ⸃.* Ὑμεῖς δὲ οὐχ οὕτως ἐμάθετε τὸν Χριστόν, εἴ γε αὐτὸν ἠκούσατε καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ἐδιδάχθητε,* καθώς ἐστιν ἀλήθεια ἐν τῷ Ἰησοῦ,* ἀποθέσθαι ὑμᾶς κατὰ τὴν προτέραν ἀναστροφὴν τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸν φθειρόμενον κατὰ ⸂τὰς ἐπιθυμίας⸃ τῆς ἀπάτης,* ⸀ἀνανεοῦσθαι δὲ ⸆ τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν* καὶ ⸀ἐνδύσασθαι τὸν καινὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸν κατὰ θεὸν κτισθέντα ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ὁσιότητι ⸂τῆς ἀληθείας⸃.* 

Having been darkened in their [people without Christ] understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But you did not learn Christ this way if indeed you heard Him and you were instructed by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you are to take off the former way of life, the old man which is being corrupted in accordance with its deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Things of note here: The former manner of life is described in vv. 18-19. This is the behavior that comes from an unredeemed life. However, we are told that this behavior can still come from a believer because the corrupt body continues to be corrupted in harmony with its deceitful desires. It is not the manner of life that is being corrupted but the old man that is currently being corrupted still. The participle τὸν φθειρόμενον is a Present Passive "being corrupted" and it is masculine in gender in agreement with  τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον also masculine in gender. It is not in agreement with τὴν προτέραν ἀναστροφὴν which is feminine in gender. Hence, it is not the behavior that is continually being corrupted but the source of that behavior, the old man, which is still something a Christian has as a part of him, i.e., this body of death, the flesh.

Paul tells us that the remedy for this is not to believe that the body is redeemed but rather to throw off those former behaviors by putting on the new man through the renewal of the spirit of the mind, which is created in the likeness of God. So this new nature is found in the spirit of the believer, in their minds, which are now made after the image and likeness of God as opposed to the corrupted old man that in Pauline theology is found within the physical body, the flesh. 

What this means is that there is no redemption of the old man in the flesh until the redemption of the body. This is helpful to understand in that many Christians are thrown into absolute despair because they find that they struggle with the same evil desires that they had before they were saved, and then, think that maybe they are not saved. 

Instead, what is really happening is that the person is saved and has become a new man in the spirit of the mind, but rather than ushered into the peace of a fully redeemed self, has instead entered into the war before the peace. 

Christians, therefore, need to understand that the desires of the body are not in continuity with the life of holiness but rather one that is alienated from God, hostile toward God, run by their emotions and given over to an indulgence in sexual immorality. And that is still the state of their physical bodies. They have not yet been redeemed in their bodies. That is the hope that they are to look toward and in view of that hope subject their bodies to the renewed spirit of their minds in Christ and be led by that spirit rather than by the winds and waves of what they want to do. 

This is helpful to note since it lets Christians know that the struggle is the normal pattern of the Christian life as the full redemption of his person has not yet taken place yet. It is also helpful to know that a Christian must overcome the flesh rather than try and get it aligned in agreement with the spirit. The wants will never be in agreement in this life. Hence, every decision will have an opposite desire to it and the Christian must learn the mind of Christ in order to choose which path to take. Even when taking the right path, there will always be a desire to take the other. This is the craziness of war but it is the craziness to which we are called when we have been reconciled to God in the inner man, but the body must now be placed in subjection until it is redeemed at the coming of the Lord for the world to come.

The Already-Not Yet of John 5:19-30 and How Christ Applies His Given Authority to the World

 If you've ever heard the Kuyperian claim that "there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” then you'll be familiar with what I'm talking about in this post. I actually can't stand when people quote this because, of course, every Christian agrees with this statement given qualifications concerning what they mean by it. The question is how much of what Christ claims of that every square inch as His and not the devils occurs before His second coming. In other words, the issue surrounds when Christ takes hold of what is given to Him as the reward of His work, not whether He does or not.

As argued in the last post, He clearly doesn't claim that of the bodies of believers until the resurrection. I don't know about you but my body is more than a square inch. In fact, the increase of potlucks lately has made quite a few more square inches than it previously was, and Christ has not yet applied the transforming redemption to it and laid hold of it yet. It remains an unwilling participant in my worship of Christ. Because the Spirit of God is within me, it, again, unwillingly, has become the temple of God, but it would as soon as get rid of the Spirit in order to have its way as look at ya. 

So I may not even need to write this post. I probably already proved that Christ has, in fact, not laid hold of everything in the previous post. In fact, the Bible is really clear that He must reign until He puts all of His enemies under His feet, the last one being death. Hence, there are many square inches, according to Scripture, that are not under His feet, i.e., under His authority, in subjection to Him.

So what does Matthew 28:18 mean? All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth? I think the problem is that people are thinking in terms of American politics and not ancient authority. You may be given all authority as a king in the ancient world, but you now have to take hold of it. It doesn't mean you reign over anything yet. What it means is that a province, nation, etc. has been given to you. You now have to go and subdue it or it does not belong to you.

In other words, the giving of authority is a right to rule over that area and its people, not the actual ruling over the area and its people. 

God gives the authority to Adam to rule over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, etc., but He tells Him to then subdue it by a continual activity of being fruitful and multiplying so that the earth is filled, man subdues creation, and then, and only then, does he get to rule over it as its sole king.

Christ is the second Adam. He's been given the mandate. He now must subdue what has been given to Him. 

But here is where everything goes awry in some people's theology. Does Christ subject the world to Himself by just subjecting the spiritual individuals who will belong to His kingdom first and then, only when they are completed in number, subject the physical world to Himself, or does He subject both the spiritual and physical world to Himself simultaneously? 

As argued in the preceding post, the latter is clearly not true, and John 5:19-30 is yet another scriptural example of that.

In this text Christ proclaims:

Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus is here arguing that He only does what the Father is doing and that as His Father judges men and gives life to people, the Son now can do the same. This is the authority that is given to Him. He now decides to whom He will give life and to whom He will give a decree of condemnation. 

Hence, Christ says in v. 25 that He will call out to those who are spiritually dead and they will come to life. The reason He is able to do this is given in vv. 26-27: The Father has life in Himself and has granted to the Son to also have life in Himself and that the Father has granted to the Son the authority to execute judgment in this regard. In other words, the authority granted to the Son is to become the judge of the world, save some in regeneration, and then in v. 28-29 to resurrect all men to either eternal life or eternal condemnation. But these very verses tell us how Jesus applies this authority to judge the world. He applies the spiritual authority to raise from spiritual life now. He applies the authority to the physical world at the judgment when some are raised to eternal life and others to damnation. In other words, the application of Christ's authority is to claim every spiritual square inch of his people now, and claim every physical square inch of creation in the eschaton, i.e., at the resurrection from the dead.

That is why the immediate result of Christ declaring that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and earth in Matthew 28:18-21 is commanding the disciples to go get all of His spiritual kingdom, to go lay hold of it through the means of making disciples via baptism/conversion and teaching all that Christ commanded. That is why Christ proclaims to Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. It is not of this world. It is the physical new world to come, but His kingdom now is a spiritual one that is not of this world. It's why we are strangers and aliens here. Why we are told we are citizens of heaven and we ought to seek the things above rather than the things below because are lives are not here but instead have been hidden in Christ, why we are told that we are waiting for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, and not merely looking to lay hold of a world that the Bible says is passing away. 

To be sure, the new world is not a completely different world anymore than our new bodies will be completely different bodies. Same bodies but glorified. Same creation but cleansed and transformed. But this all at the coming of the Lord according to the Scriptures.

An Argument against a Postmillennial Claim about the Physical World

The best part of a storm is at the end of it. The darkness is broken by a sudden ray of light from the sun that crashes through the clouds signifying the end of the gloom. There is a sort of picture of Christ's return in that. 

Not all postmills will make this argument. I feel like I have to say that every time I talk about somethi9ng these days because the immediates response will be, "That's not what I claim." I get it. Everyone has their whopper their way. I'm just talking about those who put pickles on it. 

The pickles in this case is the claim that the authority given to Jesus Christ as a reward for His faithful work has already effected the physical world and it will continue to progress into something better until the day the Lord comes. In other words, the weather will be more accommodating to humanity, the animals will no longer be as hostile toward humans or one another, the trees will grow more green year by year, humans will live longer, etc.

Of course, I've talked a lot about the already-not yet theology of the New Testament that is pretty much unanimously held by New Testament scholars, as a theology that teaches that the spiritual transformation of God's sons must precede their physical transformation, but this belief above must deny this, and I'll argue here as to why.

In Romans 6-8, Paul argues that although we have been united to Christ, it is the inner man, the spirit, not the body that has been transformed. Hence, the physical body remains, not only in its evil estate, but , as he states in Ephesians, "continues to be corrupted" (Eph 4:22). Paul says of his physical body that nothing good dwells within it (Rom 7:18), and that it is only the inner man that loves the law of God (v. 22). Hence, he cries out, "Who will save me from this body of death?" (7:24). The body, after the Christian has come to Christ, is called "the body of sin" and that it is possible to let sin reign within it because it, in fact, has not yet been redeemed/transformed. The hope of the Christian to get freedom from sin in this life is by realizing the death sentence the body has been given (Rom 6:8, 11; Gal 5:24), giving it up as a living sacrifice to God through the renewing of the inner man/the mind/spirit (Rom 12:1-2), dominating the body by living in the spirit/the inner man rather than in the flesh. In other words, there is a war in the Christian because the physical body has not been transformed yet and still desires to do what is sinful (Gal 5:16-18). Paul argues in Galatians 5 here that the spirit/the new inner man is given so that we do not do what we want, referring to the desires of the flesh/the body. 

Now, it is important to put in another caveat that although the body is interchangeable with the flesh in Pauline literature, he is not saying that the body is inherently evil but instead that it has been completely corrupted. It is from this corruption that the body has not yet been delivered.

Instead, the timing of that deliverance is given in Romans 8. In vv. 10-11, Paul concludes based upon what he just argued that although the body is dead (notice: dead, not transformed), the spirit is alive because of Christ's righteousness. Paul then gives this hope to Christians in v. 11: "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ will also give life to your mortal bodies through the spirit that dwells in you." In other words, the spiritual transformation within the believer that has taken place due to his unification with Christ will be the means through which the body is also given life and transformed by God.

When does this occur? Immediately? No, we just saw that the believer will struggle with the desires of the body that continues to get worse and worse, not better. As it gets worse, Christians who are growing in the new man are also getting stronger and able to dominate the desires of the body more and place it into submission by force, not because the body wants to be in submission to Christ. Instead, the transformation of the body occurs at the resurrection. Paul states in v. 23 that we inwardly groan as we await the revealing of the sons of God, which he explains is at the resurrection of the body.

Now, why is this important? Because in vv. 19-23, Paul argues that all of creation is linked to the body of believers through federal headship. It cannot be linked to the spirit except through the body because creation has no inherent spirit within it. There is no eternal life force in creation. It is linked to mankind and his lifeforce, his spirit, only through his body. Hence, it is only at the transformation of his body that creation can be transformed. Hence, it remains in a state of futility and decay until that time. There is no transformation of the physical world before it because there is no transformation of the body of believers before it.

We know that the resurrection occurs at the coming of Christ. It is then that we are transformed as He is (Phil 3:19-21; Col 3:1-4; 1 John 3:2-3). This is the already-not yet. In John 5:25, Jesus states, "“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." The kingdom had come in Jesus very day as the Son of God called out and raised spiritually dead men to spiritual life. But notice that this is for the inner man/the spirit, not the body. That is spoken of in vv. 28-29, when Jesus says, "Do not marvel at this [i.e., that God has given the Son authority to raise men spiritually], for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." This is not said to be now. This is not what the kingdom looks like now. The kingdom now is a bunch of spiritually raised people with untransformed, corrupted bodies. We'll talk about in another post the fact that the authority given to Jesus to judge the world manifests itself in the already-not yet in these texts so that only the spiritual is applied now, but I digress.

My point is that this transformation of the body only occurs at the resurrection of the bodies of believers which only happens at the second advent of Christ.

Now, back to Romans 8. In vv. 18-25, which read as follows:

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 

The suffering in the context is due to an untransformed body and the struggle between the old man and the new man that it creates. Paul tells us to win the battle with our corrupted body by living in the mindset of the new man and overcoming it. This struggle is linked to the struggle that all creation has since it is linked to the body and now Paul personifies it as though it has a mind that is waiting to be delivered from it decay, corruption, and futility. In other words, the creation is still in the same state it was in before Christ came just as the body of the believer is in the same state it was in before Christ came and the gospel was applied to him. That's because the gospel has not been applied to his body and it has not been applied to creation yet. That is the "not yet" part of the already-not yet. 

So all one has to do to evalutate this common postmill claim that creation has been transformed or is being transformed or will be transformed before Christ's return to his physical body. The Bible says that the body was not transformed, is not being transformed, but will be transformed only at the resurrection of the body at the return of Christ. 

This, of course, leads us to a complete misreading of Isaiah 65:17-25 as some sort of future promise that God must fulfill in the church. Instead, these are Deuteronomic promises to Israel that if it obeys the law and is faithful to the suzerain-vassal covenant made by God with Israel after the exile, He will restore them as a picture of the new heavens and new earth that they were meant to be, and thus, fulfill their role as the means of saving the nations through that picture. They are not faithful, and therefore, this was never fulfilled, nor since Christ who is the substance of the shadows has come, does it ever need to be fulfilled. The church now is the spiritual kingdom that will spiritually picture the new heavens and earth as a place where everyone loves God and one another and where sin and chaos are no more. The church pictures this by loving one another, being faithful to God, and not living in the sins of the corrupted flesh.

It is important to understand, then, that the passage in Isaiah 65 would be a contradiction with the New Testament in any other framework. If this passage is arguing that the physical creation will be transformed before the resurrection and transformation of the bodies of believers, then it is a real contradiction with the New Testament that says otherwise. Instead, understanding it correctly as contingent, and therefore, unnecessary for God to fulfill due to Israel's unfaithfulness, will lead one to conclude that this prophecy remains a shadow of the world to come, and a sad commentary on what Israel could have been had they been faithful. 

So the gospel has not been applied to creation. Christ is given authority to take over all heaven and earth but has not yet applied that authority to the physical world, starting with and including our physical bodies. And this is, perhaps, the greatest irony of this argument within a postmill context because it ends up being a whole lot of people claiming to transform the world with the gospel who cannot even transform the most essential part of the physical world, i.e., their bodies, before the return of Christ. To use a verse out of context, If the eye is dark, the whole body will be. And it will remain that way until Christ appears in glory as the light that washes away all of the gloom. 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 8:19–25.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 5:28–29.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 5:25.

Summary of the New Covenant Use of the Old Covenant Rituals

The new covenant doesn’t turn buildings into temples, Sundays into sabbaths, water into circumcision, and bread and wine into sacrifices. It tells us that these are shadows that did not point to more shadows but to the body, the substance, the Person and work of Jesus Christ; and all who are in Him have no need for shadows. However, the body will still cast shadows. So we gather when called because we are the temple of Christ. Sometimes this is in buildings and on particular days. We are baptized to proclaim our regeneration and renewal in Christ. But like the thief on the cross, one is saved by faith not water. We partake of communion to declare that the gospel binds us to Christ and one another in love as a testimony to our sanctification. But a poor church that has no bread and wine to eat during famine, but proclaims Christ as Lord, is saved by the new covenant all the same. The new covenant does not return to the shadows as their evidence of faith and hope. Shadows now look back upon salvation, not forward to it, and as such, are not the necessary evidences of salvation and Christian maturity.

Why the Physical Promises of the Old Covenant Cannot Be a Part of the New Covenant without Denying the Gospel

 If the physical promises of the old covenant are now a part of the new then the new covenant rejects the New Testament teaching about it. The gospel is the means by which we have favor from God. Love as it is expressed in personal and communal holiness is the marker that one is in Christ and has the favor of God.

If a physical promise to individual saints must be fulfilled as a marker that one is in the new covenant then this runs contrary to the teaching of the apostles who teach that there is no physical marker of one's status in Christ but love as it is expressed through the abstaining from evil and the doing of good in the body. 

If long life in the land, no miscarriages, no poverty, no sickness, etc. are a part of the new covenant promises then the gospel of the apostles that promises suffering and loss in this world is contrary to that of the covenant God has made in the new covenant.

This is because a covenant promise is not something God has the option of giving if the other party has kept their part. God is not allowed by His own justice to decide whether He will give all of the above to every individual. He must do it. Every. Single. Time. That is the nature of a covenant that one swears by His own death if He does not do what He says if the other party does what they swear to do. 

So if the old covenant promise to let children live long in the land for honoring their fathers and mothers means that they will live a long time in their own lands within the new covenant, then God must cause them to live long in their land.

Of course, one might point out that the land the text is referring to is the land of Israel and this is being spoken to Israelites during the time of the old covenant, and thus, it doesn't apply to us in that way. Rather, such a picture points to who will enter the new heavens and new earth rather than some temporal blessing today. That would be the apostolic application of such a verse. 

But if the new covenant contains the promises of the temporary shadows of this world within it, then whoever does not receive these things in the here and now does not have God's favor. They can now be identified, not by their love for the brethren, but by the fact that they have not received the promises that mark one who has God's favor.

Thus, the favorable new covenant believers are known as having favor from God or more favor from God by virtue of old covenant promises, sitting them at one table and those less blessed at another. 

The following three facts display that this theology is false.

1.    1. A covenantal promise, as these promises are, is an obligation that God has to fulfill them every single time. He cannot break it by not delivering or underdelivering. God is bound by His own promises and He cannot lie. They must be fulfilled as they are stated. Yet, we know that God does not give such promises to faithful believers, not even to the apostles, not even to Christ (Did Christ not honor His father and mother in order to live long in the land because He died at the age of 33?). The old covenant has passed away at the coming of Christ. Its promises to Israel are shadows that look to both the spiritual redemption of those who believe in the here and now and the physical redemption of creation in eschaton.

2.  2. God’s giving of the promises or curses are a sign of one’s identification as having favor from God or being an apostate. This is not what the NT argues. One's identification is marked by their love for one another and having received the promise of the regenerating Holy Spirit of the new covenant who produces that love. Suffering, not success, in ruling over the world is promised until Christ returns and is tied to the sanctification of God's people as they learn to put the deeds of the body to death.

3.  3. Even if these promises were to be applied generically to other groups outside of Israel or just literally applied to the church specifically, the promises are contingent upon obeying the entirety of the law, not just one part of it. That means that one will live long in the land when he obeys his father and mother only if he worships the true God, is not an idolater, not a blasphemer, does not break the sabbath, does not murder, steal, commit adultery, bear false witness, or covet. He must obey all of the ritual law, civil law, and moral law without fault. Hence, since only Christ could do this, these promises cannot be contingent upon the obedience of individual Christians but upon Christ and therefore received by every Christian. And yet, we know these temporal promises are not. Again, they cannot function as general truisms. They are covenantal promises that God must fulfill if they are promised to Christians through Christ in the same way that they are promised to Israel, i.e., physical and temporal as well as spiritual and eternal. This ideology is self-evidently false. Therefore, this gospel is not the gospel of the New Testament.

The New Covenant and the Already/Not Yet of the Gospel

 The number one thing that people misunderstand about the new covenant is that it is different than the old covenant. That may sound like something that would be obvious, but actually it isn't to many people today. 

You see, the old covenant, we are told by the New Testament, consisted of shadows of things to come, things that would be eventually fulfilled in Christ's first or second coming. Some shadows point to spiritual realities of the individual's relationship to the Father, regeneration of the individual mind, and individual knowledge of God. Other shadows point to the corporate reality of all creation being renewed along with the bodies of believers. 

It is the misunderstanding of how these two shadows are fulfilled, or rather, when they are fulfilled. In Gnosticism, only the individual's relationship with God is restored but there is no hope for the body or creation to come. This is to reject the shadows of the old covenant that were promised to Israel if they had remained faithful to God. 

The promises of Israel were a picture of the new heavens and earth that would come at the end of the process of creation in which we now live. All of chaos would be a thing of the past for faithful Israel. There would be no more miscarriages, no more poverty, no more drought, starvation, disease, untimely deaths, etc. as a picture of the fact that God will remove chaos from the world at the dawn of the new heavens and new earth. 

But now Jesus comes on the scene and tells us that the kingdom of God is already here, in our midst. We are told that a day is coming and now is that those who hear the voice of the Son of God will come alive in regeneration. We are told by Paul that we have been renewed in the inner man, in the spirit. 

So there is an agreement with Gnosticism on that point. The fulfillment of the old covenant shadows in the new covenant before the consummation of the world is a spiritual fulfillment, not a redemption of creation. Not yet. However, against the Gnostics, we are also told that a time is coming (Christ does not say it is now as before) that those who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and come out of the tombs. Paul states that all creation longs for the revealing of the sons of God, which is defined as the resurrection of the body, because the physical creation is subject to vanity until that time. We are told that our flesh continues to be corrupted in the likeness of its sinful nature, that our body is one of death, and that there is no good in us. 

Hence, in the present time, we are told to set our minds on the things above and not on the things below. We are told that we await a heavenly city rather than placing our hope in one here. We are told we are aliens in this world but citizens in heaven. We are to hope for the things unseen, for a salvation ready to be revealed but has not yet appeared, to consider our deaths gain and our faithfulness to Christ in the face of persecution and suffering victory in this world.

All of this will result in our inner man taking control of our individual flesh, living in the new man by putting to death the deeds of the body. 

Gnosticism is NOT the emphasis on the spiritual in hope of the physical promises that are not currently presented to the saints. That is Christianity. That is the new covenant. To argue otherwise is to go back to the shadows of the old covenant and deny that Christ has come and is fulfilling the spiritual redemption of humanity, the federal head of creation, before He brings about the physical redemption of humanity. 

Creation is not redeemed until after the full human is redeemed in every saint. It follows its federal head. It does not precede it. And God has set that no one will be made complete without another. This means that Christ is not reigning over the physical world and redeeming it at the present time nor should his people think they can presently either. Instead, Christ has divided His ministry between priest and king, spiritual redemption and physical redemption, between His first and second coming. This is the already/not yet laid out in the New Testament. 

In the next post, I'll argue why applying old covenant promises to the new covenant is the Judaizing heresy that denies the New Testament gospel and would end up bringing the church under great judgment and damnation.