Category: Nature waits to be free from the curse

The singing tree

The old tree sings for joy before the Lord.

 

 1 Chronicles 16:33

Then the trees of the forest will sing,

they will sing for joy before the Lord,

for he comes to judge the earth.

 

Isaiah  55:12

You will go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and hills

will burst into song before you,

and all the trees of the field

will clap their hands.

How Christ’s Resurrection Gives Nature Hope – Romans 8:18-22

 

From 1 Corinthians 15, Paul lays out for us, how, since Christ has been raised from the dead, we (all believers in Christ) shall also be resurrected and changed when He comes.

Skipping most of Paul’s resurrection argument, we will go right to those verses that makes our point. Beginning in verses 3&4, Paul writes,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

Then in verses 20-23 Paul says,

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.

Now we will skip to verses 51 through 57, which show us that when He comes all believers will be glorified—given immortality. All the dead will be resurrected to new life, and all those who are still alive when He comes will be changed (raptured and changed) even while alive.

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O  DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

How Christ’s Resurrection Gives Nature Hope

 

In Romans 8:19-21 Paul writes,

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly 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 also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Here we see that as we Christians wait for His coming and for glorification, we as human creations aren’t alone in waiting. God’s entire creation—all of nature—waits to be free from the corruption of the curse. For all of nature knows instinctively that when Christians are resurrected and changed and thus are revealed as to who they are in Christ, it too (all of nature) will be set free from its slavery to corruption. Thus nature has this hope that it will be renewed to what it was in the beginning.