> So there is no reason to think that "creation" meaning the physical
> universe is waiting to be "liberated from its bondage to decay and
> brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."
The Creation is affected by human sin because of the breaking of our
proper relationship to it as God's representatives and stewards.
While the lordship of humanity over creation continues despite our
fallen-ness, that lordship is now expressed in self-interested
exploitation and the exercise of subjugating power. Just as with our
other relationships to God and other humans, our relationship to
Creation is characterized by brokenness, selfishness, and
destruction. The Creation is indeed groaning and looking to the
restoration of our redemption.
What does it mean for creation to be in bondage to decay? Given
other passages in scripture (eg. Psalm 104:27-30), it does not seem
that it refers to simply the physical process of death. The concepts
of death and life used in scripture seem to pretty consistently refer
to something much more profound. Our life and death is often
explicitly detached from our current physical life and death. Though
we die yet shall we live. Though we live we are really dead. Are we
not freed from the "bondage of death" through the redemption that
lies in Christ even though our current life in this body will end?
Could this not mean that Creation will also be freed from a bondage
that has resulted from its estrangement from its appointed stewards?
Keith
Keith B. Miller
Research Assistant Professor
Dept of Geology, Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-3201
785-532-2250
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/
Received on Thu May 11 22:42:18 2006
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