Romans 8:20–21: will a delivered creation subsequently be destroyed as in 2 Peter 3, or is that the means of creation’s actual deliverance?

Dec 3

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘The Gospel of Jesus Christ’ (1994).

Well, that is a very intricate question. Romans 8 says creation shall be delivered from her bondage to corruption (Romans 8:21). In 2 Peter 3 it says the world and its works shall be burned up (see 2 Peter 3:10). How do you reconcile the two statements? Well, I have a prejudice that I have to confess. If I had a cancer in my body and I was going to be delivered from this cancer, I hope it wouldn't mean that my own body would be destroyed as well as the cancer. That would be one way of getting rid of the cancer—to get rid of me. If creation is going to be delivered from her bondage to corruption in that sense, it surely doesn't mean, can't mean, that creation is going to be destroyed.

Now, when you come to our universe, and God's great promise of a new heavens and a new earth, then I think we've got to think more deeply, even if we take it at its physical level. You see, how you purify an earth, how you change it, might involve great fires, even at the physical level, might it not, and the constituent parts of earth be rearranged and new material made, and all that kind of thing. The mind boggles. We're not told. I'm looking forward to seeing it, and of being allowed some time off from the heavenly sing-song to go round and investigate what the new heavens and new earth are like! So I try to hold both things in my head simultaneously. Delivering creation may involve, probably surely will, a vast transformation. One kind of pattern I have in my mind is our Lord's body. It was never subject to corruption anyway. But not being subject to corruption, it went through death and now is a body, but a very different kind of body from what he had before. Yet is it the same body? Well, I tend to take Christ's body as the example and a prototype of what the promises of a new creation shall be.

RomansCreationProphecy

David Gooding

Romans 8:20–21: will a delivered creation subsequently be destroyed as in 2 Peter 3, or is that the means of creation’s actual deliverance?

Why didn’t the disciples in Acts 19 receive the Holy Spirit as soon as they believed? And why didn’t Paul just ask them, ‘Are you disciples of Jesus?’ instead of ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit?’

In what way are we constituted sinners as a result of Adam’s disobedience? Are we are as guilty of our own sin, as of Adam’s and, therefore, cannot only blame Adam for our sinful condition?