Jesus Sustains and He Redeems

As mentioned last week, Jesus sustains all of mankind and all of creation (Heb 1:1-4, Jn 1:1-3, and Col 1:15-17). This means that Jesus has been, is, and will be fully aware of every galaxy, every star, every planet, every grain of sand, every molecule, every atom, and every subatomic particle in the universe. We can scarcely fathom the number galaxies in the universe, but the totality of particles in the created world represents a mind-numbing number that might be written but would be so large as to be meaningless to our feeble minds. In His divinity Jesus knows each of these particles, where they are, where they have been, and where they are going to be at any point in the future. Each and every one of these particles was created by God but subject to futility because of Adam’s sin. God’s power to create and sustain the universe is unfathomable, but we can easily underestimate the destructive power of sin. It is not merely breaking a rule as many seem to think. No, sin is truly destructive far beyond the local impact of transgressing God’s law.

St Paul makes this point in the Letter to the Romans: “For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now” (Rom 8:19-22). Thus, Adam’s sin is not just a human tragedy but has cosmic consequences. Adam brought creation down through sin and creation became subject to futility. At the fall of Adam and Eve, God says to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you! In toil you shall eat its yield all the days of your life” (Gen 3:17). It was not just the ground or the soil that was cursed. It was all of creation. Just as a rift between man and woman was forged by Adam’s sin, hostility reigns between mankind and nature. We were called to be stewards of nature, but we are much more adept at exploitation than we are at stewardship. It must be admitted, however, that nature has a profound and utterly inescapable capacity to bring us to our knees. Yes, we can prevail over nature locally and for a time, but all of the knowledge and technology in the world cannot stop nature from taking its course, for we are dust and unto dust we shall return. Materially speaking, we are cursed along with nature and equally subject to futility.

Despite the futility of the material world and our participation in it, hopelessness does not prevail. Hope for man and hope for the created world comes from Jesus. Every Christian ought to know that Jesus’ death on the cross wrought redemption from sin. Every Christian ought to confess that the only way of obtaining heaven stems from Jesus’ redemptive death. Many, perhaps most, do not understand or know that Jesus’ death did not just redeem mankind but the whole of creation. As Paul confesses, “creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” It should be no surprise that our death is the gateway to immortality. The very same can be said of the material world. It too will suffer a death of sorts so as the be replaced by a creation unsullied by sin. The Apostle John testifies, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:1-2).

Thus we can say that God created all that there is through Jesus. Through Adam’s sin all of the substances with which we are familiar were brought down to futility and decay, all of creation and we who were the pinnacle of God’s creative activity. Through Jesus we along with all of creation were redeemed from futility, decay, and hopelessness. Thus, we ought to be able to see that Jesus died for all of creation even for those people who will reject the offer of salvation. After all, if Jesus redeemed rocks, brussels sprouts, and all other objects in the universe, how can anyone claim that Jesus did not redeem every human being without exception?

—Fr Booth