Being God's Image: Why Creation Still MattersExemplo

Our Destiny in the New Creation

The Resurrection of Jesus is the key that unlocks the Bible’s message. It’s here—at the climax of Jesus’ own story—that we directly encounter God’s purposes for humanity. Without the Resurrection, the Incarnation was temporary and so is this world and so are we. The Resurrection proves that Creation still matters. It demonstrates that humans are still the Crown of Creation. It validates our physical embodiment on this planet, upholding it as something destined for restoration.

Without the Resurrection, Jesus becomes just another self-proclaimed messiah. If Jesus’ Spirit had returned to Heaven while His body remained in the tomb, then at best we’d have a disembodied faith that hopes to outlast our mortal bodies. We might picture eternity in the clouds without the trappings of arms, legs, and stomachs. But that’s not what God offers.

When the disciples meet the resurrected Jesus, He is physically present. The grave is empty. The Good News is not merely that Jesus lives on in our hearts after His death. It’s not that His Spirit has been released so that He’s more alive than before; Jesus is who He was—embodied. When Jesus appeared anew to the women, they “clasped his feet” (Matthew 28:9 NIV). The Good News is that Jesus is physically present with them again—alive! They could touch him.

Jesus’ resurrected body offers a glimpse of our own future bodies. His glorification did not erase the evidence of His suffering. Jesus has the same body—one that was beaten and pierced—yet He experiences Resurrection Life. The continuity between His Incarnation and Resurrection Body suggests that we, too, will be our embodied selves in the New Creation.

John tells us that on that first day of New Creation, Jesus commissioned His disciples: “‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that, He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:21-22 NIV). Just as God had breathed into the first human to make him a “living being” (Genesis 2:7), now Jesus breathes into His disciples to commission and empower them to fulfill their human vocation as God’s representatives.

Jesus’ Resurrection is not only Good News for us personally; it’s Good News for the future of this created world. By rising again in the flesh Jesus demonstrates God’s commitment to this physical world, affirming that Creation still matters. And if this Creation still matters, then we still have a job to do.