I gotta have my orange juice.

Some of [Paul’s] hearers believe the gospel that he preached, which means that they trusted in the resurrection, left the old creation and entered the new creation. To press that just a little further. Paul’s message to them is that the resurrection is indeed the gateway of history. Before the resurrection, the world was different. It was a time of ignorance that God overlooked, meaning before the resurrection, God had exercised great patience with the nations and did not give them what they deserved. We don’t have time this morning, but Paul talks about this very same thing in Acts 14 and Romans 3, and you can look it up there. Paul often refers to the former times, but now after the resurrection, something is significantly different. Now Jesus has come and shed his blood for sins. Jesus is with God, ready to forgive sins, but commands all men everywhere to repent. All men of all nations must confess their sins, trust in Jesus, as Lord and stop living in ignorance and sin. The resurrection marks that hinge in history. Everything that comes before it belongs to the old world. And everything that comes after the empty tomb is a new heavens and a new earth. When Jesus died, the first creation, the old creation, died with him. And his resurrection was the birth of a new reality for the cosmos. The resurrection wasn’t a one-off strange miracle in the old world. The resurrection was the first day of the new world. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. There is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. When you’re united to Jesus by faith, you join the new creation.

We’re used to speaking about the new heavens and the new earth as something that hasn’t happened yet. We think of new heavens and new earth as something that’s way, way, way in the future. We’re looking forward to it. But the reality is with the resurrection, the new order of the cosmos has already begun. How is heaven new? How is heaven new and different from what it was before the resurrection? Well, there’s something very significant about heaven now, and that is today a man rules in heaven. The man, Jesus, is enthroned in heaven, and he rules over everything, and he is the man before which we will all stand as judge. Not only that, but today heaven is populated with the souls of men. If you remember Jesus’s parable of Lazarus and the rich man, those righteous souls are not in heaven. They’re not before the throne of God, right? He says they’re in Abraham’s bosom. They’re waiting for the sacrifice to be made so that men’s souls can enter the presence of God. Back when we studied Revelation, remember one of the narratives we followed through Revelation is that account of angelic elders getting up from their thrones and then human elders taking their place. Heaven is new. Heaven is changed with the enthronement of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus and his enthronement over all the cosmos.

And the earth is under new administration as well. Because Jesus has been vindicated, because he’s been enthroned, the power of Satan to deceive the nations has been broken. Satan is on a chain. He no longer has any kind of dominion over the earth. His functions are severely limited. Satan is not all-powerful. He’s not omniscient. And instead of Satan’s dominion, now the Spirit of God has been poured out in strength upon the world, upon the church, empowering the church to take dominion and rule in history, in time, over creation.

In the old world, before the resurrection, corruption spread, impurity spread. How much of the law is taken up with how to counter all manner of ceremonial uncleanness? There’s uncleanness that can get in the walls of the house and in your clothes and in your cups and dishes, uncleanness everywhere. That’s not the way it is anymore. In the new creation, life spreads. Corruption doesn’t spread. Understanding and wisdom spreads. Purity spreads. In the old creation, it’s as if the people of God are always about to go extinct. They’re always surrounded by their enemies. They dig wells and the Canaanites come behind them and fill up the wells. The women are always barren. The land does not cooperate with them. It’s as if the land wars against them. There’s famine and pestilence and problems all the time. The creation doesn’t cooperate with them in the old covenant. In the new creation, the land cooperates. Blessings abound. The church spreads throughout all the world. Unabated life just gets sweeter and sweeter and more pleasant all the time.

Think about the way that now God blesses our smallest efforts. Just a little faithfulness explodes into a great bounty of fruitfulness by God’s mighty Spirit. This is a new creation. Romans chapter 8 spoke of this. We studied this a few weeks ago, that the creation was subject to futility, awaiting what? Awaiting the revealing of the sons of God. As the sons of God are revealed, as the gospel is preached and men are delivered, so is creation. Everything has been turned around by the resurrection. Death no longer has esteem. The grave no longer has the last word. Death had no victory over Jesus and therefore cannot have victory over those who are in Jesus.

This is what it means to be a Christian, to accept without reservation, without cynicism, without skepticism, to accept the reality of the resurrection, to understand that it is the most important event in human history. And that because of the resurrection of Jesus, we live in a different world. Because of the resurrection, the world is not the same as it used to be. This is the world where Jesus reigns. This is the world where his kingdom spreads. This is the world where death does not get the last word. Life gets the last word. This is the world where the triune God has made himself known. This powerful preaching of the resurrection, this powerful truth emboldened the early Christians to go through the ancient world spreading the message of Jesus. The explosive growth of the church is inexplicable apart from the earth-shattering message of the cross and the empty tomb. And wherever they take this message to confront Caesars and governors and philosophers and pagan priests and merchants and slaves, wherever they go, the truth prevails. Lives are transformed. Men and women are restored as they enter the new creation with Jesus as king.

(Duane Garner, The Resurrection Changes Everything)