Re-Creation Is God’s Revolution

In times of struggle and pain, we can often go to great lengths to change our circumstances. As Christians, are we part of a revolution? Is there another way?

Jesus modeled a revolutionary way of being revolutionary.

Jesus and the Victory of God, N.T. Wright

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. (Revelation 21:1)

The nature and tone of our political discourse has changed for the worse—a lot worse. Someone is a demon. Someone else is being savaged. Trash talk from the sports world is now growing in the corridors of political power. Calling colleagues idiots, criminals, scum, or worse hardly even registers as wrong anymore. People are calling for a revolution in Washington, D.C., in the media, and certainly in the comments section of news and opinion articles. 

Revolution, however, can be a rush to a dangerous bottom: Which revolutionary can be the most extreme? Revolution carries with it the idea of insurrection, mutiny and rebellion. You’d expect it from drug cartels, prison gangs, and dictators, but America?   

Our bent toward revolutionary extremes is driven by the need to fulfill our own desires and alleviate our own fears. We are very well attuned to our personal desires and fears. We even use religion to justify our own revolutionary participation in extremism. But is it rare, indeed, to hear someone wonder: What is God’s desire? How do we align with both his goal and his methodology?

Photo by Priscilla Gyamfi on Unsplash

Is Revolution Godly?

God’s character and his goal are summed up nicely in the New Testament term dikaiosuné. Dikaiosuné holds together two important aspects of following Jesus: righteousness and justice, which are commonly paired together in the Bible. The term alerts us to the truth that we don’t have the option to pursue personal piety or public justice. We must embrace both.

Pursuing the reformation of our soul and seeking liberation of the oppressed have equal importance in Divine intention. They flow equally from the fountain of the Jesus-life. God intends to re-create the world, meaning the overthrow of personal and systemic sin that mutilates the creation he made. His desire is the overthrow of rebellion itself. 

True righteousness relates the totality of our personhood to God: body, soul, heart, mind, spirit, and will. It also reminds us that to be a person is to be a social being. This social reality automatically locates us among the pain, injustice, inequity, and hopelessness in the world. I’ve learned that the inner relatedness of my person, God, and other people are what keep revolutions from being rooted in animosity.

Revolutions that grow from hatred, lust for power, or domination get humanity nowhere. At best they yield short term pseudo-gains for long-term pain. The cycle of violence both recurs and spreads. Rather, we want to locate resistance to evil in the righteousness and justice of Jesus. We want the ethics of Jesus to shape not only the end goals, but the process. When Christian spirituality misses this holistic relatedness and is coopted by social ethics defined and framed by politicians or social theorists, something vast and eternal is lost. 

A Compelling Alternative

It is, of course, possible to seek extreme change in our community, nation, or world without reference to Jesus at all. Multiple millions of people have chosen that route. It does not work and often makes things worse. On the other hand, to center Jesus in our desire for change, we need to simply take Jesus seriously. 

Every human revolution will be judged by, and must harmonize with, the vision of Divine re-creation:  

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)

This text highlights new and old, suggesting a sequence of things. Sequence implies an unfolding story. Story requires a Storyteller. Our ears must incline to the Storyteller, and our hearts must seek, for new and old find their meaning in the Creator, Re-creator God. 

New, in this passage, means more than recent. It has to do with the substance of the new thing; its unique quality and nature that is distinct from the old (Vine’s Lexicon). The old order contains the first things or former things. This refers to all the grief and suffering and injustice in the history of the world which has caused the whole creation to groan in distress (Romans 8:22). 

Re-creation as Revolution 

As we groan and long for revolution, can we adjust our personal and social ethics by hearing the Re-Creator God say: “I got this—I will bring my story to my end”? 

God’s righteousness and justice animate two truths that can transform our daily lives:

1. I can relax. An aspect of my new life in Christ is that I have confidence in him and can trust him to bring Re-creation to our broken world.

2. I can turn that relaxedness into poise that allows me to be a non-anxious, passionate pursuer of God’s good justice in the world.

Followers of Jesus choose God’s way. That choice both renovates their hearts and makes them participants in the renovation of the world. If we really took it seriously, doing things God’s way would revolutionize our revolutions.

Will you join me in following Jesus’ revolutionary model for being revolutionary?