24 | Closing the Seventh Day

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

(1 Corinthians 15:24-26)

 

Yet one must ask, what hold does death have on God or the Son of God, who is the life-giving Spirit? In what way could it be his enemy? Death has no hold on the triune God who is without beginning and without end. Death is an enemy to God in that it was a necessary enemy to his creation, a restrainer, an element of futility if you will, in the natural/physical creation out of which the new creation would come;

• Through disobedience
• Through the knowledge of good and evil
• Through chaos and futility
• Through a designated order
• Through death and through resurrection

 

Recall that it’s the resurrection to eternal life that comes after the death of the seed, the kernel. Just as the new creation required an old creation from which to emerge, the immortal required a mortal state from which to change into the image and likeness of the Son of Man. And it’s the last Adam who is the author and finisher of both.

Then Comes the End

As the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, Yeshua the Christ is the one for whom and by whom all this has come about. This is the consummation of his work to lead many sons and daughters to glory. It’s also the end of a day which started as Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden to fulfill the primary command of God – Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it …

Whether one recognizes the six days of creation as individual days or individual ages is less important than the pattern being established for the coming seventh day. Let’s begin by identifying the unique way each day is accounted for:

• And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. (Genesis 1:5b)
• And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. (Genesis 1:8b)
• And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. (Genesis 1:13)
• And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. (Genesis 1:19)
• And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. (Genesis 1:23)
• And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31b)

 

Yet when we come to the seventh day, something unique occurs:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 2:1-3)

 

God ceased from his creative work for the natural realm and for his children who will inhabit it.[1] God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Though the seventh day has a beginning, its end is not specified like the previous six days, leaving it open-ended.[2]

When we look deeper and with a larger context, we can see an intentional connection between the second death that Adam and Eve subjected themselves and their progeny to and the last Adam’s destruction of death as a final act of completing the new creation and handing the kingdom over to the Father. The natural creation, intended to come first, provides the emergence out of innocence and dependence into a state of independence and accountability for his incomplete, imperfect, and mortal children. God ceases from the natural state of creation to shift focus to the next stage – the eventual transformation of the physical creation into a spiritual one.

 

As challenging as this may be to accept, not only did God bless Adam and Eve as they exited the garden,[3] but he also blessed the seventh day and made it holy; a day covering the fullness of time, and yet to be completed. In this day, God intended all the following:

• God has planted the seed of man in the mist and the dust of the earth
• Being made of the dust, they are incomplete, imperfect, and mortal. Yet they will exercise their independence and knowledge within a moral context.
• This context leaves them subject to God’s righteous judgment; always accountable to the One who created them. It’s expressed as the second death of judgment to which all of humanity is made subject.
• It was foreordained that One will come who will provide the way, the truth, and the life to complete their creation into the image and likeness of the Son of Man and the Son of God.
• Once the world is infused with Christ’s Holy Spirit, the stage is set for a multitude of harvests:

• The first of the firstfruits is Yeshua the Christ, resurrected to power and glory and seated in authority at the right hand of the Father.
• The firstfruits of salvation are harvested from the called, chosen, and faithful to our Lord. They consist of faithful remnants of Jews, Gentiles, and Israelite descendants dispersed among the Gentile nations. It also includes the 144,000 remnant from the twelve tribes of Israel. These constitute the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection![4]
• Next the fullness of the tribes of Israel are resurrected to physical life. They are restored to their land along with those returned from the nations where they were dispersed for generations. This is the greater exodus spoken of by Jeremiah; “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”[5]
• The surviving nations will also be harvested of those who are repentant, surrendering to the authority of Christ, and willing to dwell in the obedience of faith. They too will be granted entrance into the kingdom of the Father.
• Lastly, the remaining dead are also resurrected to physical life and the books are opened, and all are exposed to the righteous judgment of Christ;

• Those who repent and enter into covenant with Yeshua the Christ will have the same opportunity to show themselves faithful and committed to Christ’s words of life. Their names are added to the Book of Life.
• Those who refuse to repent or surrender to the authority in Christ will forfeit their lives and will be cast into the lake of fire and consumed. This is the second and final death.

Death is Destroyed

The death of judgment that Adam and Eve brought upon themselves and their progeny near the close of the sixth day is now destroyed by the last Adam at the close of the seventh day. At the point in time when Yeshua the Christ hands the kingdom over to the Father the godly have been made righteous and have entered into the kingdom of their Father. The ungodly have been destroyed, and death is no more. The work of God in Christ is complete. This is the close of the seventh day, so God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because God ceased from all his work that he had done in completing the new creation.

 

Praise God for his long-suffering and his faithfulness to complete through the last Adam all that he started in the first Adam; to bring innumerable sons and daughters from the mist and the dust into the imperishable kingdom of God.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. (Revelation 21:1-7)