Consistency is important when trying to understand how God is bringing about the completion of his creation. The resurrection of Christ is the key to understanding how God is working to do the same thing for all of his creation. Paul says of Christ:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)
We cannot overlook the important relationship of Christology with eschatology. For if Christ is "the firstborn of all creation," then "all creation" will find its redemption in him. So, if we want to understand how God brings about "new heavens and a new earth," then we must consider how God went about raising Christ from the dead.
Did Jesus arise from the dead in the same body in which he was crucified? Was the Jesus who came out of the tomb the same Jesus who had walked the earth for 33 years?
The answer is yes and no. Yes, Jesus arose from the dead in the same body in which he was crucified, as witnessed by the fact that his body still bore the scars of his ordeal. But, in resurrected form, that body had undergone a significant transformation. In death, it had been a "natural body." In resurrection, it became a "spiritual body."
The change, however, was not so much one of substance, but of orientation. The "natural" body is inclined toward
disobedience (although Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, even in his "natural" body). The "spiritual" body is inclined toward
obedience. It is a body fully submitted to the Holy Spirit, thus embodying the very essence and nature of God; his perfect image and likeness. In rising from the dead, Jesus proved beyond any doubt that he was indeed who he had been claiming to be all along: God's own beloved Son, the very embodiment of what God intended his creation to be
in the beginning.
So, in the resurrection of the dead, we "put off" our "natural" body and "put on" our "spiritual" body: not a "replacement" body, but the "old" body in a "new" and transformed state, bearing the image and likeness of Christ, who is the image and likeness of God.
Thus, as it is the destiny of all believers to share with Christ in the resurrection, so it is the destiny of all creation--heaven and earth alike--to be raised to a higher state of existence, reflecting the glory of the Creator himself. In the "end," the "new heavens" and the "new earth" are the same "heavens and the earth" which God created "in the beginning."
