What is impacted by the effects of the Gospel?
It is an important question. We rarely consider what God was doing in providing a way of salvation affects everything else God created. God is always doing more than we can fully understand. Or even appreciate.
The Apostle Paul tells gives us a glimpse of this in his letter to the Romans. Let’s look at what he says regarding the creation.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Romans 8:22-25 NKJV
Paul definitively states this. He personifies the creation to help his readers understand that it was not just the human race that fell. The whole of creation suffered the devastating impact of Sin. The failure of Adam and Eve subjected the entirety of the created order to the decay of sin.
But in Christ, even the creation would be restored to its intended purpose and glory. The creation had also been waiting for its redemption.
The Gospel’s scope is not merely to save the lost. It is to redeem the totality of God’s creation. John says it this way in the open lines of his Gospel: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3 NKJV).
And Paul in his letter to the Colossians says this:
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Colossians 1:16-17 NKJV
The one for whom and by whom all things were made was also on a mission to put everything back into order. This is the Gospel’s scope. It encapsulates the length and breadth of creation.
