A Glimpse of the New Genesis

Man was created to rule with Jesus Christ over a kingdom and to live with God forever in a new heaven and upon a new earth. The weaker creature would be crowned with glory and honor. The weaker creature would be placed in rulership over Satan’s fallen world. The glory, honor, and power that Satan had stolen would be regained by the inferior creature living in servanthood, submission, and faith. In this way, pride and power would be rendered null and void. Years later, King Jesus would say, “The one who is least among you all, he is the greatest” (Luke 9:48).

God intends that man (created lower than the angels and, hence, lower than Satan), would achieve the highest position with all things in subjection under his feet (Hebrews 2:8). Thus, the weaker would achieve, by reliance upon God, a higher position than the far more powerful creature, Satan, had attempted to achieve through pride and power.

Out of the least, God will bring many greats. It was as a man that the Savior defeated the enemies of sin and death. It was as a man that the principalities and powers were silenced. It will be as a man that Christ will reign over the future kingdom of God upon this renewed earth.

This future kingdom is the subject of hundreds of detailed passages in the Old Testament. As Joseph Dillow wrote, “It is the glorious reign of the servant kings which extends to all the works of His hands. This may suggest that man will one day rule this universe.” There is to be a kingdom where the lion will lie down with the lamb, universal righteousness will reign, and there will be no more war. All disease will come to an end, and the world of Satan will be placed under the rule of the Servant King and his servants (Hebrews 1:9; Romans 8:19–21; Revelation 20:1–6, 21–22).

God will bring back a small, seemingly unimportant Semitic tribe, Israel, and make them a nation and through them rule in His coming kingdom (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30). It will not be Greece or mighty Rome, Egypt or Babylon; it will not be Europe or Russia or China or the United States that will rule the earth. That future glory falls to Jews and to the mysterious group known as the church, or the servant kings who, like their Master, live in dependence and obedience.

Some may affirm my view of election but set themselves apart today by teaching that because of spiritual death, regeneration must precede faith. Which comes first: the gospel or life? There is no doubt that a sinner’s salvation must begin with God. But at issue in ordo seludis is which comes first: regeneration or faith in Christ?Dr. R. C. Sproul wrote that “at the heart of Reformed theology this axiom resounds, ‘regeneration precedes faith.’” I do not hold this “regeneration precedes faith” view, but I do understand why this position is held.

Recall the story. Everyone who has a human father is conceived in sin and born dead in sin. Sin and death came through the death seed of our first father, Adam. God planted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and told them to freely eat from every tree but one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam not to eat from that tree. It would bring death—spiritual death (Genesis 2:16). Death is a Bible word meaning separation. God actually said, “Adam if you eat from this tree, dying, you will surely most positively die.”It was as though God was saying to Adam that he would die not once but twice. He would immediately begin to grow old and die physically, but he would also die spiritually. His human spirit would be separated from God, no longer able to know Him. He would become lost in a slave market of sin.

We know how this happened. Satan, disguised as a beautiful serpent, slithered into the garden, deceived the woman, and she ate. Then she gave to her husband, and he ate. At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked (Genesis 3:7). They immediately began to die both physically and spiritually. They hid from God because they had been separated from Him (Genesis 3:9).

Adam was not alone when he died. Within Adam was seed—zillions of sperm seed. In fact, the potential for the entire race was in Adam, in his loins, in seed form, in his DNA at the moment he sinned. His seed became corrupt seed, death seed. Shortly afterward, he had relations with Eve, and Adam passed his corrupt sin seed to Cain, and then to Abel, then Seth, then Enosh, then Cainan, then Mahalel—and on and on it went. All became stained with sin because they all died (Genesis 5).

Paul said it:

Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men [through fallen seed] because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

All sinned within Adam the moment he sinned. Sin eventually passed down to us through our human fathers’ seeds. This line was broken only once when the Lord Jesus Christ was born. He had no human father, so he had no sin. This is the glorious worth of the virgin birth.

Therefore, all people are born dead in trespasses and sins. And “dead” means dead—not a spark of life at all (Ephesians 2:1–3; Romans 3:10–18). At issue is how God gives life to the dead sinner. God gives life through regeneration (palin genesia, a new genesis), but regeneration must come through seed. Seed must precede regeneration. No seed, no regeneration. No seed, no life.