Concerning our physical bodies, we experience the gap between what ought to be and what is when we are injured or sick. We then do what we can by seeking medical help and/or prayer for healing. Sometimes we experience healing through prayer (which is when God clearly lends His power for a positive will outcome). Modern medicine can do a lot to restore us to health. Imagine what your body would be like if you had the injuries and illnesses you have had in your life if you lived 1000 years ago.

But there are people who are handicapped or chronically ill for most of their lives and have to live with an ought… is gap. We know that healing is possible for those situations, but we also know that God does not provide His power for healing as much as we would like. That kind of healing remains rare no matter how much we pursue it.

And for everyone, aging is a process of the ought…is gap getting wider, and we spend more and more time and energy on what we can do, with less and less results. The longer we live, the more our bodies deteriorate. Nobody is able to overcome aging. We live here on this earth in a body that ultimately does not experience restoration. Even people who receive a miraculous healing remain in a body destined for decay. Our only hope for restoration is in a new body in a new heaven and earth. I wonder about the significance of this for our theology about God and His purposes. This is how He has it for the aspect of our present lives that has the most effect on us.

Does this mean anything for what we can expect God will do when we work to restore His creation? If we expect God to empower our work so that it results in a significant and lasting restoration of creation to what it ought to be, we are expecting Him to do what He does not do with our bodies. Perhaps there is no connection, and God will restore creation through the efforts of our work. But passages like Romans 8:20-25 appear to connect the two.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:20-25

If our bodies indicate how God will restore creation, then we should not expect to restore creation through our work efforts, just like we do not expect medical treatment to restore our bodies to what ought to be as we get older. That does not mean that we stop pursuing medical treatment. In fact, as we get older and the ought….is gap widens, we see more doctors, take more medicines and utilize more medical technology. We do this in an effort to do what we can to maintain a well functioning body. But our hope for restoration is not in medical treatment, it is in a resurrected body that replaces the body that we currently have. No one wants to take their geriatric body into the new heaven and earth.