“REDEMPTION VERSUS CREATION.”
It is often said in defense of Sunday holiness that redemption is greater than creation, and the old hymn is quoted as truth, “’Twas great to speak a world from naught,
’Twas greater to redeem.” In the first place, it is a fact that both creation and redemption are infinite works, which only an infinite God could effect, and therefore man knows nothing about this relative greatness unless God reveals it. This he has nowhere done. In the second place, if redemption were greater than creation, this would in no way affect Sunday holiness; for Sunday as a day of the week, according to divine revelation, has no part in the scheme. In fact, “the first day of the week” of the Bible is not synchronous with the Sunday as kept by so many to-day. The Bible “first day of the week” begins and ends at sunset, while the Sunday begins and ends at midnight. In the third place, we are not redeemed by Christ’s resurrection, but by his life, his blood (Eph. 1:7; Rev. 5:9); but his blood was shed on the sixth day, and on that day he declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30); that is, the acme of the great Sacrifice was reached. In the fourth place, the work of redemption is not complete, and will not be till Christ shall come. Luke 21:28. In the fifth place, the redemption, the salvation, the regeneration, the sanctification, of sinful man is simply creation again, wrought by the mighty creative power of God in Christ,—“created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Eph. 2:10. See also 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10. In the sixth place, the Sabbath is the sign of this very work, “I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Eze. 20:12. The Sabbath is therefore not only a memorial of the creation, but it is the sign between us and God of his redeeming and sanctifying power in the soul. In the seventh place, the proper expression is not “Redemption versus Creation,” nor “Redemption and Creation,” but “Redemption is Creation.”