Jesus Christ: Our Ark

One of the podcasts that I listen to regularly is Christ the Center. On their most recent episode, they played a Sunday school lesson taught by Daniel Ragusa on the biblical theology of Joshua. In this lesson he talks about the crossing of the Jordan in Joshua 3 and goes into explaining the geographical context of the treachery of the Jordan river, especially at the time of its flooding, and then ties the discussion to baptism and the necessity of passing through judgment. As I was listening, it got me thinking about this pattern, one that I believe you see repeated many times in scripture. Fallen creation must pass through judgment in order to become new creation.


The story of Genesis 1-3 is very well known. The part that I want to focus in on is man's exile from the Garden, the place where man dwelt with God. (This was in essence the temple of God in creation.)

"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—' therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." - Genesis 3.22-24

My concern is with the cherubim and the flaming sword. Adam was supposed to guard and keep the Garden pure but he failed. Now there is a cherubim who is guarding over any attempt to return to the Garden. In order for man to get back into the Garden, man must go through the cherubim with a flaming sword, which is judgment. The wages of sin is death, and this was the curse for eating of the Tree of Knowlegde. This sets up the rest of redemptive history.

There are a number of pictures of new creation stories that we see in scripture. There are two major ones in the Old Testament, and both of them follow similar patterns. First, there is the flood. The flood is a picture of cosmic decreation followed by recreation. Noah and his family pass through the flood in the ark. We know from 1 Peter that the flood was a type of baptism, and we see that this baptism brought with it judgment: condemnation for the world and salvation for one family. Noah passed through the flood in the ark; Noah passed through judgment in Christ. Later in redemptive history we come to another baptism-judgment which is yet another recreation story: the exodus. Paul tells us that the nation of Israel was baptized at the crossing of the Red Sea. This was clearly a picture of salvation for the nation of Israel, but it was also more. The plagues in Egypt were a type of decreation as well, and the exodus was a recreation of God's son, Israel. Again, as with the flood, there was a baptism at the Red Sea that brought both judgment and salvation. In this Red Sea baptism, the nation of Israel was born again and the nation of Egypt was drowned.

Redemptive history moves on and we see this pattern repeated again as the New Testament begins. John came out of the wilderness as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, and he came baptizing and preaching repentance. At the baptism of Christ, the heavens opened up, the Spirit descended as a dove, and God declared Jesus as his Son and commanded all men to listen to him. Here, at this baptism, we see judgment and salvation again. John had warned Israel that the ax was laid at the root of the tree and it was about to be cut down. This is the fate of all who do not heed the message of the Father. But at this baptism we also see the Spirit hovering over the waters which points us back to Genesis 1.2. This is another recreation narrative, accompanied with baptism, judgment, and salvation.

This brings us to our current day. Believers are commanded to be baptized. Baptism for the Christian is connected to regeneration, or new birth. How are we born again? In baptism we are baptized into Christ and united to him in death and resurrection. In our baptism we die and are reborn. This same pattern is found all through redemptive history: baptism, judgment, new creation. It is also the pattern of the things yet to come. We are all (most likely) going to die. The redemption of Christ does not remove the reality of death, it removes its curse. When we die we immediately enter into paradise with our Savior and our Father, but there is still a baptism left to come. This is not a water baptism (for God promised he would never flood the earth again with water), but it is rather a cosmic baptism of fire. This is the final decreation, the final judgment, and the final recreation. With this baptism of fire, the eschaton will be ushered in and we will be resurrected into glory in the new heavens and hew earth.

The reason we must die is because we have to pass through judgment to enter into the consummate presence of our God. The way to the Tree of Life is through the cherubim with a flaming sword. Christ is the firstborn from the dead, he has already conquered death itself and, as we are united to him, we also pass through death and are recreated in resurrection life. We pass through the baptism-judgment in the ark, Jesus Christ.