By making man subject to vanity, to death, and all nature subject to decay, God has given man a chance to find redemption through Christ. God caused death to corrupt the bodies of men so they could spend their few short years and then pass into the spirit realm, there to await the Day of Redemption.

This plan has proceeded from God's love, God's hope that one day God can bring forth a new race, a new heaven, and a new earth—all centered in Christ.

Because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)

It is God's intention that eternal life be brought back into the physical realm. The redemption of the material creation began with the resurrection of the body of Jesus of Nazareth. The Man, Christ, walked out of the cave after having been dead for three days. This event marked the beginning of the deliverance of the material creation.

Next in order will come the members of the royal priesthood. As soon as the saints have gained victory in their inner spiritual nature and have been filled with the Life of Christ, Jesus will return from Heaven. He and His saints will appear in glory, being the firstfruits of the new creation.

Out from the Son and the sons will flow the Glory of God, the rivers of living water. The nations of the saved will taste of spiritual life. The Lord Jesus and His brothers then will be able to live and work on the earth among the nations in bodies no longer subject to sin, decay, or death. They are alive. They are alive forever. The Lord God of Heaven has brought about victory through His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (I Corinthians 15:54)

Christ and His saints will rule the nations of the saved with a rod of iron. The Kingdom Age is part of God's plan to bring the material creation closer to the time when the remainder of mankind can have access to the tree of life and live forever.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22)

The world groans in one long sigh of pain and anxiety. Man and animals live but a few brief years on this planet, and those years are filled with problems and sometimes with agony of body, of mind, and of soul. Indeed, the world is the valley of the shadow of death of which David spoke (Psalms 23:4).

And not only they [the material creation], but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

We of the elect have been given the firstfruits of the Spirit of God, the firstfruits of eternal, incorruptible resurrection life. God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. That eternal life is in the elect, in the firstfruits, today.

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:18)

To be continued.