On
the new earth, in which righteousness dwells, God will provide an eternal home
for the redeemed and a perfect environment for everlasting life, love, joy, and
learning in His presence. For here God Himself will dwell with His people, and
suffering and death will have passed away. The great controversy will be ended,
and sin will be no more. All things, animate and inanimate, will declare that
God is love; and He shall reign forever. Amen.
After
a close brush with death a boy said in relief, "My home’s in heaven, but
I’m not homesick." Like him, many feel that at death heaven is a
preferable alternative to the "other place," but that it runs a poor
second to the reality and stimulus of life here and now. If the views many have
about the hereafter were true, this feeling would be justifiable. But from the
descriptions and hints Scripture provides, what God is preparing for the
redeemed to enjoy so outshines the life we live now that few would hesitate to
give up this world for the new one.
The
first two chapters of the Bible tell of God’s creation of a perfect world as a
home for the human beings He created. The Bible’s last two chapters also speak
of God’s creating a perfect world for humanity—but this time it’s a
re-creation, a restoration of the earth from the ravages sin brought.
Over
and over the Bible declares that this eternal home of the redeemed will be a
real place, a locality that real people with bodies and brains can see, hear,
touch, taste, smell, measure, picture, test, and fully experience. It is on the
new earth that God will locate this real heaven.
Second
Peter 3 tersely summarizes the scriptural background of this concept. Peter
speaks of the antediluvian world as "the world that then existed" and
was destroyed by water. The second world is "the earth which now
exists," a world that will be cleansed by fire to make way for the third
world, "a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (verses 6, 7,
13).(*1) The "third" world will be as real as the first two.
The
term "new earth" expresses both a continuity with and difference from
the present earth.(*2) Peter and John envision the old earth cleansed by fire
from all defilement and then renovated (2 Peter 3:10-13; Rev. 21:1).(*3) The new
earth is, then, first of all, this earth, not some alien place. Though renewed,
it will remain familiar, known—home. That’s good! It is, however, new in the
sense that God will remove from the earth every blemish sin has caused.
The
New Jerusalem is the capital city of this new earth. In the Hebrew language,
Jerusalem means "city of peace." The earthly Jerusalem has seldom
lived up to its name, but the name New Jerusalem will accurately reflect
reality.
In
one sense that city links heaven and the new earth. Primarily, the term heaven
means "sky." Scripture uses it to refer to (1) the atmospheric heavens
(Gen. 1:20), (2) the starry heavens (Gen. 1:14-17), and (3) the "third
heaven," where Paradise is located (2 Cor. 12:2-4). From this connection of
"heaven" with Paradise, it became synonymous with Paradise, the place
of God’s throne and dwelling. Hence, by extension, Scripture terms God’s
realm and rulership and the people who willingly accept His rule the
"kingdom of heaven."
God
answers beyond all expectations the petition in the Lord’s Prayer, "Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" when He
relocates the New Jerusalem to Planet Earth (Rev. 21:1,2). He not only
refurbishes the earth, He exalts it. Transcending its pre-Fall status, it
becomes the capital of the universe.
John
uses romantic terms to convey the beauty of the New Jerusalem: The city is like
a "bride adorned for her husband" (Rev. 21:2). His description of the
physical attributes of the city portray to us its reality.
Its light
The
first specific attribute John noticed as he viewed "‘the bride, the
Lamb’s wife’" was "her light" (Rev. 21:9,11). God’s glory
illuminates the city, making the light of sun and moon superfluous (Rev.
21:23,24). No dark alleys will mar the New Jerusalem, for the walls and streets
are translucent and "there shall be no night there" (Rev. 21:25).
"They need no lamp, nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them
light" (Rev. 22:5).
Its construction
God
has used only the very finest materials in building the city. The wall is of
jasper, a "most precious stone" (Rev. 21:11,18). The foundations are
adorned with twelve different gems: jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald,
sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst
(Rev. 21:19,20).
These
gems are not, however, the primary building material. For the most part, God has
made the city—its buildings and streets—of gold (Rev. 21:18,21), using that
precious metal as freely as people now use concrete. This gold is finer than any
now known, for John calls it "pure gold, like clear glass" (Rev.
21:18).
Twelve
gates, each made of a single pearl, grant access to the city. "Pearls are
the product of suffering: a tiny irritant slips inside an oyster’s shell, and
as the little creature suffers, it transforms that irritant into a lustrous gem.
The gates are of pearl. Your entrance, my entrance, God provided at infinite
personal suffering as in Christ He reconciled all things to Himself."(*4)
Just
as meaningful today as the list of materials that went into the construction of
the city is the fact that the angel who showed the city to John measured its
walls. That they could be measured, that they have height and length and
thickness, conveys to the modern, data-oriented mentality the city’s reality.
Its food and water supply
From
the throne of God in the center of the city flows the "river of water of
life" (Rev. 22:1). And like a banyan tree with multiple trunks, the tree of
life grows "on either side of the river." Its twelve fruits contain
the vital element the human race has gone without since Adam and Eve had to
leave Eden—the antidote for aging, burnout, and simple fatigue (Rev. 22:2;
Gen. 3:22). Those who eat the fruit of this tree need no night in which to rest
(cf. Rev. 21:25), for in the new earth they will never feel tired.
The
Bible makes clear that ultimately the saved will inherit this earth (Matt. 5:5;
Ps. 37:9,29; 115:16). Jesus promised to prepare for His followers "dwelling
places" in His Father’s house (John 14:1-3). As we have noted, Scripture
locates the Father’s throne and heavenly headquarters in the New Jerusalem,
which will descend to this earth (Rev. 21:2,3,5).
City
Home
The
New Jerusalem is the city for which Abraham looked (Heb. 11:10). Within that
vast city Christ is preparing "mansions" (John 14:2), or as the
original word indicates, "abiding places"—real homes.
But
the redeemed will not be confined within the walls of the New Jerusalem. They
will inherit the earth. From their city homes the redeemed will go out into the
country to design and build their dream homes, to plant crops, and harvest and
eat them (Isa. 65:21).
On
the new earth the promise Jesus made to His disciples will find eternal
fulfillment: "‘That where I am there you may be also’" (John
14:3). The purpose of the Incarnation, "God with us," will have
finally reached its goal. "‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will
be with them and be their God’" (Rev. 21:3). Here the saved have the
privilege of living in the presence of the Father and the Son, of fellowshipping
with them.
God
will involve the redeemed in the affairs of His kingdom. "The throne of God
and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him....And they
will reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 22:3-5, NIV; cf. 5:10).
We
do not know the extent of their rule. However, we may safely assume that as an
important part of their role in the kingdom, the redeemed will serve as
Christ’s ambassadors to the universe, testifying to their experience of
God’s love. Their greatest delight will be to glorify God.
Life
in the new earth will challenge the most ambitious for eternity. The glimpses of
the categories of activities available to the redeemed there whet our appetites,
but do not even begin to delimit the possibilities.
We
have already seen the scriptural promises that the redeemed will "build
houses and inhabit them" (see Isa. 65:21). Building implies design,
construction, furnishing, and the potential for remodeling or rebuilding. And
from the word "inhabit" we may infer a whole spectrum of activities
relating to daily life.
The
underlying motif of the entire new earth existence is the restoration of what
God had planned for His original creation. In Eden God gave the first human
beings a garden to "tend and keep" (Gen. 2:15). If, as Isaiah said, in
the new earth they shall plant vineyards, why not orchards and grain fields? If,
as Revelation indicates, they shall play harps, why not trumpets and other
instruments? It was, after all, God Himself who implanted in humanity the
creative urge and placed them in a world of unlimited potential (Gen. 1:28-31).
We
will realize no small part of our joy in eternity in relationships.
Friends and family
Will
we recognize our friends and family after we have been glorified, changed into
Jesus’ image? After Christ’s resurrection His disciples had no trouble
recognizing Him. Mary recognized His voice (John 20:11-16), Thomas His physical
appearance (John 20:27,28), and the disciples from Emmaus His mannerisms (Luke
24:30,31,35). In the kingdom of heaven, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still bear
their individual names and identity (Matt. 8:11). We may safely assume that on
the new earth we will continue our relationships with those we know and love
now.
In
fact, it is the relationships that we will enjoy there—and not just those with
family and current friends—that makes heaven our hope. Its many material
benefits "will seem as nothing compared with the eternal values of
relationships with God the Father; with our Saviour; with the Holy Spirit; with
angels; with the saints from every kindred, nation, tongue, and people; and with
our families....No more shattered personalities, fractured families, or
disrupted communion. Wholeness and wholesomeness will be universal. Physical and
mental integration will make heaven and eternity the perfect
fulfillment."(*5)
"The
loves and sympathies which God Himself has planted in the soul shall there find
truest and sweetest exercise. The pure communion with holy beings, the
harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all
ages...—these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed."(*6)
Marriage?
Some
of Christ’s contemporaries related the case of a woman repeatedly widowed who
had had seven husbands in all. They asked Him whose wife she would be after the
resurrection. It takes but little imagination to see the endless complications
that would be introduced if the marriage relationships of this earth were
renewed in heaven. Christ’s answer reveals the divine wisdom: "In the
resurrection they neither marry; nor are given in marriage, but are as the
angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22:29,30, KJV).
Then
will the redeemed be deprived of the benefits now associated with marriage? In
the new earth the redeemed will not be deprived of any good thing! God has
promised that "no good thing will He withhold from those who walk
uprightly" (Ps. 84:11). If that is true in this life, how much more will it
be true in the next.
The
quintessence of marriage is love. The epitome of joy is in the expression of
love. Scripture says, "God is love," and "in Your presence is
fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (1 John 4:8;
Ps. 16:11). In the new earth no one will lack for either love or joy or
pleasure. No one there will feel lonely, empty, or unloved.
We
can trust that the loving Creator who designed marriage to bring joy in this
present world will have something even better in the next—something that will
be as superior to marriage as His new world will be to this one.
"The
leaves of the tree [of life] were for the healing of the nations" (Rev.
22:2). The healing Revelation speaks of means more than "cure"; it
means "restoration," since no one there will ever become sick (Isa.
33:24, 20). As they eat of the tree of life, the redeemed will outgrow the
physical and mental dwarfing that centuries of sin have brought about; they will
be restored into the image of God.
Eternity
offers unlimited intellectual horizons. In the new earth "immortal minds
will contemplate with never-failing delight the wonders of creative power, the
mysteries of redeeming love. There will be no cruel, deceiving foe to tempt to
forgetfulness of God. Every faculty will be developed, every capacity increased.
The acquirement of knowledge will not weary the mind or exhaust the energies.
There the grandest enterprises may be carried forward, the loftiest aspirations
reached, the highest ambitions realized; and still there will arise new heights
to surmount, new wonders to admire, new truths to comprehend, fresh objects to
call forth the powers of mind and soul and body."(*7)
Apart
from Christ, everlasting life would be meaningless. Throughout eternity the
redeemed will ever hunger and thirst for more of Jesus—for greater
understanding of His life and work, for more communion with Him, for more time
to witness to unfallen worlds about His matchless love, for a character that
reflects His more closely. The redeemed will live for and with Christ. They will
rest, fully satisfied, in Him forever!
Christ
Himself lived to serve (Matt. 20:28), and He called His followers to the same
life. Working with Him now is, in itself, rewarding. And the relationship it
engenders offers in addition the greater blessing and privilege of working with
Him on the new earth. There, with great joy and satisfaction, "His servants
shall serve Him" (Rev. 22:3).
Although
the redeemed will have the opportunity of investigating God’s treasure house
of nature, the most popular science will be the science of the cross. With
intellects restored to the acuity God intended them to possess, and with the
blindness of sin removed, they will be able to perceive spiritual truth in a way
they can only long for here. They will make the subject of salvation—a subject
that contains a depth, a height, and a breadth that surpasses all
imagination—their study and song throughout eternity. Through this study the
redeemed will see ever greater vistas of the truth as it is in Jesus.
Week
by week the saved will meet together for Sabbath worship: "‘And from one
Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says the
Lord" (Isa. 66:23).
Some
of the most cheering promises about the new earth concern what will not be
there. "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Rev.
21:4, KJV).
All
these evils will disappear forever because God will eradicate every form of sin,
the cause of all evil. Scripture mentions the tree of life as part of the new
earth, but not once does it include there the tree of knowledge of good and evil
or any other source of temptation. In that good land the Christian will never
have to battle the world, the flesh, or the devil.
The
guarantee that the new earth will remain "new" despite the influx of
immigrants from the sin-polluted, old Planet Earth is the fact that God will
exclude the "vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice
magic arts, the idolaters and all liars" (Rev. 21:8, NIV; 22:15). He
must—for whatever sin enters, it ruins.
"Every
trace of the curse is swept away....One reminder alone remains: Our Redeemer
will ever bear the marks of His crucifixion. Upon His wounded head, upon His
side, His hands and feet, are the only traces of the cruel work that sin has
wrought. Says the prophet, beholding Christ in His glory:
‘He
had bright beams coming out of his side: and there was the hiding of his
power.’ Habakkuk 3:4, margin... Through the eternal ages the wounds of Calvary
will show forth His praise and declare His power."(*8)
On
the new earth, Isaiah says, "the former shall not be remembered, nor come
into mind" (Isa. 65:17, KJV). Read in context, however, it becomes evident
that it is the troubles of the old life that the redeemed will forget (see Isa.
65:16). They will not forget the good things God has done, the abundant grace by
which He saved them, else this whole sin-struggle would be in vain. The
saints’ own experience of Christ’s saving grace is the essence of their
witness throughout eternity.
In
addition, the history of sin forms an important element of the assurance that
"affliction will not rise up a second time" (Nahum 1:9). Thoughts of
the sad results sin has produced will serve as an eternal deterrent to anyone
ever tempted to choose that suicidal path again. But while the events of the
past serve an important purpose, heaven’s atmosphere cleanses those terrible
memories of their pain. The promise is that their memories will not evoke in the
redeemed remorse, regret, disappointment, grief, or vexation.
Christ
Himself, "for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising
the shame" (Heb. 12:2). Paul renewed his courage by contemplating the
future glory:
"Therefore
we do not lose heart....For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is
working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor.
4:16,17).
Christ
Himself said, "‘Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your
reward in heaven’" (Matt. 5:12). Paul reiterates, "If any man’s
work abide,...he shall receive a reward" (1 Cor. 3:14, KJV).
Moses
was enabled to walk away from the "pleasures of sin" and the
"treasures of Egypt" because he "looked to the reward" (Heb.
11:26).
The
Christian’s reward is not only future. Christ Himself, by the Holy Spirit,
comes to the Christian and dwells in him as an "earnest" or down
payment guaranteeing the blessings to come (2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:14). Christ
says, "‘If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come
in’" (Rev. 3:20). "And when Christ comes He always brings heaven
with Him." Communing with Him "is heaven in the heart; it is glory
begun; it is salvation anticipated." (*9)
Some
view Christians as being so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly value. But it
is that very belief in the hereafter that gives Christians a solid base from
which to move the world. As C.S. Lewis observed: "If you read history you
will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those
who thought most of the next....It is since Christians have largely ceased to
think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at
heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’; aim at earth and you will get
neither."(*10)
"The
wise man will give more care to the carving of a statue in marble than to the
building of a snowman."(*11) The Christian, who plans on living forever,
will naturally structure his life with more care (and thus impact society more
constructively) than the person who thinks he’s disposable, born only to be
thrown away.
The
"occupation with celestial themes, which the Holy Spirit fosters, has a
mighty assimilating power. By it the soul is elevated and ennobled. Its field
and its powers of vision are enlarged, and the relative proportions and value of
things seen and unseen are more clearly appreciated."(*12)
The
world as we now see it grossly misrepresents both God’s character and His
original plan for this planet. Sin has so damaged earth’s physical ecosystems
that many can scarcely imagine a connection between this world and the paradise
portrayed in Genesis 1 and 2. Now a constant struggle for survival characterizes
life. Even the life of the believer, who must do battle with the world, the
flesh, and the devil, does not accurately portray God’s original plan. In what
God has planned for the redeemed—a world untouched by Satan’s influence, a
world in which God’s purpose rules alone—we have a truer representation of
His character.
Ultimately,
the Bible describes the new earth in order to attract the nonreligious person to
Christ. One person, on hearing that "the earth restored to its Eden beauty,
as real as ‘the earth that now is,’ was to be the final home of the
saints," where they would be "free from all sorrow, pain, and death,
and know and see each other fact-to-face," strenuously objected.
"Why,"
said he, "that cannot be: that is just what would suit the world; that is
just what the wicked would like."
Many
"seem to think that religion, with...its final reward, must be something
for which the world could have no desire; hence when any state of happiness is
named, for which the heart of man, in his fallen condition, would truly long,
they think it can be no part of true religion."(*13) Nothing could be
further from the truth.
God’s
very purpose in making known what He has prepared for those who love Him is to
attract individuals from their preoccupation with this world—to help them
discern the value of the next and glimpse in the beautiful things prepared the
Father’s heart of love.
In
this old earth it is often said that "all good things come to an end."
The best of the good news regarding the new earth is that it will never come to
an end. Then will come to pass those lyrics from the "Hallelujah
Chorus": "The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord,
and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever" (see Rev. 11:15;
cf. Dan. 2:44; 7:27). And, Scripture says, every creature will join in the
anthem: "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever" (Rev. 5:13,
KJV).
"The
great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is
clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From
Him who created all flow life and light and gladness throughout the realms of
illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things,
animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that
God is love."(*14)
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