HE WILL DWELL WITH THEM
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” —Rev. 21:1-5
A number of times of late I have been asked, “What will heaven be like, and what will we do there for all eternity?” Whether through the limitations of our thinking, lack of careful study or unintentional misinformation conveyed by our preachers and teachers, I have come to the conclusion that we may have a wrong conception of the believer’s eternal state. I do not believe we will “spend eternity in heaven.”
To be sure, those who die in the Lord this side of “eternity,” thus becoming disembodied souls, appear in God’s heaven for the present (Cf. Rev. 7:9-10, 14-17), but the passage before us today suggests that this is not the final residence of the redeemed, but rather the “new heaven and…new earth.” In the context it is not suggested that the redeemed will be where He is but He will be where they are: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them…and God Himself will be with them…”
There is, it would seem, a parallel between the final state of man and the order that prevailed “in the beginning” when God created man, before Adam forfeited his position and glory in the Garden of Eden. There God created an ideal environment within which was a special place for Adam and over which Adam was to be lord under the Lordship of his Creator. Adam was given responsibility for the garden “to dress it and to keep it [Gen. 2:15].” In other words, he was given responsible useful activity in his world. In addition, he enjoyed the fellowship of God in a direct and personal way (see Gen. 3:8).
When Adam sinned, tragic consequences resulted. Creation itself suffered some kind of catastrophe to be corrected in the age to come: “For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now [Rom. 8:19-22 ASV; Cf. Gen. 3:17-19, 22-24].”
In our text for today we have “a new heaven and a new earth.” It is, I believe, what the Savior anticipated when he spoke to his disciples of “the regeneration” in Matthew 19:28; a new habitation for the redeemed descendants of the first Adam. It will be under the administration of the Second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, sitting “on the throne of His glory.” And, it is reasonable to assume, as would have been the case with the first Adam and his descendants had sin not entered in, there will be all kinds of useful occupations in the management and maintenance of this glorious new creation. No, I do not think we will sit around all day strumming harps and singing hymns; the worship will be constant and “twenty four - seven” God will be glorified in the bodies and in the spirits of His citizenry. Whatever we may “do,” all will be done to the glory of God.
What i wonderfully refreshing is to knjow that all the negatives sin has brought into what is now “this present evil world,” will be forever banished (cf. v.4, 8, 27). Greater still is the fact that immediate correspondence and communion with God, which Adam had enjoyed in the beginning, will be restored. “Face to face with Christ my Savior” will be more than pious poetry! And, there will be nations (v. 24, 26) and the splendid “holy city” will be its ‘crown jewel’ and administrative center.
From this perspective it is interesting to note that this corresponds what the Savior said to His disciples shortly before He left them: “I go to prepare a place for you…” That place, it would seem, is not God’s heaven (the third heaven - II Cor. 12:2), but a new atmospheric heaven embracing a new earth fulfilling, and indeed surpassing what God prepared for Adam in the beginning. It will be pollution free in every sense of the word, and we may be assured, the Second Adam will not forfeit as he first Adam did; He paid too high a price to obtain it!
“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. —Rev. 21:27
Question: Is your name written there?
For a blessed forever,
"Pastor" Frasier
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