This is the final post in a three-part series on the goal and destination of creation. The Biblical story as a whole can be summed up as: "Creation to (re)New(ed) Creation". It is the story of God and his people, a story of becoming. It begins like this.
In the Beginning
"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind (or spirit - ruach in Hebrew) swept over the face of the waters." - Genesis 1:1-2 (NRSV)
God's creation begins with the heavens and the earth, but in the beginning, they are without form and are void of the necessities for life and meaning. Though Genesis 1 describes God's creational process symbolically and poetically as a seven-day journey, in our human way of reckoning it has been a multi-billion-year evolution. God is far more patient than the average 21st century person!
As God's story with his people progressed, through gradual and unfolding revelation, it began to emerge that this grand epic has a goal and destination. The prophet Isaiah described it like this, "On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken." - Isaiah 25:6-8
In the next chapter of Isaiah, we discover a cryptic description of how God will defeat death. Some scholars believe this to be the first reference of resurrection in the Hebrew scriptures. "Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead." - Isaiah 26:19
So, in these chapters of Isaiah we see that God has a hope and future in store for his people that goes beyond the grave. It is not an ethereal, non-physical, non-bodily, spiritual existence, rather it is a full-bodied, robust, and ultra-physical reality. Later in Isaiah (chapters 65-66) we discover that this new reality is not to be experienced in some distant heaven, but rather that God will create new heavens and a new earth, just as he had done in the beginning. These later chapters in Isaiah do not describe the life of the age to come as eternal, but as a full, well-lived, and meaningful life. However, as the doctrine of the resurrection of the body became the norm in much of Judaism, Isaiah's visions in chapters 25 and 26 were combined with the visions found in chapters 65 and 66. By the time of the 1st century of our era, most of mainstream Judaism held to a belief in a future bodily resurrection leading to eternal life in a new age and a renewed creation. They believed this was the goal and destination of creation, but there were questions of how and when God would bring this new reality about. In stepped Jesus, believed to be the Messiah by many of his Jewish brothers and sisters.
Jesus' Death and Resurrection: The Gateway to the Age to Come
The earliest Christians (both Jews and Gentiles) believed that through his death and resurrection, Jesus ushered in the age to come. In their minds and hearts, the new creation had already been launched on Easter Sunday. However, as the Apostle Paul so ably communicated in Romans chapter 8, this new age has come not all at once but can best be described as simultaneously as an "already" and "not yet". The renewal of all things has already begun, but it has not yet been brought to completion. When will it all come full circle and why has it taken so long? The writer of 2 Peter answers these questions in chapter 3 of his short letter.
God's Timing is Not Our Timing
"But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be disclosed...But in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home." - 2 Peter 3:8-10 & 13
The writer of 2 Peter claims that Christ has not yet returned and brought all things to completion because God is still at work bringing the good news of salvation to all people and helping those people to realign their lives with his new creational purposes under the Lordship of Jesus. Like he did through the flood in Noah's day, God will one day cleanse the creation again, but this time with fire. On the other side of this cleansing will emerge a (re)new(ed) heaven and earth where righteousness is fully realized.
The New Heaven and the New Earth
At the end of the book of Revelation, John sees the goal and destination of creation up close and personal. He describes it thus, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more...And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'See, the home of God is among (people). He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.' And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" - Revelation 21:1 & 3-5a
John describes the consummation of creation as the coming together of heaven and earth. In other words, God's will is finally done on earth as it is in heaven. And God comes to live with his people in the renewed creation. He makes all things new. Though we cannot fully grasp what this new reality will be, here are three brief things to consider and imagine.
1. All Wrongs Will Be Made Right
Anyone who has lived long enough in the present world knows that things don't always go as we would hope. The world is broken, and all people are also broken. So often, injustice reigns and those on the margins are exploited and left without a voice. One day, these wrongs will be undone and those things left undone in our own lives will be made right.
2. Humanity's Vocation Will be Fully Realized
We discussed in a previous blog that baked into creation is God's plan for humanity to live meaningful and productive lives. When we engage in purposeful and impactful work, we not only bless others and the creation, but we also become who we were created to be. In the age to come, we will fully realize our potential as human beings and we will creatively work alongside one another and alongside God himself (Revelation 22 says that we will reign with him) in stewarding the world. This work will not be "toil", but rather "productive play".
3. The New Creation Will Include Unfolding Drama and Adventure
Just as the initial creation is not static, so the new creation will include an element of unfolding drama and adventure. This is probably where we need to harness our imaginations the most. In fact, we can probably only skim the surface of the adventure that lies before us in the age to come when we dream about all that we hope to experience and achieve in this lifetime. We probably all have regrets about those moments and areas in life where we failed to live up to our full potential. In the renewed creation we will be given the opportunity to plumb the depths of who we truly are and where the longing of our hearts might take us. The best movies, plays, books, and dreams are foretastes of the drama and adventure that is yet to come. But as compelling as we might find these stories now, the narratives we will continue to write and live out in the age to come will far exceed anything that we can conjure up in the present. The goal and destination of creation is not so much an ending, but rather a new beginning. No wonder the early disciples cried out, "Maranatha!" (Come Lord Jesus!). - Shay
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