New Heavens And A New Earth

Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

II Peter 3:13

What is the end result of God’s overall plan of redemption?  It results in much more than personal salvation.  In the passage from which our text derives, Peter has reiterated and explained the promised return of Christ.  He has answered the critics who ask, ‘where is the promise of His coming?’  He has put the promise of God and the return of Christ in a larger frame of reference.  He has gone so far as to describe the end of the world in graphic terms.  In our text, Peter refers to the people of God and what they understand God has promised to do.  John describes this same future when he writes ‘now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.  Also there was no more sea.’  He goes on to describe the circumstances by saying, ‘and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’  This is what Peter is referring to in our text.  While these are not the only proofs from Scripture, they are significant, in that they agree about the future.  They also agree that Christ is at the center of this future. Of Christ, it says, ‘and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.  They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.’  All that believers are, and all that they ever anticipate for the future, is vitally related to Christ.  Therefore, we make much of Him.  ‘The Lamb has all the glory, in Emmanuel’s land.’

Our Glorious, Living Christ,
we rejoice that You have secured our present
and guaranteed our future.
We praise You that we may look forward
without fear to what lies before us in this life,
knowing that it will bring us into Your eternal presence.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning