Now it counts forever. The title of Dr. Sproul’s chronicle in each issue of Tabletalk briefly captures the relationship between the gospel and the new heavens and the new earth. The good news of death in sacrifice and the glorious resurrection of Christ have eternal implications for the destiny of every human being. Your response to this message, whether with humble confidence or provocative disbelief, will be your turning point between infinite happiness beyond your craziest dreams and relentless torment beyond your worst nightmares.
The living God, sovereign in every atom in his universe and in every nanosecond in his history, directs the cosmos towards a consumption that will show the majesty of his wisdom, power, justice, and mercy, so that every creature, everywhere, may contemplate. the heavens and earth of today, stained by the human sin and curse they have suffered, perish?And will they be transformed? (Hebrews 1: 11-12), shaken and removed (12:26-27). For the first heaven and earth, nowhere will be found, but instead a new heaven and a new earth will appear (Revelation 20. 11; 21,1).
- The promise is as old as Isaiah’s prophecy: “For behold.
- I create new heavens and a new earth; and will there be no memory of past things.
- Will there never be any memory of them?(Isaiah 65:17-18; see 66:22-23) The Apostle Peter says that justice will inhabit the new heavens and the new earth we expect (2 Peter 3:13) Paul adds that all creation.
- Now subject to vanity and decadence.
- Unerste the children of God in the desire to release their “captivity of corruption” in our resurrection (Romans 8.
- 19-22).
How to describe the new heavens and the new earth? To negatively describe the cosmos to come, we can say that the miseries that are now causing so much damage and anguish will disappear: without grief, pain, death? no vestige of the curse will remain (Revelation 21. 4; 22. 3). It is more difficult to positively portray what a world without evil and sorrow will be like. Prophets and apostles push language to the limit to offer glimpses of glorious realities beyond our experience. We can say that Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruits of the consummated new creation, so that his glorious resurrection body heralds the resurrection awaited by his people (1 Corinthians 15: 20-22; Philippians 3:21). Once Jesus was resurrected, he could eat and be touched (Luke 24: 39-43), so does the materiality of his body lead us to expect the scenario described in the book of Revelation? the healing leaves and endless fertility of the tree of life, for example (Revelation 22: 1-5)? it is not completely symbolic. At least we can say that our final house is not ethereal and immaterial, but a vigorous reaffirmation of the original design of the Creator, because it declared that the first heaven and the first earth were? Very good? (Genesis 1. 31).
The Word of God reveals enough about the new heavens and the new earth to make us understand the urgency of the question: “How can I access the promised homeland of pure pleasure in the presence of God?”This question leads us to the gospel. Will the new heavens and the new earth be populated by them?Servants? From God (Revelation 22:3-5), who clung to the Word of God and confessed jesus (1. 2, 9; 20. 4). They were redeemed by the blood, of the Lamb, and their names are written in his Book of Life (12. 11; 20. 12, 15; 21. 27).
However, visions of the Revelation underscore the crucial importance of the gospel from a very serious perspective: those whose names are not in the book of the Lamb will be judged by their own actions throughout their lives. Without the cover of the Lamb’s atoning blood, they will be exposed to the righteous wrath of God, condemned and “thrown into the pond of fire,” the second death (20:13-15). Their souls will be reunited with the bodies in which they practiced their rebellion, and in this fiery lake they will experience not only incessant physical distress, but also total deprivation of mental and spiritual relief. Jesus himself spoke of this terrible and eternal destiny that awaits the rebels, a place where the worm does not die, where fire does not come out?(Mark 9: 43-48; Isaiah 66:24).
Is the prospect of relentless torment assured by God’s unwavering righteousness?Devrait. Il now is the time to trust in the Lamb and his redemptive blood.
Do the pleasures of coming to the new heavens and the new earth stimulate the aspirations of your heart?The time has come to trust in the Lamb and his redemptive blood; now it really counts forever.