Take your Bibles, if you will, please, and turn to 2 Peter chapter 3. We are nearly done with this series on the afterlife. This evening we will look at the eternal state, this time not from the personal or individual perspective, but from the cosmic perspective. And then that actually finishes up, except for there are a number of related questions to this whole study that I’d like to take up next time. I think curious questions that many have asked, and I thought, well, now’s a good time just to take those up. We will do that next time.
The next two Sunday evenings, Mason Pell will be speaking for us. Part of the requirements for his coursework at the seminary is to speak at the church. We’re glad to accommodate that. And so he’ll be speaking the next two Sunday evenings, and then we’ll come back the final Sunday evening of the month, Lord willing, and finish this up.
But this evening, the eternal state, the cosmic perspective. What will it look like in the big picture? Not just what will it be like for me or you in our resurrection bodies, but what will the world be like? In 2 Peter 3, the Apostle Peter is taking up this question of the scoffers. You’ll notice that in verse 3 and following. They’re scoffing at the faith of the believers, saying, “Yeah, Jesus said he would come. Well, where is he?” And Peter gives some very important answers to that objection to the faith. As important as they are, that’s not our focus this evening. We’ll pick up our reading with Verse 10.
The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn? But according to his promise, we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we have said many times that we are grateful for all that you have let us in on concerning not just the future generally, but our future, what lies ahead for those who are safe in Jesus Christ. We’re grateful that we can see these things so that we can look ahead with anticipation and be born up each day with this great hope. We pray that in our brief time this evening you will give us a new glimpse of this and refresh our hearts and enliven our faith by it, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Restoration Of The Created Order
Well, we have seen that the created order, not just humanity, but the created order with humanity, is in a fallen condition because of sin. That all starts back in Genesis chapter 3, where Adam and Eve rebelled against God. God came in judgment. He pronounced the curse of judgment, not only against the devil, Adam, and Eve, but the whole created order was caught up in it. “Cursed is the ground for your sake, and you will make your living now with the resistance of the world around you.”
And various parts of the Bible pick that up. The created order is in a condition of groaning, waiting for the redemption to be shared with believers, and so on. And we find in the prophets that we have seen some of these new creation passages where the prophets look ahead to a renewed heaven and a renewed earth in which righteousness dwells, as Peter says here. We find some glimpses of it most famously in the book of Isaiah: what that new world will be like. Isaiah chapter 11, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, the lion will eat straw like an ox. We find things like Isaiah 35, the desert shall rejoice and shall blossom as a rose.
However you take those, whether they are symbolic or speak of exact realities as they’re described there, we’re seeing something of a new order of things; that this world will be renewed and brought back to its Edenic perfections. I happen to think those in Isaiah that I’ve just mentioned are intended to be understood more on the face value of it, and it will entail all of the created order, and it will be restored as well. We see that, or we have seen that in our series in Romans chapter 8, where the whole creation groans and travails, waiting for the better day. And Paul describes how it will be caught up with us in our resurrection body. The whole created order will be caught up and relieved from all of this groaning at that point as well.
So creation then, we learn, will be restored to its original harmony. When we get to the book of Revelation, as we’ll see a little bit later this evening, there’s this theme of not only “back to Eden,” but as I like to say it, “back to Eden and beyond.” That is, it’s even better than what Eden was then.
Now, by the way, I should emphasize in all of that what I’ve mentioned many times through all of this, and that is our hope is not just heaven. There is this doctrine of the intermediate state. We’ve talked about that. It’s very important. You don’t want to let that go, but that’s not our ultimate hope. At death, the soul passes immediately into the presence of Christ, and we begin to experience ahead of time the glories of the final state. But it is not the final state yet, because we have not been resurrected. But in the resurrected state, it will be body and soul brought completely renewed and restored as its created intention was.
Cosmic Conflagration Or Transformation
Now sometimes we have this cosmic perspective brought up in the prophets like we’ve seen. And one of the ways, as we’ve seen that I’ve mentioned from the prophets, one of the ways the Bible speaks of it is in terms of restoration. Jesus speaks of it as the regeneration—a renewing, a bringing back to Edenic perfections. Paul speaks of that in Romans chapter 8 where he speaks of the world order as being liberated and brought back to its original perfections and released from the bondage of sin.
Another way the Bible describes that coming state in its large cosmic perspective is in terms of complete renovation or complete purging. And that’s what we see here in 2 Peter chapter 3. We see it in verse 10 and following, where he speaks of the heavens passing away with a roar, the heavenly bodies burned up and dissolved, the earth and the works that are in them being exposed. And then again in verses 12 and 13, the heavenly bodies melt as they burn, and then finally the new heavens and the new earth.
Now, one of the questions that comes up in looking at all of this is how are we to take this—this language of a cosmic conflagration? There’s a lot of prophets that talk about it like that as well, and the New Testament picks up on it as well. Here in 2 Peter 3 we see it. Isaiah chapter 13 verse 13 tells us, “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, the earth will be shaken out of its place.” Isaiah 51 verse 6, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look to the earth beneath, for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment.” And then I think one of the more famous ones, Haggai chapter 2 verse 6, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, yet once more in a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.”
The book of Hebrews picks up on that prophecy of Haggai in Hebrews chapter 12 and says, “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns us from heaven. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only earth, but also the heavens.'” So they’re expecting this great time of conflagration that comes and that language of the cosmic disturbances is used. Other passages speak of it as the stars falling, the sun turning to darkness, the moon turning to blood. We have this great conflagration theme. That’s pretty common in the prophets and it’s picked up as we see here in the New Testament as well. Joel chapter 2, “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”
So the question now is, how do we understand these passages? On the one hand we have passages that speak of this great conflagration and even in the words of Peter here, the whole thing just melting and dissolving, and it can sound like there’s just going to be a replacement. I don’t think that’s how we are to take it. I think what the biblical writers here are doing is taking up this apocalyptic language that speaks in these graphic terms of the great transformation of the world order that God is going to bring about. I don’t know what the details of that will look like. It may well involve an earthquake or whatever, but I don’t think it means that the entire globe, the earth, is going to be dissolved and then replaced with something else.
And the reason I don’t think that is because some of the other language that is used just can’t square with it if we take that in a literal fashion. For instance, Jesus, as I mentioned, speaks of that coming world as the regeneration. Or we find other places where it speaks of restoration. Romans chapter 8, that I mentioned earlier: the creation is groaning, waiting for its liberation. All of that seems to be a restoration, not a replacement kind of idea. You find some of the same in the prophets as well. One example of that would be 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where the bodies that we have, Paul emphasizes that it’s not going to be a replacement body. There’s going to be continuity with the body of this life in the resurrection.
Well, I think there’s enough of that to say that we have to understand this in terms of great transformation, and that fits with the big picture that we’ve seen often in our Sunday morning series, the story of salvation—the Bible’s story of salvation—and that is that God has a cosmic perspective and view, and the created order that has fallen and been ruined by sin will be restored.
The New Jerusalem
Now we find something of that in Revelation chapter 20. If you’ll go there, Revelation chapter 20 and then 21 and 22 as well that we’ll see this evening. Look at Revelation 20 verse 11: “I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away and no more place was found for them.” That’s further explained for us in chapter 21, verses 1 and following: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first had passed away.” Well, this is more of that cosmic conflagration kind of language that’s picked up. It’s some kind of judgment scene, some kind of dissolution of the old, the old order, and some kind of bringing in of a new order.
What we have to say at the very least, what we have here is a promise that this old order of things as we know it in its fallen condition—both in its sinfulness and its injustice and all that is wrong about it, but also in its suffering and fallenness and brokenness—all of that will be removed and God will usher in a new order of things, a whole new world order. And he describes that for us now in chapters 21 and 22 of the book of Revelation. This new heaven and the new earth, or as he also calls it, the new Jerusalem.
Let’s work our way through these chapters quickly. Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 21: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” This idea of the city coming down from heaven to earth—I think the idea there is that heaven and earth now are being united. “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s the idea here.
And it says there’ll be no more sea. “The sea was no more.” Now typically in apocalyptic language, but in several other prophetic passages as well in the Old Testament, the sea is a metaphor for all that is wrong with this world: the restlessness of the nations, the rebelliousness of the nations, the strife, the scandals, all that is wrong with this world and its restlessness. It’s out of the sea that this beast comes up and brings havoc against the saints and so on. So the sea is a metaphor for the restlessness and the rebellion and the revolting of this earth. And what he’s saying is that sea will be no more. No more of that kind of trouble. No more of that kind of upsetting rebellion and brokenness that will be behind us.
Verse 3 then of chapter 21 speaks of the presence of God come to earth—a reversal of the curse of Eden. “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.'” That is a final realization of the ancient promise that “I will be your God, you will be my people.” God dwells with us, and so this is finally—we’ve come around to what we first saw. The problem in Eden, Adam’s sin: he’s kicked out of the presence of God, alienated from God, and estranged from him, and now he’s brought back, and in fact, God comes to him. God comes to us and his dwelling place is with us.
Verse 4: “He’ll wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” The expression here, “wipe away every tear,” has been a favorite for so many Christians, particularly in times of suffering, especially in times of bereavement—”he’ll wipe away every tear.” And I think we should understand this as more than just “we’ll be happy now”; it’s at least that.
But I think when we think through that, we have to think, okay, there’s more involved here. How is it—this is a question that often comes up—how is it that you will be happy and joyful in heaven, knowing that loved ones are in hell? That’s a tough question. Now we have a hint of that already back in chapter 19, when Christ comes in judgment against all of Babylon, and Babylon crumbles, and the whole world system is destroyed, and they’re consigned to hell, and they’re tormented forever and ever. And all of the saints of God stand over and shout and cheer, “Hallelujah.” How can that be? And I think the only answer that you can come up with for that is to say that there will be a transformation in us as well. That we so much now will have been transformed and we so much now will enter into God’s thinking and appreciate things from his side of things and have such a zeal for his glory that we’ll see things from his perspective and we’ll rejoice that righteousness has prevailed.
No more tears. No more suffering. No more pain. No more injustice. And whatever there is that might have brought tears is now removed. The idea here, when God will wipe away all tears, is not that God has a big handkerchief and goes around to each eye and wipes each tear away. But now he has brought about such a transformation in the whole world order and including in us individually that there’ll be no more tears, but we’ll enter into the satisfaction of God himself.
More than that, we find here not only no more tears, but there’s nothing more that makes us cry. No more death. You gotta love that. No more pain. No more mourning. The former things have passed away. I don’t know why it is sometimes—and I’m sure those of you others who have experienced bereavement—people you love have gone. There are times when it comes and it hits you and it’s just awful. And sometimes holidays can be like that more than others. And you think of this: all of that’s gone forever. He wipes away all tears, and all that makes us cry will have been gone.
Verse 5: a new order. “He who is seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I’m making all things new.'” This is not going to be like anything you’ve seen before. This is a new order of things.
And verses 9 and following give us a series of general descriptions of what that will be like. Verse 10: “The angel came and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” So he’s explaining for us here the beauty, the splendor, the glory of that state, what it’d be like.
Verse 12: “It had a great high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates, 12 angels.” I’m not sure what all that symbolism is. We’ve got a sentinel angel at each gate. I suppose the idea there is keeping out those who do not belong. “On the gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. On the west, three gates. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the apostles and of the Lamb.” So we get the names of the children of Israel. We get the names of the apostles. At the very least, what’s going on here is an expression of the unity of the people of God, perfectly realized at last.
Verses 15 and following describe what that will be like in terms of its dimensions. “The one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies four square, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia, its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement.” All right, we’ve got a city here that is a perfect cube—the same shape, the same size each direction you measure it. Now it doesn’t take a lot of reflection to think, okay, the only other place in scripture where we have anything of significance that’s a perfect cube is the Holy of Holies, the place of the residence of God. And here we have that coming now. That old tabernacle, the old temple, that cube-shaped room where the presence of God was—all of that was prospective to what here now finally is perfectly realized in the presence of God with his people.
Verses 18 and following: again, he speaks of it in terms of its brilliance. He speaks of the precious stones that there are commonplace. Pastor Boyd mentioned his Sunday school this morning that gold is, well, that’s just the stuff you pave the streets with there. That’s the idea here. You’ve got these brilliant jewels and stones that to us are rare. There, that’s what marks the place. Again, speaking in some kind of metaphorical language to describe the beauty and the splendor and the glory of the place.
Verse 22: no temple. “I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb.” God himself is there. That’s the symbolism of this cube-shaped city. But here no temple is there and you don’t need the temple because God and the Lamb are there. Now in all of the history of redemption we’ve had this unfolding and this progressive invasion of God coming in to be present with his people. There’s the alienation of man from God in the garden, removed from the garden because of sin. And God begins to move back in. We have the tabernacle, and he dwells among his people, Israel. We have the temple. We have the incarnation. We have Pentecost—he makes us his temple. But all of that is just prospective to what here is realized in full: that God himself is there, and we are in his immediate presence. And those former patterns of worship are gone because now we have unrestricted access into the very presence of God. No temple, a new order of worship.
Verse 23: no sun, no moon—no longer needed. “The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” It’s a bright place. It’s uncreated light here, though, the brilliant light shining from the glory of the Lamb himself.
The Social Life Of Heaven
Verses 24 and following, we have a vision of the social life of heaven. Maybe I’ll give just a hint of that here, but we’ll pick that up next time. Verse 24: “By its light will the nations walk. The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” Okay, the gates that were introduced earlier here are said to be never closed because there’s no night, no threat of the danger that’s usually associated with darkness. But notice we have the nations present here, not just one nation. The nations are present. And in fact, the nations bring their glory into the kingdom. Now what’s that all about?
Chapter 22, verse 2 picks up on that. “Through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Will there still remain then ethnic differences in the eternal state? And will the various ethnic contributions and the various national contributions and the contributions of each individual culture be a part of the glory of that kingdom? I suspect that’s what’s being hinted at here.
That opens up the bigger question—and this I think I’ll have to put off till next time—but what is it we will be doing in the eternal state? If you get theology from the comics, you’ll be sitting on a cloud playing a harp for eternity. I don’t think that’s what we’re led to think, but what we’ll be doing in the new heaven and the new earth. Chapter 21 here, verses 24 to 26, I think, gives us a hint that the place will be bustling with activity of some kind. The ethnic and the cultural contributions of each remaining, but now without the restrictions of sin.
Well, of course, we’ll worship. Revelation chapter 7, we’ve seen that. They’re before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple. So we’ll be worshiping God, we’ll be serving God, certainly as an exercise that will never end, forever. But that’s what we do now. We worship and serve God. So how will it be different then?
Chapter 22 and verse 5: “they will reign forever and ever.” Reign over what? And I think with all of the Eden imagery going on here, this also is meant to bring us back to Genesis—back to Eden and beyond—just as Adam was created to reign over the earth as God’s vice-regent. Now that’s been brought to full realization in the redeemed humanity that is in glory. And we carry out the creation mandate the way Adam was commanded to do, but now perfectly and without sin.
Will we work then? I said I wouldn’t do all this. Will we work then? Well, remember that work is a creation ordinance. I was joking with one of the men this morning before the service, talking about work. I was talking to Ed, actually, Ed Dickinson. He has to drive so far to work. That’s where he is now on his way. And I just made the smart remark, “Work, it’s a terrible way to make a living, isn’t it?” And he reminded me that we ought to be grateful for work. But there’s a sense in which work as work now bears the element of a curse. But if work won’t be—won’t connote all that is associated with work in a fallen world—what might that be like then in what we do? And might that inform more of what the nations bringing their glory into the kingdom will look like?
Well, enough of that. Verse 27: no abominations. “Nothing sinful or nothing ugly, nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Those things that cast such an ugly pall over all of our lives, all gone, and gone forever.
Chapter 22, then, we have the river of life. Again, Edenic symbolism. “The angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city, also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed.” Every verse there has Edenic reminiscences. And he’s saying it’s been a complete reversal. We’ve gone back to pre-fall Eden and beyond.
The last part of verse 3 and on through verse 5, again emphasizing the idea of the presence of God: “the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it and his servants will worship him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads.” They will be his. That’s the idea. “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.”
This is, as I mentioned last week, the beatific vision. When finally we are there in the presence of God, we see Christ himself. Well, this is John’s symbolic presentation in this apocalyptic imagery, the symbolic presentation of what that new heaven and new earth will look like. I suspect—I have no reason to say this, I guess I shouldn’t say it if I don’t know it for sure—but I suspect that when we get to heaven, we’re going to say, some of us at least, we’re going to say something to John like, “Why didn’t you tell us it was going to be this great and this wonderful?” And he’ll say, “I did what I could. I used the language that I had, the symbolism; I did the best I could. What language can do it adequately?”
And I think that’s what the symbolism is for here. So there will be a new order ushered in. The old earth gone. The old order gone. A complete renovation of everything as we know it, including us. And we’re brought into the very presence of God, and what’s emphasized most in this passage—that certainly is the climax of it—is that we are in the presence of God himself, unrestricted access to God, and we see the face of Christ himself. Undiminished, undimmed, unhindered fellowship in the immediate presence of Christ with all of those things that make us cry behind us forever.
Well, we’ve seen then the sweep of redemptive history: creation, there’s fall, there’s redemption, and then finally restoration and being brought into the presence of God. And the consuming, the climactic glory of that day is that we will live in the very immediate presence of God. As I like to call it, basking in his glory forever. Amen.
Let’s pray. Our Father, what a glorious subject this is. What a glorious hope you’ve given to us. We thank you from our hearts. We thank you for your word where you would let us in on these things, that we can have such a glorious hope. How we thank you for Christ who has come, who has redeemed us, who’s paid the penalty of sin, and how we are thankful for that great hope that he will come again and bring his reign to culmination and bring about all that he has promised. Lord, we are your people living in a fallen world. Encourage us with what you’ve revealed to us of your purpose. In Christ’s name we ask. Amen.