We will live eternally with God in new heavens and a new earth!
After the final judgment, believers will enter into the full enjoyment of life in the presence of God forever. Jesus will say to us, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). We will enter a kingdom where “there shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him” (Revelation 22:3).
When referring to this place, Christians often talk about living with God “in heaven” forever. But in fact, the biblical teaching is richer than that: it tells us that there will be new heavens and a new earth, an entirely renewed creation, and we will live with God there.
The Lord promises through Isaiah, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered” (Isaiah 65:17), and speaks of “the new heavens and the new earth which I will make” (Isaiah 66:22). Peter says, “according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). In John’s vision of events to follow the final judgment, he says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1). He goes on to tell us that there will also be a new kind of unification of heaven and earth, for he sees the holy city, the “new Jerusalem,” coming “down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:2), and hears a voice proclaiming that “the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them” (verse 3). So, there will be a joining of heaven and earth in this new creation, and there we will live in the presence of God
What Is Heaven?
During this present age, the place where God dwells is frequently called “heaven” in Scripture. The Lord says, “Heaven is my throne” (Isaiah 66:1), and Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father who art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). Jesus now “has gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God” (1 Peter 3:22). In fact, heaven may be defined as follows: Heaven is the place where God most fully makes known his presence to bless.
We learned in past messages how God is present everywhere but how he especially manifests his presence to bless in certain places. The greatest manifestation of God’s presence to bless is seen in heaven, where he makes his glory known, and where angels, other heavenly creatures, and redeemed saints all worship him
Heaven Is a Place, Not Just a State of Mind.
But someone may wonder how heaven can be joined together with earth. Clearly the earth is a place that exists at a certain location in our space-time universe, but can heaven also be thought of as a place that can be joined to the earth?
Outside of the evangelical world the idea of heaven as a place is often denied, chiefly because its existence can only be known from the testimony of Scripture. Recently even some evangelical scholars have been hesitant to affirm the fact that heaven is a place. Should the fact that we only know about heaven from the Bible, and cannot give any empirical evidence for it, be a reason not to believe that heaven is a real place?
The New Testament teaches the idea of a location for heaven in several different ways, and quite clearly. When Jesus ascended into heaven, the fact that he went to a place seems to be the entire point of the narrative, and the point that Jesus intended his disciples to understand by the way in which he gradually ascended even while speaking to them: “As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9; also see Luke 24:51: “While he blessed them, he parted from them”). The angels exclaimed, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). It is hard to imagine how the fact of Jesus’ ascension to a place could be taught more clearly.
A similar conclusion can be drawn from the story of Stephen’s death. Just before he was stoned, he, “full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”‘ (Acts 7:55-56). He did not see mere symbols of a state of existence. It seems rather that his eyes were opened to see a spiritual dimension of reality which God has hidden from us in this present age, a dimension which nonetheless really does exist in our space/time universe, and within which Jesus now lives in his physical resurrection body, waiting even now for the time when he will return to earth. The fact that we will have resurrection bodies like Christ’s resurrection body indicates that heaven will be a place, for in such physical bodies (made perfect, never to become weak or die again), we will inhabit a specific place at a specific time, just as Jesus now does in his resurrection body.
The idea of heaven as a place is also the easiest sense in which to understand Jesus’ promise, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). He speaks quite clearly of going from his existence in this world back to the Father, and then returning again: “And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3).
These texts lead us to conclude that heaven is even now a place, though one whose location is now unknown to us and whose existence is now unable to be perceived by our natural senses. It is this place of God’s dwelling that will be somehow made new at the time of the final judgment and will be joined to a renewed earth
The Physical Creation Will Be Renewed and We Will Continue to Exist and Act in It.
In addition to a renewed heaven, God will make a “new earth” (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1). Several passages indicate that the physical creation will be renewed in a significant way. “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19 – 21).
But will earth simply be renewed, or will it be completely destroyed and replaced by another earth, newly created by God? Some passages appear to speak of an entire new creation: The author of Hebrews (quoting Psalm 102) tells us of the heavens and earth, “They will perish, but you remain; they will all grow old like a garment, like a mantle you will roll them up, and they will be changed” (Hebrews 1:11 – 12). Later he tells us that God has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven,” a shaking so severe as to involve “the removal of what is shaken … in order that what cannot be shaken may remain” (Hebrews 12:26 – 27). Peter says, “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 all the works that are upon it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). A similar picture is found in Revelation, where John says, “From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them” (Revelation 20:11). John says, “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” (Revelation 21:1).
It is difficult to think that God would entirely annihilate his original creation, thereby seeming to give the devil the last word and scrapping the creation that was originally “very good” (Genesis 1:31). The passages above that speak of shaking and removing the earth and of the first earth passing away may simply refer to its existence in its present form, not its very existence itself, and even 2 Peter 3:10, which speaks of the elements dissolving and the earth and the works on it being burned up, may not be speaking of the earth as a planet but rather the surface things on the earth (that is, much of the ground and the things on the ground)
Our Resurrection Bodies Will Be Part of the Renewed Creation.
In the new heavens and new earth, there will be a place and activities for our resurrection bodies, which will never grow old or become weak or ill. A strong consideration in favor of this viewpoint is the fact that God made the original physical creation “very good” (Genesis 1:31). There is therefore nothing inherently sinful or evil or “unspiritual” about the physical world that God made or the creatures that he put in it, or about the physical bodies that he gave us at creation. Though all these things have been marred and distorted by sin, God will not completely destroy the physical world (which would be an acknowledgement that sin had frustrated and defeated God’s purposes), but rather he will perfect the entire creation and bring it into harmony with the purposes for which he originally created it. We can expect that in the new heavens and new earth there will be a fully perfect earth that is once again “very good.” And we can expect that we will have physical bodies that will once again be “very good” in God’s sight, and that will function to fulfill the purposes for which he originally placed man on the earth.
When the author of Hebrews says that we do “not yet” see everything in subjection to man (Hebrews 2:8), he implies that eventually all things will eventually be subject to us, under the kingship of the man Christ Jesus (note verse 9: “But we see Jesus . . . crowned with glory and honor”). This will fulfill God’s original plan to have everything in the world subject to the human beings that he had made. In this sense, then, we will “inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5) and reign over it as God originally intended.
For that reason, it should not strike us as surprising to find that some of the descriptions of life in heaven include features that are very much part of the physical or material creation that God has made. We shall eat and drink at “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9). Jesus will once again drink wine with his disciples in the heavenly kingdom (Luke 22:18). The “river of the water of life” will flow “from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city” (Revelation 22:1). The tree of life will bear “twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month” (Revelation 22:2). There is no strong reason to say these expressions are merely symbolic, without any literal reference. Are symbolic banquets and symbolic wine and symbolic rivers and trees somehow superior to real banquets and real wine and real rivers and trees in God’s eternal plan? These things are just some of the excellent features of the perfection and final goodness of the physical creation that God has made.
Of course, there are symbolic descriptions in the book of Revelation, and it is inevitable that at some points we will be unable to decide whether something is to be taken symbolically or literally. But it does not seem difficult to think that the description of the heavenly city with gates and a wall and foundations is a description of something that is literal and real, “the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel” (Revelation 21:10 – 11). “And the street of the city is pure gold, transparent as glass…. And the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day—and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (Revelation 21:21-26).
While we may have some uncertainty about the understanding of certain details, it does not seem inconsistent with this picture to say that we will eat and drink in the new heavens and new earth, and carry on other physical activities as well. Music certainly is prominent in the descriptions of heaven in Revelation, and we might imagine that both musical and artistic activities would be done to the glory of God. Perhaps people will work at the whole range of investigation and development of the creation by technological, creative, and inventive means, thus exhibiting the full extent of their excellent creation in the image of God.
Since God is infinite and we can never exhaust his greatness (Psalm 145:3), and since we are finite creatures who will never equal God’s knowledge or be omniscient, we may expect that for all eternity we will be able to go on learning more about God and about his relationship to his creation. In this way we will continue the process of learning that was begun in this life, in which a life “fully pleasing to him” is one that includes continually “increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10)
The New Creation Will Not Be “Timeless” but Will Include an Unending Succession of Moments.
Although a popular hymn speaks of the time “when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more,” Scripture does not give support to that idea. The heavenly city that receives its light from the glory of God (Revelation 21:23) will never experience darkness or night: “There shall be no night there” (Revelation 21:25). But this does not mean that heaven will be a place where time is unknown, or where things cannot be done one after another. Indeed, all the pictures of heavenly worship in the book of Revelation include words that are spoken one after another in coherent sentences, and actions (such as falling down before God’s throne and casting crowns before his throne) that involve a sequence of events. When we read that “the kings of the earth … shall bring into it the glory and honor of the nations” (Revelation 21:24 – 26), we see another activity that involves a sequence of events, one happening after another. That is a clear implication of the fact that the tree of life has twelve kinds of fruit, “yielding its fruit each month” (Revelation 22:2).
Since we are finite creatures, we might also expect that we will always live in a succession of moments. Just as we will never attain to God’s omniscience or omnipresence, so we shall never attain to God’s eternity in the sense of seeing all time equally vividly and not living in a succession of moments or being limited by time. As finite creatures, we will rather live in a succession of moments that will never end
The New Creation Will Be a Place of Great Beauty and Abundance and Joy in the Presence of God
Amid all the questions that we naturally have concerning the new heavens and new earth, we must not lose sight of the fact that Scripture consistently portrays this new creation as a place of great beauty and joy. In the description of heaven in Revelation 21 and 22, this theme is repeatedly affirmed. It is a “holy city” (Revelation 21:2), a place “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2). In that place “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more” (Revelation 21:4). There we can drink “from the fountain of the water of life without payment” (Revelation 21:6). It is a city that has “the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” (Revelation 21:11). It is a city of immense size, whether the measurements be understood as literal or symbolic. Its length measures “12,000 stadia” (Revelation 21:16), or about 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers), and “its length and breadth and height are equal” (Revelation 21:6). Parts of the city are constructed of immense precious jewels of various colors (Revelation 21:18-21). It will be free from all evil, for ((nothing unclean shall enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). In that city we shall also have positions of rule over God’s entire creation, for ‘they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).
But more important than all the physical beauty of the heavenly city, more important than the fellowship we will enjoy eternally with all God’s people from all nations and all periods in history, more important than our freedom from pain and sorrow and physical suffering, and more important than reigning over God’s kingdom, more important by far than any of these will be the fact that we will be in the presence of God and enjoying unhindered fellowship with him. “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:3-4).
In the Old Testament, when the glory of God filled the temple, the priests were unable to stand and minister (2 Chronicles 5:14). In the New Testament, when the glory of God surrounded the shepherds in the field outside Bethlehem “they were filled with fear” (Luke 2:9). But here in the heavenly city we will be able to endure the power and holiness of the presence of God’s glory, for we will live continually in the atmosphere of the glory of God. “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). This will be the fulfillment of God’s purpose to call us “to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3): then we shall dwell continually in “the presence of his glory with rejoicing” (Jude 1:24)
In that city we shall live in the presence of God, for “the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him” (Revelation 22:3). From time to time here on earth we experience the joy of genuine worship of God, and we realize that it is our highest joy to be giving him glory. But in that city this joy will be multiplied many times over and we will know the fulfillment of that for which we were created. Our greatest joy will be in seeing the Lord himself and in being with him forever. When John speaks of the blessings of the heavenly city, the culmination of those blessings comes in the short statement, “They shall see his face” (Revelation 22:4). When we look into the face of our Lord and he looks back at us with infinite love, we will see in him the fulfillment of everything that we know to be good and right and desirable in the universe. In the face of God, we will see the fulfillment of all the longing we have ever had to know perfect love, peace, and joy, and to know truth and justice, holiness and wisdom, goodness and power, and glory and beauty. As we gaze into the face of our Lord, we will know more fully than ever before that “in your presence there is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11). Then will be fulfilled the longing of our hearts with which we have cried out in the past, “One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).
When we finally see the Lord face to face, our hearts will want nothing else. “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides you…. God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26). Then with joy our hearts and voices will join with the redeemed from all ages and with the mighty Armies of heaven singing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8).