by Randy Alcorn
In the movie The Passion of the Christ, when Jesus is headed toward Calvary, on his knees under the weight of the cross, he says to his shocked and grief-tom mother, "Behold, I make all things new." These words are straight from Revelation 21:5, where they are spoken by the risen Jesus concerning the New Earth, where a renewed humanity will live on a renewed Earth, joyful in the presence of their resurrected Savior, who made it all possible by paying a price that was inconceivably great.
REDEMPTION = RETURN
Redemption buys back God's original design. In the words of one writer, "Adam and Eve (and their children) were to extend the blessings of Paradise throughout the entire world. . . . Salvation, therefore, restores man to his original calling and purpose, and guarantees that man's original mandate—to exercise dominion under God over the whole earth—will be fulfilled."74
If, due to the Fall, God would have given up on his original purpose for mankind to fill the earth and rule it (Genesis 1:28), he surely wouldn't have repeated the same command to Noah after the Flood: "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). Still, until sin and the Curse are permanently removed, people would be incapable of exercising proper stewardship of the earth.
Our present purpose is inseparable from God's stated eternal purpose for us to rule the earth forever as his children and heirs. That is at the core of the Westminster Shorter Catechism's defining statement: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."75 We will glorify God and find joy in him as we do what he has made us to do: serve him as resurrected beings and carry out his plan for developing a Christ-centered, resurrected culture in a resurrected universe.
"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet" (1 Corinthians 15:22-25).
Most scholars agree that the point of this passage is not that Christ will someday cease to reign, but that his reign will continue until and after his enemies are conquered and judged. (When a prince handed over to his father a kingdom he had conquered, it was common for the king to entrust rulership of that kingdom back to his son.)
Christ's mission is both to redeem what was lost in the Fall and to destroy all competitors to God's dominion, authority, and power. When everything is put under his feet, when God rules all and mankind rules the earth as kings under Christ, the King of kings, at last all will be as God intends. The period of rebellion will be over forever, and the universe, and all who serve Christ, will participate in the Master's joy!
GOD'S GLORY ON GOD'S EARTH
The physical heavens are constantly declaring God's glory (Psalm 19:1-2). Even now, in reference to an Earth under the Curse, God says, "The glory of the Lord fills the whole earth" (Numbers 14:21). But the universe will behold an even greater display of God's glory, one that will involve redeemed men and women and redeemed nations on a redeemed earth. It is on Earth, God promises, that "the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it" (Isaiah 40:5). That God will be glorified on Earth is central to innumerable passages, including these two:
Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. (Psalm 85:9)
I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. . . and the land was radiant with his glory. (Ezekiel 43:2)
In both these passages, the word translated as "land" (erets) is the word for "earth." Ezekiel saw God's glory at the gates of Jerusalem—manifested not in some immaterial realm but on the earth.
To understand why Peter preached that God promised through the prophets that he would "restore everything" (Acts 3:21), consider this sampling of passages that promise God's glory will be manifested to all the nations of the earth, particularly in the New Jerusalem:
The nations will fear the name of the Lord, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. For the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory. (Psalm 102:15-16)
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. (Isaiah 11:9-10)
"They will proclaim my glory among the nations. And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels," says the Lord. (Isaiah 66:19-20)
This is what the Lord Almighty says: "In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory," says the Lord Almighty. (Haggai 2:6-7)
God's Kingdom and dominion are not about what happens in some remote, unearthly place; instead, they are about what happens on the earth, which God created for his glory. God has tied his glory to the earth and everything connected with it: mankind, animals, trees, rivers, everything. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3). The Hebrew here can be translated "the fullness of the earth is his glory." His glory is manifested in his creation. The earth is not disposable. It is essential to God's plan. God promises that ultimately the whole Earth will be filled with his glory (Psalm 72:19; Habakkuk2:14).
God has his hands on the earth. He will not let go—even when it requires that his hands be pierced by nails. Both his incarnation and those nails secured him to Earth and its eternal future. In a redemptive work far larger than most imagine, Christ bought and paid for our future and the earth's.
A VISION OF THE NEW EARTH
Another significant passage that describes the New Earth is Isaiah 60. Although it doesn't contain the term New Earth (as do Isaiah 65 and 66), we can be certain that's what Isaiah intended because his precise language is used in John's depiction of the New Earth in Revelation 21-22. Thus, Isaiah 60 serves as the best biblical commentary on Revelation 21-22.
At the beginning of Isaiah's remarkable prophetic message, God says to his people in Jerusalem, "The Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn" (w. 2-3). God's people will have a glorious future in which the earth's nations and kings will participate in and benefit from a renewed and glorious Jerusalem. It won't be only some nations, but all of them: "All assemble and come to you" (v. 4).
This will be a time of unprecedented rejoicing: "Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy" (v. 5). On the renewed Earth, the nations will bring their greatest treasures into this glorified city: "The wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come" (v. 5).
There will be animals on the New Earth, from various nations: "Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah" (v. 6). Redeemed people will travel from far places to the glorified Jerusalem: "And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord" (v. 6).
People who dwell on islands will worship God, and ships will come from "Tarshish, bringing your sons from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor" (v. 9).
Most of us are unaccustomed to thinking of nations, rulers, civilizations, and culture in Heaven—but Isaiah 60 is one of many passages that demonstrate that the New Earth will in fact be earthly.
Isaiah speaks words that John applies directly to the New Jerusalem (in Revelation 21:25-26): "Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations—their kings led in triumphal procession" (v. 11).
Th
e magnificence of nations will be welcomed into the King's great city: "The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the pine, the fir and the cypress together" (v. 13). The hearts of the nations will be transformed in their attitudes toward God, his people, and his city: "The sons of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the Lord" (v. 14). God promises the New Jerusalem, "I will make you the everlasting pride and the joy of all generations" (v. 15). This is not a temporary period of fleeting prosperity but an "everlasting" condition. It will not be limited to one time period but will be for "all generations."
The New Jerusalem will be the beneficiary of all people groups and their rulers: "You will drink the milk of nations and be nursed at royal breasts" (v.16). The fulfillment of all these promises will testify to God's greatness: "Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (v. 16). God promises something that has never yet been true of the earthly Jerusalem: "I will make peace your governor and righteousness your ruler. No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise" (w. 17-18).
Isaiah then tells us what John connects directly to the New Earth (in Revelation 21:23; 22:5): "The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end" (w. 19-20).
Of the New Jerusalem, we're told that "nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 21:27). Isaiah tells us the same, using inclusive language that could not apply to the old Earth under the Curse: "Then will all your people be righteous" (60:21). Isaiah adds, "and they will possess the land [erets] forever." The earth will be theirs, not for a glorious decade or century or millennium, but forever.76
Though Isaiah's reference to animal sacrifices and a temple (v. 7) raise questions, it's clear that the passage as a whole is a prophetic depiction of the future New Earth. There is no interpretive reason to believe that the descriptions in Isaiah 60 of the New Earth will be fulfilled any less literally than those in Isaiah 52-53.† Because Isaiah's words about the Messiah's first coming were so meticulously fulfilled, down to specific physical details, shouldn't we assume that his prophecies in subsequent chapters concerning life on the New Earth will likewise be literally and specifically fulfilled?
Christ's millennial reign may prefigure the fulfillment of God's promises about Jerusalem's future. But we will see their ultimate fulfillment only in the New Jerusalem on the New Earth, when the Curse is gone, death is no more, and God's people will live on the earth forever.
REDEMPTION OF NATIONS AND
CULTURE
Both Isaiah and John,using similar language, state that on the New Earth "the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into" the New Jerusalem and "the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it" (Revelation 21:24,26; cf. Isaiah 60:3, 5).
Though John doesn't elaborate in Revelation, Isaiah is specific about what will be brought to the Holy City. He mentions the cultural products of once-pagan nations: the ships of Tarshish and the trees of Lebanon and the camels of Ephah and the gold and incense of Sheba, which will be brought in by its people "proclaiming the praise of the Lord" (Isaiah 60:6). Treasures that were once linked to idolatry and rebellion will be gathered into the city and put to God-glorifying use. Both Isaiah and Revelation indicate that the products of human culture will play an important role on the New Earth.
In his excellent treatment of Isaiah and the New Jerusalem, When the Kings Come Marching In, Richard Mouw points out that the same ships of Tarshish and trees of Lebanon mentioned in Isaiah 60 are regarded in Isaiah 2 as objects of human pride that God promises to bring down (w. 12-13, 16-18).77 Isaiah speaks of a day of judgment in which "men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth" (2:19). This language is strongly evocative of the depiction of God's end times judgment, in which men try to hide "in caves and among the rocks of the mountains" (Revelation 6:15).
In Isaiah 10:34, the prophet tells us that God "will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One." Because people put their pride and hope in "their" forests and ships, God will demonstrate his superiority by bringing down the forests and sinking the ships.
Now, if the trees of Lebanon and ships of Tarshish are singled out as being destroyed in God's future judgment, how can they, as Isaiah 60 indicates, turn up again in the Holy City as instruments of service to the Lord?
This is the paradox of Scripture's simultaneous teachings of destruction and renewal. That which is now used for prideful and even idolatrous purposes will be used to the glory of God when the hearts of mankind are transformed and creation itself is renewed.78
There is nothing wrong with ships, lumber, gold, or camels. What God will destroy in his judgment is the idolatrous misuse of these good things. Then, having destroyed our perversions of his good gifts, he will, in his re-creation of the earth, restore these things as good and useful tools for his glory.
Later, we'll return to the subject of culture on the New Earth. But for now, it will suffice that Isaiah and John help us envision the New Earth as not only a world of natural wonders, but as one that also includes multinational citizens and cultural treasures.
Significantly, the vivid description of the New Earth in Isaiah 60 is immediately followed by the explicitly messianic passage that Jesus used as his inaugural text for his ministry (Luke 4:16-19): "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners" (Isaiah 61:1).
It was the incarnation, atonement, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that brought redemption to mankind, Jerusalem, and the earth. Christ's mission was to reclaim and set free not only the earth's inhabitants, but the earth itself. He came not only to redeem mankind as individuals, but also as nations and cultures, and to redeem not only the work of his own hands (e.g., the forests of Lebanon), but also the works of his creatures' hands (e.g., the ships of Tarshish).
Theologian A. A. Hodge says it beautifully:
Heaven, as the eternal home of the divine Man and of all the redeemed members of the human race, must necessarily be thoroughly human in its structure, conditions, and activities. Its joys and activities must all be rational, moral, emotional, voluntary and active. There must be the exercise of all the faculties, the gratification of all tastes, the development of all talent capacities, the realization of all ideals. The reason, the intellectual curiosity, the imagination, the aesthetic instincts, the holy affections, the social affinities, the inexhaustible resources of strength and power native to the human soul must all find in heaven exercise and satisfaction. Then there must always be a goal of endeavor before us, ever future. . . . Heaven will prove the consummate flower and fruit of the whole creation and of all the history of the universe.79
† Isaiah 52-53 details the Messiah's death, saying he was pierced for our transgressions, sacrificed as a lamb, was numbered with the transgressors, bore our sins, interceded for the transgressors, etc.
CHAPTER 10
WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR THE CURSE TO BE LIFTED?
Everything willbe glorified, even nature itself. And that seems to me to be the biblical teaching about the eternal state: that what we call heaven is life in this perfect world as God intended humanity to live it. When he put Adam in Paradise at the beginning, Adam fell, and all fell with him, but men and women are meant to live in the body, and will live in a glori
fied body in a glorified world, and God will be with them.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones
When Adam and Eve fell into sin, Satan appeared to have ruined God's plan for a righteous, undying humanity to rule the earth to God's glory. Yet immediately after the Fall, God promised a redeemer, the seed of the woman, who would one day come and crush the serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Genesis 3:15).
While the wound of sin was still fresh, before the first scar had formed, God unveiled his plan to send a fully human redeemer who would be far more powerful than Satan. In a courageous act of intervention to deliver mankind, this redeemer would deliver a mortal wound to the usurping devil, and in the process would be wounded himself.
"Since one of the results of sin had been death," writes Anthony Hoekema, "the promised victory must somehow involve the removal of death. Further, since another result of sin had been the banishment of our first parents from the Garden of Eden, from which they were supposed to rule the world for God, it would seem that the victory should also mean man's restoration to some kind of regained paradise, from which he could once again properly and sinlessly rule the earth. . . . In a sense, therefore, the expectation of a New Earth was already implicit in the promise of Genesis 3:15."80
† Isaiah 52-53 details the Messiah's death, saying he was pierced for our transgressions, sacrificed as a lamb, was numbered with the transgressors, bore our sins, interceded for the transgressors, etc.
Later, it's revealed that this redeemer would be the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:18), of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10) and the house of David (2 Samuel 7:12-13). Genesis 3:15 is the first of many passages anticipating a suffering servant who would battle Satan and redeem God's people (e.g., Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:5-7; 52:13-15; 53). That suffering servant would be Christ, the Messiah, who came to make all things new.