Over the past few weeks we have been talking about things that are new—a new name, a new covenant, and a new birth.  This week we’re concluding the series All Things New by taking a look at the new heaven and the new earth. 

An investigation into the new heaven and the new earth is more than just tantalizing; it’s absolutely necessary.  Here’s why.  The public in general, and even many Christians, have a vague sense of heaven that is shaped more by contemporary pop eschatology than by Scripture.   It is commonly believed that once you die and go to heaven, you’ve arrived at the ultimate destination—Heaven.  But Heaven is often portrayed as a place where disembodied spirits do nothing but float among the clouds and play harps all day.   Sounds boring.  That may be why so many say they don’t want to go to heaven.  What a shame it is to base the destiny of your soul on what you see in comics or in TV sit-coms that what is revealed to us in Scripture.

So, what does happen when you die?  Do you go to heaven where you sit on clouds and strum harps all day?  Is that a realistic picture of the ultimate paradise? Hardly.  According to Scripture, the ultimate destination for believers in Christ is not going to heaven after we die.  It is true that the soul of a believer does go to be present with the Lord in heaven when he or she dies. But this is only an intermediate state, and the intermediate state is just that—intermediate, or “in-between.” Heaven is not the final state or the ultimate future of believers.

The ultimate future of the believer is the resurrection of the body at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15). On that glorious Day, our physical bodies will be raised and transformed.  And our souls will dwell in those transformed physical bodies.  We will be as God originally created them to be.  Our bodies and souls will be freed from every trace of sin.   But that’s not all.  The heavens and the earth will be renewed and freed from the curse of sin as well (Romans 8:18-26). This new earth, in which righteousness dwells, will be our home.

God created human beings to live in a perfect world.  It’s what we all long for—a place where there is no pain or suffering.  We yearn for that.  And one day, those who have been redeemed by Christ will live in a world that has also been redeemed.  Our eager desire for the redemption of our bodies from sin is closely connected to our hope for the redemption of the creation from sin. The doctrine of the new heavens and earth, then, is not a peripheral doctrine or a side-issue. It is a key element in the redemptive work of God. It defines the eternal state in which we shall live with Christ forever.