Chapter 39: He Makes Everything New

We have come, at last, to the end of the story—which is really a new beginning. In the beginning, as we saw in Part One of this book, God created the heaven and the earth, perfect and whole. Then sin entered, and regeneration followed, and we traced how the heavens were remade—from a single heaven in Part One to three heavens by Part Two. Then, before the millennial reign, we saw another regeneration of the heavens and the earth, restoring an environment where man could again live for hundreds of years:

• “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17).

• “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain” (Isaiah 66:22).

• “In the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory…” (Matthew 19:28).

But now, after the millennial reign, after the war of Gog and Magog, after the final judgment—after Satan and his angels, and hades, and death itself have all been cast into the lake of fire—the entire present heavens and earth will be dissolved by fire, and God will create a new heaven (singular once more) and a new earth, restoring things to what they were in the very beginning, before Lucifer’s rebellion ever marred them:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea (Revelation 21:1).

Notice the beautiful detail, so fitting for the end of this book: it is a new heaven—singular again. The three heavens collapse back into one; the second heaven, created on the second day and over which God, as we noted long ago, did not pronounce “good,” is no more. The barrier is gone. And “there was no more sea”—no more of that restless, chaos-symbolizing deep that has run through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation as an image of separation and unrest. The chaos is ended forever.³⁷⁶

God Dwelling With Man

Here are the great facts of the new heaven and new earth, as John records them in Revelation 21 and 22:

• A new earth and a new heaven—all things made new (Revelation 21:1, 5).

• No more separation between earth and heaven, God’s abode; the two are joined at last.

• God Himself, in His glory, will come down to the earth and dwell among men: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3).

• No more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4).

• No more remembrance of the former things of sorrow; the old order has passed away.

• Those who enter will inherit all things: “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Revelation 21:7).

• The New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, will be part of the new earth (Revelation 21:2).

• There will be no temple there, “for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22).

• No night, no sun, no moon—“for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:23–25).

• God’s people will see His face, and drink of the river of life, and eat of the tree of life, and live for ever (Revelation 22:1–4).

Look closely at that list, for it is the undoing of everything that went wrong in Eden. In the garden, man was driven from God’s presence; now God comes down to dwell with man. There, the tree of life was fenced off by a flaming sword; here, its leaves are for the healing of the nations, and God’s people eat freely. There, the ground was cursed; here, there is no more curse. There, sorrow and death entered; here, every tear is wiped away and death is no more. The whole long story of separation—the barrier we have traced from the second day of creation, through the veil of the temple, to the cross where it was torn—ends here, in perfect and unbroken fellowship: “They shall see his face” (Revelation 22:4). That is the destiny of the redeemed, and it is the goal toward which every page of this book has been reaching.

That God May Be All in All

And then the final movement of all history: the Son, having accomplished everything, having subdued every enemy and gathered every child, will hand the kingdom back to the Father, that God may be all in all:

And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Andrew Murray, in his book The Master’s Indwelling, reflects on this glorious conclusion. He calls it the grand ending of the whole drama of the world’s history and of Christ’s redemption—a day whose glory we can scarcely conceive and whose mystery we cannot fully grasp: a day when the Son will deliver up to the Father the kingdom that the Father gave Him, the kingdom He won with His own blood and perfected from the throne of His glory. Murray urges believers to let this hope so fill their hearts that everything mean and low and earthly is expelled—to live now, consciously, for that day when the kingdom is delivered up, the Son is made subject, and God is all in all; and to know that we shall not merely witness that day but share in it, having a part in its glory and its blessedness, in adoring worship.³⁷⁸

So let us do just that. Let us give God His rightful place in our hearts, and in everything we plan and dream and do. Let Christ be glorified in us. And let God be all in all.

From a single heaven in the beginning, to a single heaven at the end. From God walking with man in Eden, to God dwelling with man forever. From the separation that sin brought, to the union that the blood of the Lamb has won. This has been the story of who Jesus Christ is—Creator, Redeemer, Indweller, King, and Judge—the God who came the whole distance to bring us home. And so we close where all things finally rest:

Then will Yahweh—Elohim—I AM—Jesus Christ forever be with us, and in us, and we in Him!