27.12 | Making New
Revelation 21
‘And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will 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.”And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”’
Revelation 21:2-5
I wonder, as we have journeyed the pages of Revelation, if, at times, your heart has pushed back with a thought like this: but I love this world.
When we have spoken of broken ideologies and fallen empires, of wounded souls and demonic powers. When we have talked of all these things, if something in you has wanted to burst out with defence of the world in which we live, to contend for its beauty and its potential and the joy that you know could be had if only we could break through all the brokenness.
If so, friends, it is a good desire.
For today we find fulfilled the perfect vision of God—the outcome of the sacrifice of Jesus and the defeat of the devil and death and every fallen power of the world. Today we find where it has all been headed, and we find pinpointed the deepest yearnings of our hearts. And it is all found in one, beautiful, word:
Down.
Did you catch it?
And showed me the holy city Jerusalem going down out of heaven from God.
What will that age to come look like? So many, so often, have believed that it will look like us going up. We have thought that heaven will thus be an ethereal, disembodied existence—Renaissance cherubs and clouds and religious activities in a mysterious and floaty and disembodied world.
And yet this one word changes everything. For if the vision of the Scriptures is for heaven to come down to the earth, than that means it includes full restoration of all things of the earth, into their intended beauty and life and colour and fullness. It means glory in our fields and majesty on our mountains. It means abundance on our tables and dancing in our streets. It means fountains of loving goodness overspilling from the throne of God Himself into the infusion of every heart with the unending joy of being simply and greatly and perfectly and overwhelmingly loved. It means exploration and feasting, resting and creating, climbing and swimming and leisurely conversation, and knowing and being known with greater depth than we could ever possibly imagine. In truth, it means that every thing upon this earth that you have ever found to be good and true and lovely being perfected into the fullness of what was always intended for it. Of such good things, we have only yet glimpsed and tasted but shadows and mist. For the full substance of these things is to come.
Do you feel the ache? It’s an Eden ache. It’s a New Jerusalem ache. It’s a longing for that world of God, with Him in the centre of our world, His loving rule overspilling to all things and all of our ways. And yet, there is even more here, in the statement of Jesus:
I am making all things new.
For we certainly find here that He will make all things new, and that the quality and beauty and vivacity of newness of all things for which we yearn is inescapably coming. And yet, we also find His words in this, our very moment right now. For His words here are present tense. I am making all things new.
Right now, right here. This is, and always will be His work. Chinks of heavenly light overspilling into a wounded world, the life of golden eternity breaking backwards through history into our very moments.
For this is what He does. And this, my friends, is what is coming. For all things shall perfectly, beautifully, wonderfully and enduringly, be made
New.
Reflect:
Name all of your favourite things on this world. Spend a little time imaging how perfectly that they will be fulfilled in the age to come.
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
May this newness would in the patterns of my soul;
May it overspill in my love and words and ways;
May I see this newness breaking into many places in these very days.
And Lord, animate my thoughts—
That my imagination be infused with the glory of days to come,
My heart burning and yearning with the flavours of
The new creation that You will bring,
When all things, and all activities—
When every flower and tree and mountain and moment
Will be most perfectly
Made new.
Lord Jesus,
In Your Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
Zechariah 12-14 | Proverbs 31:10-31