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In this message we shall begin to consider the last aspect of the kingdom of God — the new heaven and new earth.
Revelation 21:1 says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea is no more.” Three other verses that speak of the new heaven and new earth are Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; and 2 Peter 3:13. Isaiah 65:17 says, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isaiah 66:22 tells us that the new heavens and the new earth which the Lord will make will remain before the eternal God, that is, remain forever. To remain forever means to remain for eternity. Second Peter 3:13 says, “According to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” Here we see that righteousness will dwell in the new heaven and new earth. This means that everything will be right, proper, and fitting and that there will be no more friction.
In eternity past God purposed to have a corporate expression that He might be fully expressed and glorified (Eph. 3:9-11; 1:9-12). For this, He created the heavens, the earth, mankind, and numerous items. Since the creation of man, there have been four dispensations: the dispensation of the patriarchs, that is, the dispensation before law, from Adam to Moses (Rom. 5:14); the dispensation of law, from Moses to Christ (John 1:17); the dispensation of grace, from Christ’s first coming until the “restoration of all things” at Christ’s second coming (Acts 3:20-21); and the dispensation of the kingdom, from Christ’s second coming to the end of the millennium (Rev. 11:15; 20:4, 6). God has used the first three dispensations and will use the fourth to accomplish His purpose by perfecting and completing His chosen people that they may be His eternal corporate expression. All four dispensations belong to the old heaven and old earth. Although the dispensation of the kingdom will be the dispensation of restoration, it will nevertheless take place in the old heaven and old earth because God’s perfecting and completing work in His chosen people will not be fully accomplished until the end of that dispensation. When God finishes this work, by the dispensation of the kingdom, the old heaven and old earth will pass away through fire and be renewed into the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13), where the New Jerusalem will come for the eternal expression of the processed Triune God.
The new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center will be the new universe which God will renew out of the old heaven and old earth. Although the heaven and earth which were created by God have become old because of Satan’s corruption, God’s purpose in creating the heaven and earth cannot be stopped. On the one hand, God will exercise His almighty power to judge the Satan-corrupted old heaven and old earth; on the other hand, He will renew the judged old heaven and old earth into the new heaven and new earth. Thus, the old heaven and old earth will be rid of their oldness and be renewed into a new universe suitable for God’s use to accomplish His eternal purpose and in which He will express Himself eternally and fully.
In relation to the new heaven and new earth, Revelation 21:1 says, “The sea is no more.” The sea is the result of the waters of judgment, the waters which God used to judge the pre-Adamic world (see Life-study of Genesis, Message Two). The work of God’s re-creation was to recover the land by restricting the waters which were the result of His judgment (Gen. 1:9-10; Jer. 5:22). The living creatures of the pre-Adamic world, after being judged by the waters, became the inhabitants of the sea. After they are dealt with by Christ and His believers (Matt. 8:29-32; Luke 10:17; Acts 16:16-18; 19:12) and the sea has given them up to the judgment of the great white throne (Rev. 20:13), there will be no more need of the sea. From the time of God’s work of re-creation, God has intended to abolish the sea by dealing with Satan and his demons. Hence, to say, “The sea is no more,” indicates that Satan and his evil followers have all been dealt with and will not be found in the new heaven and new earth.
The new heaven and new earth will not be something other than the old heaven and old earth. The new heaven and new earth will be the old heaven and old earth renewed to be the new heaven and new earth through the judgment of God by the purging of the burning fire at the close of the old creation (2 Pet. 3:10b, 12b). This may be compared to our old man and our new man. Today we are a new man but not another man, for the new man is the old man renewed. But whereas we are renewed by the Lord’s life, the old heaven and old earth will be renewed by the Lord’s judgment with fire. The old universe will be burned, but it will not be burned to nothing; rather, this burning will be a purging, and out of this purging the new heaven and new earth will come forth.
Second Peter 3:10 says, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements burning with intense heat will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up.” In the day of the Lord, which will come mostly in the sense of judgment, the heavens will pass away with a roar, the elements will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up. This will take place after the millennium (Rev. 20:7, 11). The word “roar” indicates a rushing sound or noise. This may be a proclamation of a great change in the universe from the old to the new. The “elements” here are the physical elements of which the heavens are composed.
We may compare the words “dissolved” and “burned up” in 2 Peter 3:10 with “roll them up” and “changed” in Hebrews 1:12, “fled away” and “no place was found for them” in Revelation 20:11, and “passed away” in Revelation 21:1. The “burning with intense heat” to dissolve the heavens and the earth will be the procedure God will use to roll up the heavens and the earth and put them away so that they may be changed from the old to the new. This will be God’s final and consummate dealing with His creation in His government. In God’s final dealing all the material things will pass away, but His eternal word will abide forever (Matt. 24:35; 1 Pet. 1:25). The word of His prophecy will remain and be fulfilled at His appointed time for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose, regardless of the changes that occur in the physical universe.
Speaking of the day of God, Peter says, “On account of which the heavens, being set on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements burning with intense heat are melted” (2 Pet. 3:12). The relative pronoun “which” refers to the coming of the day of God. The coming of the day of God is to execute judgment upon every part of the old creation to clear it up. On account of the coming of such a day, the heavens will no longer be able to stand and remain as they have been, but will be dissolved, their elements melting in the intense heat of the burning fire. Therefore, Peter says that “the heavens, being set on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements burning with intense heat are melted.” This is for the old heaven and old earth to be renewed to be the new heaven and new earth.
The new heaven and new earth will be the new universe as the realm of God’s ruling in eternity. Hence, it will be the realm for God to administrate His government for eternity, and this divine administration is considered the eternal kingdom of God in which righteousness dwells forever with the New Jerusalem (the composition of all the redeemed of God) as the center.
The new heaven and new earth will be the issue of God’s work of the new creation in the old creation and God’s work of restoration in the old creation. Here we see that God has two kinds of work in relation to the new heaven and new earth. First, His work is the work of the new creation within the old creation. This is God’s work upon His chosen ones, the believers in Christ. This work involves redemption, calling, regeneration, sanctification, transformation, and conformation. Once we were the old creation, but God is working on us, making us a new creation. This is God’s work of the new creation in the old creation.
God’s other kind of work related to the new heaven and new earth is His work of restoration in the old creation. This is God’s work to restore the natural nations to be the people, the nations, in the new universe.
Through these two kinds of work, God will have two kinds of peoples. The first kind will be the saints, the regenerated and transformed ones. The second kind, who will not be regenerated and transformed, will be the restored nations, those who are restored to the original state of God’s creation.
God’s work of the new creation in the old creation is to produce the regenerated, transformed, and perfected saints to be the kings and priests in the center — the New Jerusalem — of the new heaven and new earth. There is a basic difference between the new creation and the old creation. God’s life and nature are not wrought into the old creation, but the new creation does possess the divine life and the divine nature. Although the old creation came into being through the mighty work of God, He Himself does not reside in it. For this reason, the first creation, the old creation, has no divine content. The divine nature does not dwell in the old creation, and that is why it has become old. Adam did not have the life of God or the nature of God. We can receive the divine life and nature only by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and being regenerated by the Spirit. When we believed in Christ, entering into an organic union with Him, God’s life and nature were imparted to us and caused us to become a new creation. Therefore, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.”
God’s work in this age, the age of grace, is not the work of creation nor the work of restoration; it is the work of producing the new creation in the old creation. Through redemption, justification, regeneration, sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification God is making the new creation out of the old creation. The age of grace is the age of the new creation. The old creation is merely the creation without God in it. The new creation is the old creation born of God with God as its new element. The old creation, because of the addition of God to it, becomes the new creation. As believers in Christ, who have been born again of God, we have the divine life and the divine nature. Hence, we are a new creation (Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of the flesh but according to the new nature of the divine life.
The work of God in the age of grace is to produce the new creation. In the coming age, in the millennium, God will neither create nor produce the new creation. Instead, He will restore the old, fallen creation. The work of restoration will not include us, because by that time we shall have already become the new creation. As God’s new creation, in the new heaven and new earth we shall be the kings and priests. We shall serve God as priests and we shall reign as kings over the nations.
The new heaven and new earth also involves God’s work of restoration in the old creation to produce the restored nations to be the people on the new earth around the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24, 26). At His coming back, the Lord will judge the living. Some of the living ones will then become the people on the new earth during the millennium. At the end of the millennium, some of these people will rebel, and God will judge them (Rev. 20:8-9). The remnant of these living ones will be transferred into the new earth and will be the nations, the people of God, around the New Jerusalem. These nations will be restored and even redeemed, but they will not be regenerated. Therefore, in the new heaven and new earth, God will have both the new creation and the restored part of the old creation.
The new heaven and new earth will have the New Jerusalem as its center (see chart in Message Two Hundred Forty). After the coming forth of the new heaven and new earth, the holy city, New Jerusalem, will descend to the new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). This indicates that the dwelling place of God and His redeemed will not be in heaven but on the new earth. Furthermore, as we have seen, the restored nations, whose rebellious nature will have been completely purged, will become the nations on the new earth around the New Jerusalem. In the new universe, the new heaven and new earth, God’s focus will be on the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center.
At the consummation of God’s work in the first heaven and first earth, there will be God’s new creation with Himself in this new creation as its life and its everything. This new creation will actually be the New Jerusalem, which is a mingling of the processed Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. In eternity future there will also be the restored old creation. The new heaven and new earth will not be another heaven and another earth. Rather, the new heaven and new earth will be the old heaven and old earth restored but not regenerated. The new heaven and new earth and all the nations will be the restored old creation. In the center of this restored old creation will be the new creation, the New Jerusalem.
“According to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). The Greek word rendered “dwells” may also be translated “makes its home.” Because the Epistle of 2 Peter is on the government of God, it tells us that there will be a new universe where righteousness will dwell. This indicates that everything will be altogether under God’s government. Nothing will be wrong; nothing will be unjust or unrighteous. Thus, there will be no need of any further governmental judgment of God.
Righteousness is the main factor based upon which God’s governmental judgment is meted out to all creatures in His creation. Hence, in the books of 1 and 2 Peter, which are concerned with God’s government, this matter is stressed repeatedly (1 Pet. 2:23, 24; 3:12, 14; 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:1; 2:5, 7-8, 21; 3:13). The main thing we see in John’s writings is God’s love expressed in His life; in Paul’s writings, God’s grace distributed in His dispensing; and in Peter’s writings, God’s righteousness maintained in His government. God’s life, dispensing, and government are the basic structures of the ministry of these three apostles. Life is of love, dispensing is by grace, and government is based upon righteousness. This righteousness will dwell in the new heaven and new earth, and it will saturate God’s new universe prevailingly to maintain it absolutely under God’s righteous order, so that there will be no need ever of any further judgment.
Hebrews 1:8; Psalm 145:13; and Daniel 4:3b indicate that the new heaven and new earth will exist for eternity. The new heaven and new earth as the new realm for God’s eternal administration will exist for eternity as God Himself is eternal. It will last unto all the generations of the age of the ages without ending to serve the divine purpose for God to carry out His eternal administration for His eternal manifestation and expression in the fullest.
The new heaven and new earth will have years, months, days, and nights ruled by the sun and the moon (Rev. 22:2; cf. Gen. 1:16-18). The word “month” in Revelation 22:2 indicates that in the new heaven and new earth the moon will still be there to divide the twelve months. The sun will also be there to separate day and night into periods of twelve hours each. In the new heaven and new earth there will still be the distinction between day and night, but in the New Jerusalem there will be no such distinction (Rev. 21:25; 22:5), for the light in the holy city will be the Triune God Himself (Rev. 21:23).
