Preparing a Place - Part 2

April 15, 2022

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:1-6).

In yesterday’s devotional, I stated, “Heaven is the initial destiny of the saints.” It is not the final destiny of the saints. John the Apostle wrote (Revelation 21:1-3), Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no sea. Then I, John, 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 heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

The final destiny of the saints is the New Earth that will be prepared after the old earth is destroyed by fire at the end of time. (2 Peter 3:10-13), But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells

Malachi Taylor wrote, “A special people taken from the earth in a risen Christ must have a special place. A new thing was to take place, men brought into Heaven! Man was not made for Heaven, but for the earth, and so placed here to till the earth and live upon it. By sinning he lost the earth and the earth shared his ruin. But by sinning he brought down the Son of God from Heaven, who by His descent opened Heaven as the normal place for those believing on Christ, and so in Him.” Heaven is our temporary dwelling place until the New Earth has been prepared. 

What about the promise that God will be with us, that He will ‘dwell’ (live) among us? In resurrected bodies, and in living in eternity where there is no concept of time or space, separation or isolation, the saints will experience something that has never taken place since before creation - the new universe that God will create will be filled with His presence. The saints will not be restricted by time or space, but will have full and complete access to Heaven (where God dwells) and the New Jerusalem (where Christ will reign), though their eternal dwelling place will primarily be on the New Earth. This is not an easy concept to grasp, but it is what the Scriptures allude to (Revelation 21 & 22), though it is not spelled out in specific detail. Amen.

Pastor

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