God's Eternal Purpose and Our Eternal Hope (Part 1 of 3)

As Christians we have an eternal hope, the hope of heaven and being with our Lord forever. But, what does this look like? What is summation of all things? Is it like being in a giant choir forever and ever? Do we become angels and sit on clouds and strum harps all day long?  That sounds less like heaven and more like...

well, anyway.

Is it relative? That is to say, does each person get their own personal heaven? this is an extremely popular view. Many religions of the world have this type of theory... Heaven or the afterlife becomes very personnel, just like a personal blissful, peaceful experience... something that is almost achievable if you got your hands on the right kinds of plants, if you know what I mean.

This "own personal afterlife" is so popular that even some humanists/atheists have theorized this type of after-life. The humanist and philosopher David Staume says that the odds of an afterlife are fairly reasonable, the odds of meeting God there is nil. His idea of a secular after life has been furthered by Bryon Ehlmann, a computer scientist and philosopher who calls the theory the "Neverending Dream".

To put it simply, both these men argue that when religions of the world speak of heaven, what they are referring to is a dream from which we do not wake up. Their argument is that if you never wake up, you will never know that you are dreaming.

Is this the hope we have as Christians? To peacefully and blissfully dream for eternity? Could this be the purpose for which we were made? God's grand finale?

Hardly.

Christians believe in resurrection and re-creation. We believe that God's purpose is bigger than just making things blissful for us. We believe heaven is here, but not yet... it is awaiting it completeness, when the kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. When our relationship with him and with one another becomes healed, by the only one who can possibly heal, the one who is both God and man, Jesus Christ.

You see, heaven is not personal, it’s relational. We will be in the presence of God and one another, absent from the corruption of sin, forever. We won't be stagnet, because our relationship with God and one another will continue to grow and deepen over time.

This is when God's eternal purpose comes to fruition within our reality!

Revelation 21-22 is the final restoration of what was lost in Gen 3, when man fell into sin. It speaks to God's eternal purpose, to share the trinitarian life with those who are created in His image, bringing ultimate glory to himself. John describes his vision of the culmination of everything. His description is heavily rooted in the words of the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Let's look at the first seven verses of Revelation 21, as a starting place to begin to see God's eternal purpose and what our hope for eternity looks like.

First he says I saw a new heaven and a new earth:

John sees a complete fulfillment of the promises made in Isaiah 65:17-25; 66:22. This was the hope of Israel

and of the apostles: The New Creation. But, this New Creation is not only future. Sure will into it's fullness and be completed at the end of time, but Paul says in 2 Cor 5:17 “If any man be in Christ, he is a New Creation,” and just like John who says for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, so Paul continues “the old is gone and the new has come”. We begin to experience the new creation here, in this life, here in our relationship with our family, our relationship with God. Remember the old has passed away, you are not enslaved as you once were, anxiety and anger, insecurity of what the future holds does not have to keep you up at night. He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion. In this vision John sees the work of God in us, be brought to completion. It is Gen 1 all over again.

and the sea is no more.

As a surfer this part has always kind of grieved me. But, John is saying so much more then “put away your surfer boards”. The sea in scriptures is often spoken of as a place of confusion and judgment. The promise here is that “God is not a God of confusion”, he is making things right. I’ll have to stick to surfing on the sea of glass.

I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

Remember when Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, “You must be born again”, in Greek “born again” is gennao anothen which means “born from above”. This New Jerusalem is from where one must be born (or be a citizen). And in Hebrews when the writer says that the OT saints were looking for a heavenly country, one built by God... This is that heavenly land. the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 87, “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are said of you, O city of God:” Selah. Isn’t Jerusalem a dwelling of Jacob? Then why does God love the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. The Zion the Lord is speaking of is one that He himself builds, where He Himself dwells with His people. It truly is the city of God. “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me- Philistia too, and Tyre, along with Cush _ and will say “This one was born in Zion”... The Lord will write in the register of the peoples: “This one was born in Zion”

All these places mentioned are enemies of the city of Jerusalem according to the flesh, but the Lord will record those who are born of the Heavenly Zion in His register... the Book of Life. Is your name written in the book of Life?

The next part, we will see what is God's purpose in making everything new.