Thoughts on the New Heavens and New Earth
I got a great question from this weekends message on The New Heavens and the New Earth:
“When you say God’s people are sealed against spiritual harm and will overcome in the end; will this mean that everyone will be free of temptation and sin? Will we live freely with no desire to sin or to break His law; I just can wrap my mind around a world like that!”.
The idea of the seal is how God marks us as His in this life as we wait for the new heavens and new earth. This mark is a spiritual seal that makes us fully His no matter what happens to us in this world; cancer, rejection, martyrdom, Etc; God will fully restore us to everlasting life. In other words the believer will always win in the end. This seal is opened as the Lamb’s book of life by Jesus Christ Himself, and the names of all God’s people are in that sealed book. Now the idea of living in an eternal kingdom with Christ that has no sin, death, or temptation, that I can’t wrap my mind around either. It is a life beyond what defines too many of us and a new life defined by living as the redeemed; the idea of living the restored garden of Eden, remembering that back in that time they had yet to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the first time they saw God after they disobeyed and ate, they hid, realized they were naked or exposed, and blamed each other and even God for the situation. Imagine a restored garden of Eden; where God is accessible and we love each other without regard to any selfishness, fear, envy, jealousy, misunderstandings, etc. I can’t imagine it, but I yearn for it.
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Thank you so much! I love the answer. I idea of living in the Garden of Eden is never how i would have thought it to be, but it fits so well.
Mike, you stated that “God’s holiness is a call to war against evil.” Jesus as a man faced Satan’s evil temptations on earth. We face evil temptations too. I think of evil as a test and tempering of our hearts making us worthy to be in His holy presence. Job endured; therefore, with Jesus’ help we can too.