A Word in Season: All Things New (Revelation 21:5)

Like Athens of old, this world is constantly searching for some new thing.

That itch for novelty largely reflects the fact that no matter what we lay our hands on, it never fully and finally satisfies our soul.

And yet the urge goes on, and the appetite continues, and the desire for something new continues to carry the world along.

The Christian already has many new things. We have a new life, that life which was in Christ is now also in us, the gift of God by the powerful working of the

Holy Spirit. With that new life we have a new family, we enter into a new relationship with God himself and with his people.

God is our Father now in that distinct and precious sense, and the saints are brothers and sisters with Christ as the son over the whole household.

We have a new peace, peace with God through faith in Christ Jesus, and peace in our hearts knowing that our sins have been forgiven.

We have a new joy, because we are looking forward to that glory which is to come.

And we have a new hope, because we know that this world is not everything, and that though it is passing away, yet there is more to come.

And all of this is grounded in that new covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ, the precious purchase of his sacrifice.

And yet there is still more new to come. In Revelation chapter 21 and verse 5, he who sat on the throne said,

Behold, I make all things new. Now Christ Jesus has already made so much new in us.

These are his purchased blessings. They are bestowed upon us because of who he is and all that he has done.

But now he, sitting on the throne in his glory, in that great vision that the

Apostle John had of the things which are still to come, he declares to us and calls our attention to the fact that all things are made new.

And in the prophetic moment in which he makes that declaration, John has seen the new heaven and the new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

And so Christians, with this new life, in this new family, with this new peace and this new joy and this new hope over and above, anything that this world has to offer, are now looking forward to the day when all things are made new.

This world is now groaning. There are those cosmic contractions, if you will, that are pointing forwards to that which lies ahead.

And perhaps over the course of the last months, there have been many distresses and sorrows and burdens and heavinesses which have made you long for the passing away of this world with all its grief and distress.

And that is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ assures. Behold, he says, he wants

John to look at these things and he wants us to look at them through John's eyes, to read

John's words and to understand the realities that are held out for us.

A new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which there is no longer any death or sorrow or crying.

A world in which God wipes away every tear from the eye. All the misery, all the shame, all the grief that is associated with sin and its consequences in this fallen world is going to be utterly removed.

Satan, conquered at the cross, is going to be utterly cast out, thrust down, put away.

There will be no more space for him or any of his machinations and miseries in the world which

Christ will make anew. That same voice by which all things were brought into being at the first, that same voice will speak and all things will be made new.

Now you cannot go into this new heaven and new earth unless you have

Christ's new things now. You need to call upon him for this new life, for this new relationship with God and his people, for the peace of sins forgiven, for the joy of sins forgiven, for the hope of this new heaven and this new earth, that when

Christ says in our ears, as it were, now all things are new, that you and I may be found there and our peace and our joy and our hope will be complete.