When the “new heavens and the new earth” came into being, when “behold, I make all things new,” was fulfilled, when men could become a “new creation,” and when the “new birth” was a reality, and when men “could be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name”, when the “new law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”; how could it ever be that Christ finished His work after the creation of the physical heaven and earth on the seventh day of Genesis account?
In the Old Covenant this phrase of “new heaven and new earth” was used two times. In Isaiah 65:17 and Isaiah 66:21. The Holy Spirit had His servant Isaiah pen words describing the finished work of Christ. If these promises were in part fulfilled when the Jews, after their return from captivity, were settled in peace in their own land and brought as it were into a new world, what would these words mean?? They were to have their full accomplishment in the gospel church, militant first and at length victorious. The “Jerusalem which is from above is free and is the mother of us all,” the “faith that was once delivered unto the saints,” the “grace that bringeth salvation which has appeared to all men.” and the “new creation from which old things have passed away and all have become new,” were yet to come. It was a mighty happy change that is described in Isaiah 65:16. The former things, former troubles were forgotten; but here it rises much higher; even the former world was to be forgotten and shall no more “come into mind.” Could these conditions describe the land of Palestine and the physical Jewish nation? If the physical portends the spiritual, could these things describe the life and times of the saints of God in His new institution called the Church of Christ? In this institution, unlike that of Palestine and old Jerusalem, those converted to the “faith once delivered to the saints” have forgotten this world, because they can entirely live in this world preparing for that which is to come; the forgoing joys of all this world has to offer will be swallowed up by that inexhaustible divine power of the same God that created the physical heaven and earth. The world that had never been that which belonged to the Semitic Jew, could now be claimed as her King and Lord which He had been given it when He ascended on high and sat down to reign at the right hand of God, the Father. Psalms 2 The world is ours if we be Christ’s. 1 Corinthians 3:22 Because Christ has reconciled us to the Father, He who promised “Behold, I make all things new,” Revelation 21:5 could now have been said to finish His work as the Creator!! What a robbery of joy it is for we whose minds would have been closed to the Creator of all things, to have been stopped back in Eden!!
When the “new heavens and new earth” was to come into being there would be new life. Sin, the sickness of the soul, would be no more. The blood of the eternal, everlasting Son of God, would have been shed and the mind of the Father would be given amnesia to those sins that blood had covered. Hebrews 8:12; Galatians 3:26-27 There would then be “new life,” that which had separated the sinner man from the fellowship of Deity would no longer be of concern. There would be a new priesthood, the Levitical priesthood (which could never offer a sacrifice that appeased the mind of the Father) would be replaced by a priesthood of the redeemed. There would be no more crying, Isaiah 65:19, the transgression that could not be remedied, for which there was no remedy, had a “way to the Father.” John 14:6 Death (separation from God) “had reigned from Adam to Christ over those who had sinned after the similitude of Adam.” Romans 5:14 An infant, even though it lived only a few days, would be an an old man with his days filled. Their days would be filled because their hearts would finally have what the men of the world have never possessed-enough! They who were unsatisfied, though their life was ever so long, could not live to a hundred years old in happiness. The curse of old age would be gone, for the longer he lived the more wrath he would store up to the day of death; for now it would not matter whether he lived on earth long or short, what would matter is whether he lived the life of saints or the lives of sinners. Ecclesiastes 3:3 The “tree of life” has now be re-opened, for as it is promised; “as the days of the tree of life; so the days of the oak.” Isaiah 6:13, for now “we can enjoy the benefits of our labor.” The “children of eternity, brought into existence by the plan of Deity, shall not know anguish.” Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 For these and other blessings, Christ remained the creator-God!
