The Coming “renewal Of All Things”

The Coming “Renewal of All Things”

At the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

— Matthew 19:28

We shall in the future world see the material forms of the new heavens and the new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual.^a

— AUGUSTINE

Peter preached that Jesus Christ “must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21).

What will be restored? Everything. (That’s as broad and inclusive as it can be!)

What will happen to everything? It will be restored, returned to its original condition. Mankind will be restored to what we once were, what God designed us to be—fully embodied and righteous beings. The universe—the rest of everything—will be restored to what it once was. Can you imagine?

Where will this restoration take place? The answer, Peter tells us, is found in the promises given “long ago through [God’s] holy prophets.” Read the prophets and the answer becomes clear: God will restore everything on Earth. The prophets never spoke of some far-off realm of disembodied spirits. They were always concerned about the land, the inheritance, the city of Jerusalem, and the earth they walked on. This was their world, not some ghostly netherworld they’d never seen. Messiah, they correctly believed, would come from Heaven to Earth. Why? Not to take us away from Earth to Heaven, but to restore Earth to what he intended so he can live with us here forever.

When Anna, the prophetess, saw the baby Jesus, she immediately approached his parents and “gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

Notice Luke’s exact wording. What were God’s people looking forward to? Redemption. Their own redemption? Of course. But it was much more than that. It was the redemption of not only themselves but also their families, their community, and specifically their city, Jerusalem. The redemption of Jerusalem implies the redemption of the whole nation. As the entire world was promised blessing through Abraham, the redemption of Jerusalem speaks of the redemption of the whole earth. This is why Scripture speaks of both the New Jerusalem and the New Earth.

Who would bring that redemption? Jesus, the Messiah, who would be King not only of redeemed individuals but also of a redeemed Jerusalem and a redeemed Earth. This is the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Anything less is a narrow and truncated concept of God’s redemptive plan. (Sadly, countless evangelical Christians believe this thin concept of salvation, limited to God’s saving of individual human souls, without bodies and without the earth and the rest of God’s creation.)

We need to allow Scripture to correct our mistaken theology. Will the earth as it is come to an end? Yes. To a final end? No.

Revelation 21:1 says the old Earth will pass away. But when people pass away, they do not cease to exist. So, just as we will be raised to be new people, Earth will be raised to be a New Earth.

When Peter spoke of all things being restored, he referred to the testimony of the prophets, but he had also heard it directly from Christ. When Peter pointed out to Jesus that the disciples had left everything to follow him, Jesus replied, “At the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28).

Notice that Jesus did not say “after the destruction of all things,” or “after the abandonment of all things,” but “at the renewal of all things.” This is not a small semantic point—it draws a line in the sand between two fundamentally different worldviews. Jesus explicitly said that “all things” would be “renewed.”

The word paligenesia, translated “renewal” in Matthew 19:28, comes from two words that together mean “new genesis” or “coming back from death to life.” When Jesus said that all things would be renewed, the disciples would have understood him to mean all things on Earth, the only place they knew.

If, because of the Fall, God would have given up on his original purpose for mankind to fill the earth and rule it (Genesis 1:28), he surely would not have repeated the same command to Noah after the Flood: “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). As long as the earth is still under sin and the Curse, people will be incapable of exercising proper stewardship of the earth. Yet that is still God’s intention. He has not changed his plans.

God’s stated purpose for us is to rule the earth forever as his children and heirs. Christ’s mission was—and is—to redeem what was lost in the Fall and to destroy all competitors to God’s dominion, authority, and power. When everything is put under his feet and mankind rules the earth as kings under the King of kings, everything at last will be as God intends. This peculiar era of rebellion will be over forever. At last, all God’s people— and the redeemed universe itself— will bask in the joy of our Master!

As you face today’s challenges, how does that make you feel?

Father, we look forward to the day when your will shall be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. We have never seen the world as you originally made it. But as you remake it, we will see and understand what a world full of righteousness and justice and love and grace really looks like. And it will be our home. Help us not to cling to the earth as it is today, under the Curse. Help us to long for the earth as you intended it and as it one day will be. Meanwhile, empower us to live as Christ’s ambassadors, as citizens of a heavenly country. May people around us, seeing how citizens of this country live, be drawn to a better way, one that pleases you and satisfies them.