September 17, 2024
I walked through my home of 18 years the other day and thanked God for the wonderful place it has been for my family. I can find every light switch in the dark. I have encountered God in that place and known innumerable joys with my wife, eight children and their spouses, and the 27 (and counting) glorious grandkids. It is a wonderful, yet temporary, place.
Places are important. All of our lives are lived in places. We’ve all suffered in some terrible places and rejoiced in wonderful places.
THE GARDEN
… was a place perfectly designed by God. It was created so that both He and His created ones could have access and that men and women would live in the presence of God.
God’s great Enemy, Satan, was disturbed that all these humans who were made in God’s image would be filling the earth and multiplying and ruling. But he knew that the secret of their power was the presence of God with them in that place. So he designed temptations to make sure they were separated from God’s presence … and succeeded.
Little did he know that this was all part of God’s plan. Something had to be accomplished through God’s grace to build a new nation of people who could forever be in His presence in another place with no presence of evil whatsoever. Christ came, lived, died, and rose again, ascending to His Father to make a “place” for us so that where He was, we would also be.
COVENANTS
All along, God made promises and covenants that spoke of this coming place of His eternal Presence with us. Every covenant—with Noah, Abraham, the Old Covenant, and the New Covenant—was comprised of three basic promises. They were promises of the one thing we needed more than anything else: His presence with us and our presence with Him.
THE PREVIEW
To give us the hope we need, God took John to an island and gave him a glorious revelation of the end of time. In the end, two eternal places are established and described.
The Lake of Fire
This place is the final, eternal domain of all those who reject God, as described in the final verses of Revelation 20.
The New Jerusalem
But the next verse (Revelation 21) describes the great consummation of this world and the creation of a new, eternal place for all those who are followers of Christ.
The description which follows of this place is breathtaking and just a teaser from God through John, just enough to make us long for the fulfillment of this New Place. But John hears first a voice that proclaims what this place is about. Listen to Revelation 21:3, for in this one verse you will hear the fulfillment of all the covenants!
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.
NO MORE DEATH
To assure us of the eternality of this place and remove every fear that it is just temporary, John describes it this way.
And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)
Every September 16th we celebrate my grandson, Carter's birthday. We do this with our whole family across many states where they live, and it is always a special day, for Carter left this earth in Septermber, 2020, dying of a rare brain tumor. Carter knew Christ and was a part of God’s family. So, his passing was just a temporary separation. But with that separation comes a lasting, monumental sorrow.
I have watched his mom and dad, my oldest daughter and son-in-law, and their remaining two kids mourn and cry and feel the continual agony of this temporary loss. They have handled it extraordinarily well because they rely on Christ for strength, have a solid Biblical view of eternity, and trust the Lord’s absolute goodness and sovereignty. But it is a pain that they will carry until the end of this earthly life.
But here is their great hope and assurance: soon there will be no death, nor mourning, or crying or pain! They will dwell eternally with Carter and all the redeemed in an eternal place filled with God's glorious presence. No evil will ever touch this place. It is the Garden restored, with the devil and all his evil hosts bound in the lake of fire, never to touch God’s people again.
All of God's promises will be fulfilled there, but the most overwhelming will be His continual presence with those He loves. And this fulfillment is our great hope and constant joy!
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