This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon. 

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As wonderful as the intermediate heaven is, our ultimate destiny is the new heavens and new earth, which Peter and John describe as a place of righteousness and restored innocence (2 Pet. 3:10-13; Rev. 21-22). Christ returns, resurrects and judges all people, establishes his kingdom in fullness, creates new heavens and a new earth, and gives us roles to play in the administration of his eternal kingdom.

John begins Revelation 21 with these words: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ….” There are two words translated “new” in the Greek New Testament: neos and kainos. Neos is an adjective describing the age of something or someone. But John uses kainos, which means “different from the usual, impressive, better than the old, superior in value or attraction.” 

In effect, kainos refers quality, not time. It suggests fresh life arising from the decay of the old world. This theme is consistent throughout Revelation, for we encounter “the new Jerusalem” (3:12), “a new name” (2:17), “a new song” (5:9; 14:3), and “everything new” (21:5); in each case, kainos is employed.

This should help us understand that God does not annihilate the old order of things and start again from scratch. Rather, he purges the sinful and fallen cosmos and restores it to its pristine beauty. As German Lutheran theologian Franz Delitzsch writes, “Jehovah creates a new heaven and new earth which so fascinate by their splendor, so satisfy every wish, that all remembrance of the first, of wishing them back again, is utterly out of the question.”

Jesus calls this work “the renewal of all things,” or “the Messianic Age” (Matt. 19:28). Peter explains it as a cleansing and renewing by fire, and he employs kainos, as John does, to describe the world to come (2 Pet. 3:10-13).

The new heavens and new earth stand in stark contrast to Eden after the Fall. God is fully revealed, and we are glorified so that our natural desire is for the intimacy Adam and Eve originally experienced in the garden. God sets his throne among us, and we do not flee from his presence with the shame that drove Adam and Eve to hide among the trees. There is personal contact with our sovereign creator. We call him Abba – father; an expression of familial intimacy – and he calls us his children. There is security, joy, and unending peace. God is with us and we never again experience the consequences of separation from the one who is our life.

While the intermediate heaven is the joyous aim of all who trust in Jesus, the new heavens and new earth are better by far. Satan, sin, and death – three enemies that Christ conquered through his finished work on the cross – are banished to the lake of fire, along with all those who reject God’s provision for eternal life. God wipes the tears from his children’s cheeks and declares that the former things – death, grief, crying, and pain – have passed away (Rev. 21:4).

J. I. Packer writes:

As life in the “intermediate” or “interim” state between death and resurrection is better than life in this world that preceded it, so the life of resurrection will be better still. It will, in fact, be best. And this is what God has in store for all his children.”

Next: Glory in Restoration