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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When we read the post-resurrection accounts of Jesus’ life, we see that his glorified body  is able to navigate the ravages of a world still under the curse of sin. Jesus eats our food, travels our roads, speaks with befuddled eyewitnesses of his death and resurrection, passes through closed doors, transports himself effortlessly from one location to another, and finally launches from the Mount of Olives into heaven. 

Our resurrected bodies are destined to have many of the same capabilities. Yet there’s still something missing in God’s redemptive work. The world in which we live is still fallen, a reminder of the full effects of sin. So, a day is coming when our sovereign Lord reverses the curse and makes all things new (Rev. 21:5).

Jesus refers to this as “the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne” (Matt. 19:28). Peter urges us to wait for “new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). And in his vision of the world to come, John says he sees “a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1). These passages refer to the future glorification of the created order, a world purged of sin and its stain, where the pristine innocence of all creation is restored.

Salvation is God’s work of conquering Satan, sin, and death. It stands to reason that he not only purges our bodies of the effects of the Fall; he also purifies the cosmos under sin’s curse. Because people are stewards of the creation, Adam’s sin reaps devastating consequences for himself, his progeny, and the world in which we now live. 

The Lord spells out the curse in Genesis 3:14-19. The serpent, once a glorious herald of God’s goodness, is consigned to “eat dust” in the underworld beneath man’s feet. Satan’s offspring are at odds with the children of God. Satan himself is to bite the heel of a future redeemer, who in turn crushes the evil one’s head. The pains of childbirth intensify. Conflict arises between husband and wife – and by extension, between men and women. The fruit of the earth is harvested with great difficulty as thorns and thistles arise. Work becomes laborious. And death is inevitable, for man is dust, and to dust he returns.

Since that fateful day in Eden, sin has ruined everything. Adam and Eve’s first child – perhaps  thought to be the promised redeemer of Genesis 3:15 – turns out to be a murderer. Men begin taking multiple wives and boasting of tribal violence. Humans become so corrupt that God destroys all but one family in a global flood. Then, survivors build a lofty tower at Babel in naked rebellion against God. The Egyptians enslave the Israelites for more than four hundred years, while the Lord delays giving his chosen people the Promised Land. Why the long wait? So the sins of the Amorites, who live in the land, reach full measure. After their release from captivity, the Israelites whine and rebel, and thus they are made to wander in the wilderness for forty years. 

Once settled in the Promised Land, God’s chosen people fail to completely purge it of wickedness. They demand a king, divide themselves into two kingdoms, fall into idolatry and injustice, and are carried off into captivity – the northern kingdom to Assyria, the southern kingdom to Babylon. The Shekinah glory leaves the temple and never returns until God in human flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, appears and declares himself Messiah. Rather than being honored as king, he is betrayed and arrested, falsely tried, convicted, and hung naked on a Roman cross. Even after the Lord rises triumphantly from the dead and ascends into heaven, his followers are treated with the same disdain shown their Savior. 

Along with this legacy of moral evil, let’s not forget the parallel record of so-called natural evil: droughts, famines, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, plagues, infestations, earthquakes, electrical storms, tsunamis, volcanoes, diseases, meteorites … and on it goes. 

No wonder Paul laments, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now” (Rom. 8:22). But there’s hope surrounding this verse: 

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed in us. For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly, but because of him who subjected it – in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay in the glorious freedom of God’s children…. Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits – we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:18-21, 23). 

Just as Christians look forward to receiving glorified bodies, we delight in knowing that the corrupted world in which we live is going to be redeemed one day as well. Peter writes that it is going to happen like this: 

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed…. Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat. But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:10, 12-13). 

John describes it this way: 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away (Rev. 21:1-4).

Millard Erickson writes:

Humanity’s original dwelling was in the paradisiacal setting in the Garden of Eden; their final dwelling will also be in a perfect setting – the New Jerusalem. Part of the glorification of the human will be the provision of a perfect environment in which to dwell. It will be perfect for the glory of God will be present.

After Christ returns, he resurrects and judges all people. He creates new heavens and a new earth, where the triune God resides forevermore with redeemed people. Our eternal home is earth the way God made it and intended it to be – sinless, perfect, and fruitful in the presence of his unveiled glory.

Next: Our Eternal Home