The Apostles’ Creed: SalvationSample

New Heavens and New Earth: Revelation 21:1-5

Scripture often speaks of the location where we will live eternally as the new heaven and new earth. We find this language in Isaiah 65:17 and 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13, and Revelation 21:1. This recreation of the heavens and earth brings the overarching storyline of the Bible to full completion. History began in Genesis 1:1 when God created the heavens and the earth. But then it was corrupted by humanity’s fall into sin, making it unfit for God to inhabit. The rest of the Bible tells the story of how both humanity and creation are being redeemed. And once Jesus returns, the ultimate result will be that the heavens and the earth will be redeemed and renewed, so that God will finally dwell on earth with his resurrected people. This is the goal Jesus had in mind in Matthew 6:9-10, when he taught us to pray these words:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10).

The goal was always for God’s kingdom to be fully manifested in both the heavens, where the angels and the souls of the departed saints live, as well as on earth, where we live. This is why Jesus taught us to petition God to bring his kingdom to earth, and to cause his will to be obeyed on earth as fully as it is in heaven.

Although Scripture does not often speak of this new creation, when it does it makes it clear that the ultimate destination of redeemed human beings will not be in the heavens, but on the renewed earth. For instance, in Isaiah 65:17-19, we learn that God’s people will dwell in the renewed holy city of Jerusalem. And in Revelation 21:2, we find that this new Jerusalem will exist on the new earth. Consider what John wrote in Revelation 21:1-5:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ... I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God ... And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” ... He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:1-5).

Here we see that God is preparing the New Jerusalem in heaven. And when the new earth is ready, he will bring the New Jerusalem to earth as his holy dwelling among his people, who will also inhabit the new earth. If God’s plan were simply to take us to heaven for eternity, there would be no need for a new earth. But as we read here, God is making everything new, including the world itself for our eternal home.

The early church father Augustine, the famous bishop of Hippo who lived from A.D. 354 to 430, wrote about the new earth in this way in his famous work The City of God, book 20, chapter 16:

As the world itself is renewed to some better thing, it is fitly accommodated to men, themselves renewed in their flesh to some better thing.