Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
New Creation
Revelations 21:1-8
v 3.4 “Look God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain”
Revelations 21:1-8
v 3.4 “Look God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain”
These words are to the believer water in a dry desert as we stand behind three weeks of protests, exhausted healthcare systems, unprecedented rates of unemployment, and the loss of loved ones. Over all of it, John paints for us one of the final scenes in God’s grand story of salvation: the completion of New Jerusalem. This promised future to those redeemed in Christ is a deeply intimate picture of hope and restoration. God himself will dwell once more with his people, as was his design for Eden. His people will be brought to glory and justice, every pain and sorrow a thing of the past. How our souls long for this order now!
But I think it’s important for us to know what this picture follows, or we miss out on the depth and fullness of this grand finale. God’s completion of the New Jerusalem parallels his finished work of creation in Genesis. However, the project of creation in the beginning, as N.T. Wright puts it, was “supposed to go forward under the wise stewardship of the human race”. But when we turned to worship the things of God rather than God himself, the “project could not proceed and instead bore thorns and thistles”.
I suspect for many of us, the problem of sin and evil can be easily hidden: set aside as a “they problem” or disguised by the false pretenses of material wealth. So when the thorns and thistles show, and a pandemic strips our control or yet another black brother is racially profiled, we are shocked and we look for who to blame.
Yet the story of redemption which we know ends with God’s Holy City in Revelations, did not begin with His defeat of the bad guys, but God’s invitation to you and me for restoration and healing through Jesus on the cross. The beginning of God’s new creation starts with Jesus saving us from the problem of sin within us. And when we acknowledge that we contribute to that which broke God’s first picture, I believe we liberate ourselves in the truest sense to not only worship in sustained hope the coming glory of God’s New Creation, but also join God in the implementation of his victory on earth now. Not out of guilt or shame but out of grace and the redemptive power of the cross.
But I think it’s important for us to know what this picture follows, or we miss out on the depth and fullness of this grand finale. God’s completion of the New Jerusalem parallels his finished work of creation in Genesis. However, the project of creation in the beginning, as N.T. Wright puts it, was “supposed to go forward under the wise stewardship of the human race”. But when we turned to worship the things of God rather than God himself, the “project could not proceed and instead bore thorns and thistles”.
I suspect for many of us, the problem of sin and evil can be easily hidden: set aside as a “they problem” or disguised by the false pretenses of material wealth. So when the thorns and thistles show, and a pandemic strips our control or yet another black brother is racially profiled, we are shocked and we look for who to blame.
Yet the story of redemption which we know ends with God’s Holy City in Revelations, did not begin with His defeat of the bad guys, but God’s invitation to you and me for restoration and healing through Jesus on the cross. The beginning of God’s new creation starts with Jesus saving us from the problem of sin within us. And when we acknowledge that we contribute to that which broke God’s first picture, I believe we liberate ourselves in the truest sense to not only worship in sustained hope the coming glory of God’s New Creation, but also join God in the implementation of his victory on earth now. Not out of guilt or shame but out of grace and the redemptive power of the cross.
PRAYER
God grant us grace to be so filled with your love that has defeated sin, that we may work now with mature, Christian, sober intelligence to address the problem of evil, to implement the victory achieved on the cross, and to be agents, heralds, and living embodiments of that new creation in which the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Amen (N.T. Wright)
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Pushing Godly values away has depraved us humans. Human depravity can be cured only by God's grace
Manna Samuel, LIMC, NY
Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church
God grant us grace to be so filled with your love that has defeated sin, that we may work now with mature, Christian, sober intelligence to address the problem of evil, to implement the victory achieved on the cross, and to be agents, heralds, and living embodiments of that new creation in which the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Amen (N.T. Wright)
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Pushing Godly values away has depraved us humans. Human depravity can be cured only by God's grace
Manna Samuel, LIMC, NY
Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church