All Things New!

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“Behold, I am making all things new!” So says our Lord in the book of Revelation.

I originally concluded that last sentence with the phrase “at the end of time”. But the truth is, that moment will not by any means be the end of time. But all things will be new. That’s the promise. Everything we broke at the beginning will be restored.

I was on the launch team for a book coming out this month by one of my favorite authors, Jordan Raynor. (The Sacredness of Secular Work – it’s fantastic, people. Highly recommended by yours truly.) He talks a lot about what he calls the Abridged Gospel: that the church has taken the entire Good News story and narrowed it down to simply Jesus saving us from hell.

And Lord knows, that is good news, friends. News that needs to be celebrated and spread! But we have often treated that as the end of the story . . . and it’s so not.

Many people confess that they can’t get excited about heaven because it sounds boring. Sitting in a worship service singing praise songs all day long – in the clouds with harps.

Y’all, where did this image even come from? This is not at all what scripture tells us! When the end of this time comes and eternal time begins, we will not be ethereal, spiritual beings living in the clouds somewhere. We'll be living in physical bodies on a physical earth – a new earth, a restored earth, with restored people, restored nature, restored culture.

In his book (again, friends – can’t recommend it enough), Jordan talks about the First Commission. That was back in Genesis 2. “Be fruitful and increase in number,” God said – that is, have a lot of babies. “Fill the earth” – and many think that is still the baby mandate. But it’s really more about culture-making. God gave us a blank canvas after that sixth day of creation. He intends us to fill that canvas with good things. With beauty and functionality and creative, innovative stuff that fulfills the last part of this commission: “subdue the earth”. Wayne Grudem says that has the idea of making it useful for humanity to use and enjoy.

The First Commission preceded the Great Commission, and it has never been cancelled. And it will last after the Great Commission is done.

I have friends who often use the phrase “kingdom work”. This is kingdom work, they say. This is work that builds God’s kingdom . . . not just bringing people into a relationship with him, although that is very, very important work. Don’t think you’re hearing me say otherwise.

But building a great car can also be kingdom work. Writing a great novel can be kingdom work. Serving in a political position with integrity, making the community a safe and enriching place for all who live there – that’s kingdom work. And it’s work that will last.

Y’all, this gets me excited! Even if the work we do doesn’t seem to be having an impact, as long as God is at the center of it, as long as he is leading us and we are following as close as we know how, it does have an impact. It is a small taste of what is yet to come . . .  a commercial for the coming attraction . . . the early sprouts that God will grow into a forest in the new world. A world and a culture without all the brokenness and curse we have to live with now. 

It's beyond what we can even imagine. And it makes the work now worth it.

And it gets me excited, people!

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