The New Creation Now
Have you ever desired that God would even for a few seconds, peel back the curtain of heaven so that you could get a glimpse of what eternity will be like?
Just a glimpse of Jesus on His throne (if our eyes could handle it). Or a sneak peak at the myriad of angels in festal gathering and to hear the singing. To see the new creation, no longer subjected to futility as it currently is.
Imagine you are taking your five-year-old son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter to the grand canyon. As they hear about the trip they start to ask questions like, how deep is it? Like as deep as a tub? As deep as a swimming pool? How many more times deeper than that? Like how wide is it Can I jump across it? Can I throw a ball across it? Can a bridge go over it?
You hit the ceiling of what the five-year-old is able to understand pretty quick. And you likely end up saying: “it is much bigger, wider, deeper that anything you have ever seen.” You know you can’t do it justice, but you try to explain it enough so that the five-year-old will be excited, that he or she would be a little bit prepared, to grasp and appreciate the beauty and magnitude of the sight.
The gap between a five-year-old and an adult is pretty big, and the gap between an adult and God is immeasurably greater. If God were to say more to us or answer more of our questions about heaven, we probably wouldn’t understand it, or worse, we could misunderstand it. Yet God has not left us in the dark.
Heaven has broken through into this world. The greatest display of this was Jesus coming down to take our place on the cross, paying for our sins, and setting us free through faith in Him. And through this, he has given us new hearts. We have hearts that have faith, hope, love, and joy in God. Affections and virtues that belong more to the world that is to come. The love of Christ and the peace of Christ have already started to rule and reign in our hearts.
We might think we know so little of heaven, yet God has actually given us a huge head start. This current world, that is essentially our definition of life, is one in which we came into in 100% ignorance.
God, in His goodness, brought us into existence and into this world and we had no clue about it. But for the world to come, we do have knowledge of it. We know the God who dwells there, we know His mission, we know His character, we know His promises, we know His grace, we know His love because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
One oversimplification of this life is to say that God gave it to us so that we would have a context for the world to come. And like little kids, to tell us anymore may just go over our heads. But he has started the new creation already in our hearts.
The exhortation for us this morning is to recognize and appreciate the new creation God has started in our hearts so that when we get to the grand canyon, or to the new heavens and earth, we will be prepared to embrace all that it is, with the eyes of our hearts wide open.
Let’s Pray.
Father,
You have not been stingy with your revelation to us. You have shown us so much more of yourself than we deserve. Father, help us to see it. We see in a mirror dimly now but we do see! Help us to confess our indifference to all you have already given us in Christ. Help us now as we confess this sin, and other sins in this moment of silent confession…
…Father, you created our bodies and through Jesus you have recreated their hearts, and one day you will make everything else new. Thank you that you make dead hearts alive. Thank you for grace that never runs out. Help us to see and worship you now for the glimpses of heaven you give us through Jesus everyday. We ask this in your name Jesus, amen.
