The New Heavens and the New Earth in the light of the Cross
Jan 23, 2014 9:25:11 GMT
Post by Colossians on Jan 23, 2014 9:25:11 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Foundations
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" 1 Cor 3:11.
"For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” 2 Cor 1:20.
"that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" Col 1:18.
___
We have laid out some very well-known verses above, to keep things in line when it comes to understanding what is known as “The New Heavens and New Earth”.
The sum of them is this: if your doctrine does not glorify the Cross of Christ and nothing else, if your doctrine speaks of something other than Christ Jesus, if your doctrine is not intertwined with your personal experience of Christ Jesus in the nitty-gritty of life, then your doctrine is most hopelessly false.
We are a people of God, and must worship that God in spirit and in truth. Not in linguistic analysis, not in historical analysis, not in intellectual surmising, not in postulating, but in spirit, and in truth.
If your New Heavens and New Earth are, being completely honest with yourself, something of the zealousness of the soul/flesh, and not in accord with your praise life in the Spirit, not in accord with your personal relationship with Christ as you walk and talk with Him daily, being external to such relationship, that usually only broached in theology forums and by visiting speakers, or which merely provides for entertaining discussion at the dinner table, then it cannot be that which is revealed by Him who speaks only of Christ.
All exposition of scripture, all understanding of spiritual matters, must give every bit of its focus, every ounce of its breath, to the proclamation of the work of Christ at Calvary. Anything else, no matter how apparently biblical, no matter how apparently noble, no matter how lofty or lovely, if not that which has as its one and only focus the work of Christ Jesus at Calvary, is carnal.
For there are no peripherals to the Cross; that is, it is not the case that there is salvation, and other things in the Lord besides. There can be no such things. For if such things be in a Lord who went in His totality to the Cross, they also are of necessity, in the Cross, and if in the Cross, then within the bounds of salvation.
Summarily we might therefore say:
“if it is not in the Cross, then it is not in Christ”.
But rather, what are often considered peripheral issues, are only so considered by those who are yet to see their inclusion in the Cross, which lack of understanding the Lord Himself addressed with His disciples:
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” John 16:12.
However and therefore, such (implied) dependency on revelation from the Lord constitutes reminder to us all, and what is well summed up by Paul:
“For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” 1 Cor 4:7.
: what we have, we have by grace.
It would be therefore foolishness to presume upon the Lord in a revealing to all and sundry of the deeper things of Himself, just because some have thought to write on such subjects. For no matter how intellectually correct, no matter how plausible, no matter how logically coherent one’s theology is presented, the fact remains:
“the natural man [(including the natural mind of the Christian)] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ... neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” 1 Cor 2:14.
Nevertheless, we write what we know, and accordingly shall expound this “new heavens and a new earth” within the all consuming constraint of the Cross of Christ, understanding all the while that it is God who gives the ears to hear, and the same also who opens those ears, if and when He chooses to do so.
God be praised.
_______________________________________________________________
THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH IN THE LIGHT OF THE CROSS
The first verse: Is 65:17:
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind."
Some primary considerations
Firstly we shall point out that this is prophecy, and accordingly note along with Numbers 12:8 that such is presented in what is called "dark speeches", which is to say, "not readily apparent", "not easily understood".
And we will note that the lack of much talk of the eternal in the OT, being instead focussed on the land of the Jew, and his progeny, attests to the fact that such dark speeches will be couched in the affections of the Jew, and not in that which articulates the truths revealed to us in the NT by Paul’s gospel. For it was indeed dark speeches, and the revealing of it was yet to come in Christ in accord with Eph 3:5, and Heb 1:1,2.
And we will note the present tense "create" (more particularly “am creating”), and our being accordingly told to (also) “behold [that which is being created]": the new heavens and the new earth of which Isaiah speaks, are evidently in existence right now.
The backdrop
Now to the Jew, what was important was safety and prosperity in his ‘promised land’, as it would have been to us had we been in his place.
And the afflictions they had endured in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the taking over of the promised land from the Amorites and others, in the struggles of David over Saul and Absalom, the wickedness of kings following, and worst of all, their having been led into captivity in Babylon, meant to them a certain sickness of heart with regard to this (hopeless) realm, such culminating in the pitiful prospects of their monarchial line in Jeremiah 22:30.
For the Jew could not understand the glory which was to come (Heb 11:39): he could not understand the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon himself, and even less upon the Gentiles (Peter’s vision of the unclean foods ); he could not understand how a ‘deliverer’ could be King and at the same time be crucified (which is of course the very reason Christ is King); and God had not appointed such understanding for him at the time of Isaiah: it was yet to come, else the OT would have revealed all, and the NT were redundant.1
1 This is not to say that (certain, and in fact many) Jews were not born again before the advent of the Cross, but simply that their friendship with God involved very little knowledge of the kind we have received in the pages of the NT.
The goal
Now is it possible to give Jesus Christ too much glory? Can we overdo it? God forbid! Rather: “Lord, where can we glorify you more?”
So Peter:
"Lord, [do] not [wash] my feet only, but also my hands and my head" John 13:9.
With all this in mind then, and our goal firmly in place, let us ‘superimpose’ Jesus Christ over the top of this OT prophecy – let us delineate it by Him, and not by what it ‘says’, and in so doing agree with Paul:
"that in all things [(in every possible activity and thought, in every object and every thing that has breath)] He [(His person, His work at Golgotha)] might have the pre-eminence [(the one and only focus)]" Col 1:18.
The Rendering
"For, behold,”
“See now”, “See in the Spirit”, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Rev 2:29).
“I create”
( … whenever and always, across the ages, without regard to time, in the realm where a thousand years is as a day, causally and not temporally: the Lamb being not only slain at Calvary, but "from the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8)).
“new heavens and a new earth:”
(a new way of living, a new domain of success, a new way of achieving, a new-styled domain, a new ‘universe’ in which you look for things "not made with hands" (2 Co 4:18, 5:1); a way of eternal victory in which you are not merely periodic winners in battles against flesh and blood, but where you enter in to the battle of all battles (Eph 6:12), and are irresistibly "more than conquerors" because of Him who loves you (Rom 8:37); where the ‘Jerusalem’ which you are is eternal, being built in heaven (Gal 4:26, Heb 12:22, Rev 21:9,10) where man cannot harm or sully),
with the following results/purpose/characteristics/benefits:
“and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
(in which “old things are passed away” (2 Co 5:17), in which you forget “those things which are behind” (Phil 3:13), in which the terrible condemnation of the past is finished, in which you have been “made [to] sit ... in heavenly places” (Eph 2:6), in which your sins are declared as eternally “past” (Rom 3:25), in which nothing shall uproot you and dispossess you of your ‘land’ anymore, where no-one "shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect" (Rom 8:33), where no-one and no thing shall "separate [you] from the love of God" (Rom 8:39)).
Going forward
God bless as you “behold” your ‘New Heavens and New Earth’, Jesus Christ.
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son" Heb 1:1,2.
"that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Cor 5:21.
"that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" Col 1:18.
_____________________________
The next two verses: Is 65:18,19:
"But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
Recapping
We have pointed out the goal: to glorify Jesus’ work at Calvary, and that this can be our only goal.
For as Paul has said:
"that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" Phil 3:10.
We have therefore said that this New Heavens and New Earth are that very new domain into which we have come in Christ, for it is only such domain which speaks to Calvary.
We have also spoken of the very limited understanding of the Jew with regard to the glory, authority, power, and knowledge, that was to come in Christ Jesus, such limitation compounded by prophecy’s being handed to him in "dark speeches".
In line with this we have pointed out that, the Jews being those who exhaustively represented God’s people, all prophecy was of necessity couched in the affections of the Jew, that which made him rejoice: wife, land, battle victories, produce, children, king.
And so in the NT we read that the ‘nerve centre’ of the Jew, the temple and its ceremonies, was a pattern of what was to come (Heb 8:5), but that "the body [(substance)] is of Christ" (Col 2:17). So too the Jew himself, and Israel. For if the centre is merely a pattern, so too that which surrounds it.
We now continue expounding the substance – Christ Jesus, the Word – in the letter of the word.
The rendering
"But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create:"
The principal constraint in all of scripture with regard to interpretation, is what is known as the “Law of first/primary mention”. It can be applied explicitly (e.g. we may take the “Whosoever” of 1 John 3:9’s "Whosoever is born of God ... cannot sin" as firstly/primarily referring to Christ (for Christ is the only begotten of God and Head/descriptor of the Body), and from there impute such attribute to the Body), or where the explicit is somewhat removed (as in the case of dark (prophetic) speech), implicitly in that we may infer it to be underlying the text.
Implicitly here, we understand this rejoicing which lasts "forever", as a rejoicing over that which only He who receives the pre-eminence in all things can achieve. For can anything exceed our Saviour’s work? Can anything invoke a longer forever than the forever of our rejoicing in Christ, the forever result of Calvary?
"for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy."
So the New Testament:
"ye are come unto ... the heavenly Jerusalem ... to an innumerable company of angels" Heb 12:22,
and again:
"But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all" Gal 4:26.
And thus the injunction:
"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice" Phil 4:4.
It is in our redemption and freedom, that we rejoice; it is in our ‘brideship’, that we exult; it is in our Lord and Master, that we glory. And such is, in accord with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’, that which Isaiah proclaims here.
For our rejoicing in Christ is by the Holy Spirit, and therefore it is "joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pe 1:8), in the light of which all other joy is no joy at all, but fleeting pleasure of the soul.
"And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
We have cited Gal 4’s declaration of the position of the Jerusalem in which we now reside: "above".
And so again:
"[He] hath made us sit ... in heavenly places" Eph 2:6.
And thus the ‘place’ where we are adjured to store up our treasures.
Accordingly we rejoice always in the Lord despite the tribulation of the world, for Christ has said:
"be of good cheer; I have over come the world" John 16:33.
To be sure, in our physical domain, we do weep and anguish in natural trials, and they sometimes seem to overwhelm us. But we are quick to answer such with:
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" Rom 8:18,
and affirm that, although our realisation of such glory is yet only "in part" (1 Co 13:9), being seen as it were "through a glass, darkly" (1 Cor 13:12), it is nevertheless there to be seen, and there to be known. For it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
Epilogue
In our being "Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (2 Co 4:9), whence cometh this strength?
We are given the answer:
"the joy of the Lord is your strength" Ne 8:10.
We may weep in the natural from time to time, but behind the veil, in the ‘inner chamber’ of our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’, where we commune in intimacy with our Husband Christ Jesus, it is indeed "joy unspeakable and full of glory".
"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil" Heb 6:19.
"And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost" Acts 13:52.
______________________
The next verse: Is 65:20:
“There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.”
Recapping
We have shown, by virtue of the centrality of the Cross of Christ in all things, that our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’, and the Jerusalem of joy therein, are that OT Jewish type which speaks of the glory of Christ and His Church.
We have also pointed out the importance to the Jew of his prosperity in all areas, and add that, as with the rest of the world, this was to be most keenly expressed in the success of his progeny.
So Rachel’s plea to Jacob:
“Give me children, or else I die” Gen 30:1.
And thus the despair-eminent in the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
Prologue
It was therefore inevitable that what was prophesied of the new domain, would make representation of such vital aspect, of that which would carry the family name forward into future generations.
And because of such representation, we are therefore in this twentieth verse of Isaiah 65 for the first time given logical indication of the impossibility of a literal interpretation of such new domain: we are told there shall be births, moreover sinners and death too.
For Christ has told us that:
“in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” Mt 22:30.
Indeed, there is no use making everything new, if the story remains old. Rather it is signified here instead the relative considerations of God concerning spiritual states: His favouring of the righteous in Christ; His despising of the wicked.
And so the Psalmist:
“A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous” Ps 37:16,17.
The rendering
“There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old;”
This “infant” with regard to the ‘Law of first/primary mention’:
“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne” Rev 12:5.
Thus is signified our irreversible victory – our overcoming of the evil one cannot be undone. For our Victor is caught up to heaven, where he sits on the throne of God (Col 3:1).
And so:
“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” Mt 28:18,
and accordingly:
“we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” Rom 8:37.
___
This ‘infant’ in the Church:
“But wisdom is justified of her children” Mt 11:19,
where we understand this (begetting of) ‘children’ to be the (continual) begetting of Christ in our lives. For we know of no other justifier than Christ.
And so Paul:
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” Gal 4:19.
And thus the implication in 1 John’s “little children”: they were to progress on to “young men”, and then to “fathers”, such being in accord with Paul’s affirmation:
“we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation” Heb 6:9
: the perseverance of the saints.
And so:
“for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” 2 Ti 1:12,
and culminating in:
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” Jude 24.
And we note the other implication here in this prophecy of Isaiah: not only is ‘longevity’ of (spiritual) life promised, but that we will accordingly be (optimally) able to be considered both “an old man” (1 John 2’s “fathers” ), and at the same time, “the child”.
For Isaiah has said here:
"the child shall die a hundred years old”
: even at one hundred, the man who trusts in Christ is of necessity still a ‘child’.
For Jesus has said:
“Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” Luke 18:17,
in which it is implied that the primary identifier of the born-again believer is a child-like trust toward God. For although it is eternally true that once the kingdom is received, it is received eternally, it is also true that such an eternal receipt entails the perpetual receiving of it thereafter. And so we are prevented in the so doing, from self-considered wisdom.
“but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.”
Thus, as we have said, God’s disdain for the sinner, and by virtue of the Body’s connection with the Head, our agreement with such. And we are reminded most potently here of the words of the Psalmist, and the Preacher, which words we naturally and without reservation apply in the now to our daily lives for our sustenance amidst trial and tribulation, and which we most certainly do not reserve for some future epoch, or some new physical domain:
The ‘Law of first/primary mention’ considered implicitly:
Christ the consummate sufferer of such accursed “sinner”:
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet” Ps 22:16.
The plight of such sinner:
“The wicked shall be turned into hell” Ps 9:17.
“The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just” Pr 3:33.
“let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave” Ps 31:17.
“I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found” Ps 37:35,36.
“A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked” Ps 91:7,8.
“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray” Pr 5:21-23.
And so Paul’s rendering of a certain one’s accursedness:
“Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works” 2 Ti 4:14,
such consummated in accord with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ in the “son of perdition” (John 17:12), who could not live with himself once he had betrayed Christ.
The inclusion of such sinners in Isaiah’s picture is not to indicate a cohabiting of them of this new domain with the righteous, but merely by way of stark contrast, to convey the perfectness of our sanctuary in Christ.
For Peter tells us that these New Heavens and New Earth are they wherein “dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pe 3:13), meaning not to suggest an intermittent dwelling of such (which would be to reduce the new domain to the current), but a righteousness which is uninterrupted and all-pervading: an only dwelling.
Commensurately, Isaiah presents to us the determination of the Groom-King: none without proper attire would enter the wedding (Mt 22:11-13).
Epilogue
We are told that the first commandment with promise was to honour one’s father and mother, and that the promise is long life.
There are many who have honoured both father and mother, but who have gone to an early grave for their love for Jesus Christ. Martyrs.
But we do not consider the promise voided by such. Rather, we have our minds set on things above, where neither rust nor moth can destroy, neither man nor army can touch, whither we look with Abraham “for a city which hath [(true/everlasting/spiritual)] foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:10). Thus we continually behold our true ‘long life’: Jesus Christ.
And is this any wonder? For in our rendering of ‘long life’, in our letting scripture interpret scripture, the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ would have us find an example of such unsurpassed in longevity: that which is eternal.
Behold then:
“And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” John 17:3.
“For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” 1 Pe 3:10,12.
_________________________________
The next three verses: Is 65:21,22,23:
“And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them."
Recapping
We have in our last section, appropriated the progeny of the Jew as a type which refers to our overcoming in Christ, and in accordance with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’, the “man child”, Christ Himself.
And we have pointed out the incongruity of births, death, and sinners, with the idea of a newly-created domain: we have shown that such was to express in “dark speeches” the relative considerations of the Lord with regard to spiritual states: to the righteous, ‘long’ (eternal) life; to the sinner, disdain and perdition.
For we are told in Rev 21 that nothing unclean shall enter into the ‘New Jerusalem’. For this new Jerusalem, being that to which we have come (Heb 12:22), and indeed that which we now are (Gal 4:26, Rev 21:9,10), cannot consist of any who are not washed in the blood of Christ: that which resides within its gates is of necessity, born again.
Prologue
In this next portion of Isaiah’s picture of the New Heavens and New Earth (verses 21,22,23), we evidence a continuation of said incongruity: the building of houses, the eating of food, and again, the bearing of children. For these belonging to this (the old) domain, may of necessity play no part in the new. It is thus once again driven home to us that such is given in "dark speeches", and in the Spirit.
The rendering
“And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.”
Is the God and Father of Jesus Christ primarily concerned with buildings? With food? With things of the temporal realm?
No rather:
"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” John 14:2,3.
Moreover, is our reward to be constituted of those things of like nature to the here and now: things physical?
No rather, and concerning ungodly men:
“supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself ... For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” 1 Ti 6:5,7.
And again, and indicating our non-physical state in the resurrection:
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his [(physical)] body [(which physical body will no longer be)]” 2 Cor 5:6,8,10.
Accordingly then:
“lay up for yourselves in heaven [(which things of necessity will be realised in heaven)], where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt” Mt 6:20.
And again concerning spiritual matters:
"For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again" Luke 6:38
: we shall reap what we sow.
Just then as what is sowed is only spiritual, that which is reaped can only be spiritual also. Thus Paul’s confirmation of the spiritual nature of these “plant[ed] vineyards” of Isaiah:
“So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” 1 Co 3:7;
and again:
“For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” Gal 6:8.
And this ‘sowing and reaping’, extant in both testaments, enforces to us yet further the link of the pictorial language of the NT parable, to the Jewish OT type, and affirming our interpretative constraint: the metaphorical language, the “dark speeches”, of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit speaks through the mouth of the Jewish prophet Isaiah in these verses 21, 22, and 23, to inform us of our sanctuary in Christ, and irrevocable reward: we are and shall be protected in our ‘dwelling place’ in Him (so the Psalmist: “Thou art my hiding place” (Ps 32:7)), where we sit in heavenly places - where our ‘treasures’ are stored - where our minds are set.
And He speaks to the fact that our ‘building’ (our establishing of things in Christ) is that which provides to us our unspeakable joy in the Lord, our only real contentment, as we behold those who have come to Christ through us, growing up “unto the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ” (Eph 4:13), and as we behold the pulling down of spiritual strongholds.
And so Paul declares to certain of his ‘fruit’:
"Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men" 2 Cor 3:2,
and elsewhere concerning the constraints of such:
"But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another" Gal 6:4.
And again concerning the mind we should have in Christ Jesus:
"What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge" 1 Co 9:18,
which is to say:
“my reward is far greater than anything of the substance of this world; let me not quench it here”.
Thus:
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” 2 Cor 4:17,
which reward he affirms a few verses later will be not in the physical, but when we are eternally absent from the body (2 Cor 5:6,8,10).
“They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”
Again, we shall reap what we sow, for God sees our work in Him often performed in secret: He is no man’s debtor, His bride never slighted.
And we are reminded here of Jesus’ words:
"I am the vine, ye are the branches" John 15:5
: so the ‘vineyard’, and so the ‘tree’. For our days are as He who is our very, ‘Tree of life’.
“They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them."
We have earlier quoted Rev 12:5, in which the ‘woman’ (the Church) brought forth the ‘man child’ (Christ) who was caught up to God (His work in and through us is irreversible).
And so we see here again the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ in operation. For as we have said, the greatest reward to any Jew, indeed any human, as regards the natural realm, is his progeny. How much more then for us who are the real ‘woman’? for our progeny is Christ Jesus, God’s Son, and which is why we declare with Isaiah elsewhere:
“For unto us a child is born" Is 9:6.
It is He who is the ‘seed’ (Gal 3:16), and we the ‘seed’ with (consummately: in) Him; it is He who is brought forth of us to conquer, and we his ‘mother’ (Mt 12:49) with Him; it is He who is brought forth for joy, and we who are made to joy; it is He who will never seek for aggression or trouble, and we with Him.
For the “fruit” of our planting, our ‘vineyard’ of which we partake is:
“love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” Gal 5:22,23,
and we know that:
“against such there is no law” Gal 5:23.
Is it any wonder then that the Dragon who stood before the ‘woman’ in attempt to snatch the ‘man child’ away, was so wrath with her when he perceived his failure, that he went off "to make war with the remnant of her seed, which ... have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev 12:17)?
For we have indeed been made “more than conquerors” in life through Him that loved us. And it is the Dragon who is chief of the conquered.
Epilogue
Revelation declares to us:
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth ... [(for)] their works do follow them" Rev 14:13.
It is therein manifested that our reward is in accord with our ‘work’ in Christ, and that such will ‘follow’ us to an eternal realm, where it will be of necessity in accord with the substance of such eternal realm, and the substance of such work, and not according to the flesh or the physical.
Thus when we read:
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” 1 Cor 2:9,
we understand this to be speaking only of the natural eye, and the natural ear, and the natural (unregenerate) heart; for immediately following is:
“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit”,
such informing us that what is prepared for us is of necessity the same as that of which we now in common (Eph 2:6: “together”) partake: He whom the Spirit is only concerned to reveal: Christ Jesus: our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’.
For in our being told that we sit together in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), we are also told in the same verse ‘where’ such heavenly places are: “in Christ Jesus”.
They are in Him, and nowhere else.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” 1 Cor 15:58.
"In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you" John 14:2.
"Set your affection on things above [(spiritual things, things of the Holy Spirit)], not on things on the earth [(not on things of the nature of the earth or the physical realm)]” Col 3:2.
_____________________
The next verse: Is 65:24:
“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”
Recapping
We have pointed out thus far the NT fulfilment of Isaiah’s ‘New Heavens and New Earth’:
1. The making of all things new in Christ, where we forget what is behind. (Is 65:17.)
2. Our joy unspeakable in Christ. (Is 65:18,19.)
3. Our overcoming and being brought to the fullness of stature and maturity in Christ, while at the same time maintaining a child-like trust in Him. (Also the reciprocal failure of the wicked.) (Is 65:20.)
4. Our security, dwelling place, work, fruits, and reward, in Christ. (Is 65:21,22,23.)
The rendering
But it is here in verse 24 that we come to perhaps the most NT-styled part of the picture. It is here that, if there had been some doubt thus far as to the ‘type-ical’ nature of this passage of Isaiah, that we all join together in one chorus of affirmation. For it is here that we can personally identify, personally testify, to the fulfilment of such, in our own, real, daily lives.
Need we therefore resort to scripture? Does not everyone of us have ‘umpteen’ stories to tell of our Saviour’s meeting of needs, His going before, His warding off of dangers, His provision of desires, “before [we] call” and “while [we] are yet speaking”? Surely we are that very living testimony of Christ!
But we will cite scripture also:
Advance provision of an ass for our Saviour to ride upon into Jerusalem (Mt 21:2).
Advance provision of an upper room for Him to sup with the twelve (Luke 22:10-13).
Provision of a young messenger conveying advance notice to a Roman captain of conspiracy against Paul (Acts 23:12-27).
The comforting of Paul by the Lord:
“Be not afraid, .. no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people [(established in advance)] in this city” Acts 18:9,10.
The provision of Peter in answer to Cornelius’ prayer:
“behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard .. Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged ... by the seaside: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee” Acts 10:30-32.
The provision of Ananias to Paul:
“inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight” Acts 9:11,12.
___
And the OT also (for the work of the Cross was indeed “from the foundation of the world”):
Provision of Moses to Israel while Israel cried from Egypt (Ex 3:9,10).
Provision of the promised land before Israel called (Ex 3:8).
Victory over Jericho while Israel shouted (Jos 6:20).
Provision of 7000 men (told to Elijah) who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Ki 19:18).
___
And in accord with John’s statement concerning the uncountable works of Christ (John 21:25), we also could fill the world’s books with the account of God’s blessings in our daily lives.
But we have yet neglected the one most important fulfilment of this beautiful verse of Isaiah, this beautiful aspect of our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’ – that which is in accord with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’, and from which all emanates, all derives:
“while we were yet [(before we had called)] sinners, Christ died for us” Rom 5:8.
Hallelujah.
Epilogue
There is no use promoting to us attributes of a future New Heavens and New Earth, that which we are (only) to look forward to as reward, if we are already in possession of such attributes right now. In such a case, such a promotion were redundant.
Rather, we are to know and understand, that all is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. And that this is what He meant when He declared that He had come to fulfil (“bring into consummation”) the law (life in the absence of Christ2), with (what Paul tells us is) the seed that was promised.
“Ask, and it shall be given unto you ... For every one that asketh receiveth” Mt 7:7,8.
2 This is not to contradict our work "Understanding Christ's fulfilment of the law" where we have said that the law fulfilled comprises the body of writings known as "the law and the prophets" and which we refer to as "The Old Testament"; it is just that we are rather here focussing on the experiential side of things.
_____________________
The last verse: Is 65:25:
“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”
Recapping
And so we come to the last verse in the series – that which ‘caps off’ the whole.
Thus far Isaiah has informed us in essentially ‘ascending’ fashion: he begins with the mechanism: things made new, then steps to the strength to sustain: the joy in such newness, and then on to the resultant benefits for those in Christ (and necessary reciprocal for those who reside not in such new ‘domain’).
Lastly here is prophesied the intra-body aspect: how those within such new domain would relate to one another.
The rendering
We have mentioned earlier the incongruity of things like house-building, death, and sinners, with such a permanent thing as a ‘New Heavens and New Earth’. We pointed out therefore, that such incongruity is irresistible indication of the symbolic nature of such description.
And here we have yet further instance of the same: for are we to think that He who declared:
“How much then is a man better than a sheep?” Mt 12:12,
and
“how much more are ye better than the fowls?” Luke 12:24,
is yet concerned with creatures such as lions and wolves and oxen, moreover with their welfare?
Rather, these ‘lions’ are no more those of the jungle, than the Lion of Judah whom we worship; these ‘wolves’ no more the four-footed kind, than those grievous who Paul warned the Ephesians would “enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29).
Instead, such description is given to indicate the complete reversal in Christ of that which is natural: those who would, by virtue of cultural difference, social status, personality, evil intent, or other, naturally offend or retaliate, naturally scar and tear, naturally seek their own, would in Christ lay down their arms, and submit to their Master who said:
“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Mt 18:4,
and again:
“the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” Mt 20:28.
And so Paul:
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” Eph 4:1-3;
and again:
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who ... took upon Him the form of a servant ... and became obedient unto ... the death of the cross” Phil 2:5-8.
And so in very specific example concerning the litigation of brother against brother:
“why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” 1 Cor 6:7.
For Isaiah has said:
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain”.
God’s holy ‘mountain’ was Zion. And it is this same mountain to which Hebrews refers when it says:
“But ye are come unto mount Zion” Heb 12:22,
relating the new ‘postal address’ of those in Christ.
It is in this mountain where the ‘lion’ eats straw like the ‘bullock’, and where the ‘wolf’ lies down with the ‘lamb’. For it is in this mountain, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And what of the serpent, that dragon of old – Lucifer?
Well we are told at Gen 3:14 that his food shall be “dust”. For it is where he has been trodden on under foot of the ‘woman’ (Gen 3:15, John 12:31, Rom 16:20) that it is most convenient for him to eat.
And where the menu is most appropriate.
Epilogue
Many may point to the seeming lack of fulfilment in the Body of such tranquillity. For there are, of a truth, many wranglings, many disputations, and much hurt in the Church.
But such is actually not in the Body of Christ, not resident in Zion, but stands at the foot of ‘Sinai’ ready for the “consuming fire” of a Holy God.
Such is not that which lives in Christ, but merely that hanging on with final breath to the human being in whom Christ lives: it is the old man – he who is progressively mortified in accord with the authority of the Cross of Christ, in accord with the words of Paul:
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” Col 3:5.
But even unto that portion of old man remaining at time of departure from this world, is not ascribed citizenship in Zion, for “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth” (Rev 21:27). Rather, such is simply that which will be purged away at the judgement seat of Christ, with him who remains standing uncondemned before his Lord who purchased him.
So:
“If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” 1 Cor 3:14,15.
We therefore see that, that which remains, that left standing before the Lord when once the Fire has done its work, will be that ‘wolf’ which lay down with the ‘lamb’, and that ‘lion’ which grazed in the field his Master provided, rather than make a meal of others.
“A new commandment I give unto you; That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” John 13:34.
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” Luke 9:23.
_____
Finale
In his second epistle, Peter declares:
“we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” 2 Pe 3:13.
In line with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ (what we might better at this point term the ‘Law of consummate mention’), he tells us elsewhere that this “promise” has been received of the Church (Acts 2:39), which receipt is also affirmed by Paul (Gal 3:19).
For it is written:
"all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen” 2 Cor 1:20
: all promises are consummated in the Person of Jesus Christ.
In accord with what has been outlined in this work, and in accord with Christ’s words that He had come to fulfil (“fill up”) the prophets (Mt 5:17), we understand this “new heavens and a new earth” of both Isaiah and Peter, to be fulfilled in Christ right now, and the same also to which we look forward to seeing in full, no more “through a glass, darkly”, but when the veil of the physical is finally removed (Heb 12:26-29), and “we ... see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
“we look [(with spiritual eyes, right now)] not at the things which are seen [(things which of their very nature we see with physical eyes)], but at the things which are not seen [(spiritual things, things of Christ, things of the Holy Spirit of God)]” 2 Cor 4:18.
“If ye then be risen with Christ [(if you are risen to the same place as Christ is risen to, if you are seated in Him in Heavenly places)], seek those things which are above [(seek those things belonging to Christ, those things around you in that heavenly place where you are)], where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God [(and where you sit also, for you are in Him)]” Col 3:1.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved [(if this physical realm were made to disappear completely, which is what will occur)], we have a building of God, a house not made with hands [(we have a ‘house’ which we have built in the Spirit while on earth, that very treasure we have stored away in heaven)], eternal in the heavens [(already in existence in the heavens, and forever and always to continue there)]” 2 Cor 5:1.
“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness” 2 Pe 3:11.
“Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” Heb 12:26-29.3
3 Hebrews 12:26-29 primarily refers to the displacing of the old testament (physical) types (such as the tabernacle in the camp of Israel and its implements of worship) with the direct, one-to-one relationship with God which the born again believer experiences. However inasmuch as the fleshly tabernacle in which we reside (along with the physical realm of which such tabernacle is part), is just as ultimately redundant with regard to the things of the Spirit as the tabernacle in the camp of Israel, the disannullment of the latter as a result of the Cross will (in the end) be (coextensively) ‘echoed’ in the dissolution of the former as per 2 Cor 5:1 and 2 Pe 3:10,11. That is, although Heb 12:26-29 does not speak directly to the dissolution of all things physical, it nevertheless does so by implication.
Amen.
Foundations
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" 1 Cor 3:11.
"For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” 2 Cor 1:20.
"that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" Col 1:18.
___
We have laid out some very well-known verses above, to keep things in line when it comes to understanding what is known as “The New Heavens and New Earth”.
The sum of them is this: if your doctrine does not glorify the Cross of Christ and nothing else, if your doctrine speaks of something other than Christ Jesus, if your doctrine is not intertwined with your personal experience of Christ Jesus in the nitty-gritty of life, then your doctrine is most hopelessly false.
We are a people of God, and must worship that God in spirit and in truth. Not in linguistic analysis, not in historical analysis, not in intellectual surmising, not in postulating, but in spirit, and in truth.
If your New Heavens and New Earth are, being completely honest with yourself, something of the zealousness of the soul/flesh, and not in accord with your praise life in the Spirit, not in accord with your personal relationship with Christ as you walk and talk with Him daily, being external to such relationship, that usually only broached in theology forums and by visiting speakers, or which merely provides for entertaining discussion at the dinner table, then it cannot be that which is revealed by Him who speaks only of Christ.
All exposition of scripture, all understanding of spiritual matters, must give every bit of its focus, every ounce of its breath, to the proclamation of the work of Christ at Calvary. Anything else, no matter how apparently biblical, no matter how apparently noble, no matter how lofty or lovely, if not that which has as its one and only focus the work of Christ Jesus at Calvary, is carnal.
For there are no peripherals to the Cross; that is, it is not the case that there is salvation, and other things in the Lord besides. There can be no such things. For if such things be in a Lord who went in His totality to the Cross, they also are of necessity, in the Cross, and if in the Cross, then within the bounds of salvation.
Summarily we might therefore say:
“if it is not in the Cross, then it is not in Christ”.
But rather, what are often considered peripheral issues, are only so considered by those who are yet to see their inclusion in the Cross, which lack of understanding the Lord Himself addressed with His disciples:
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” John 16:12.
However and therefore, such (implied) dependency on revelation from the Lord constitutes reminder to us all, and what is well summed up by Paul:
“For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” 1 Cor 4:7.
: what we have, we have by grace.
It would be therefore foolishness to presume upon the Lord in a revealing to all and sundry of the deeper things of Himself, just because some have thought to write on such subjects. For no matter how intellectually correct, no matter how plausible, no matter how logically coherent one’s theology is presented, the fact remains:
“the natural man [(including the natural mind of the Christian)] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ... neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” 1 Cor 2:14.
Nevertheless, we write what we know, and accordingly shall expound this “new heavens and a new earth” within the all consuming constraint of the Cross of Christ, understanding all the while that it is God who gives the ears to hear, and the same also who opens those ears, if and when He chooses to do so.
God be praised.
_______________________________________________________________
THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH IN THE LIGHT OF THE CROSS
The first verse: Is 65:17:
“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind."
Some primary considerations
Firstly we shall point out that this is prophecy, and accordingly note along with Numbers 12:8 that such is presented in what is called "dark speeches", which is to say, "not readily apparent", "not easily understood".
And we will note that the lack of much talk of the eternal in the OT, being instead focussed on the land of the Jew, and his progeny, attests to the fact that such dark speeches will be couched in the affections of the Jew, and not in that which articulates the truths revealed to us in the NT by Paul’s gospel. For it was indeed dark speeches, and the revealing of it was yet to come in Christ in accord with Eph 3:5, and Heb 1:1,2.
And we will note the present tense "create" (more particularly “am creating”), and our being accordingly told to (also) “behold [that which is being created]": the new heavens and the new earth of which Isaiah speaks, are evidently in existence right now.
The backdrop
Now to the Jew, what was important was safety and prosperity in his ‘promised land’, as it would have been to us had we been in his place.
And the afflictions they had endured in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the taking over of the promised land from the Amorites and others, in the struggles of David over Saul and Absalom, the wickedness of kings following, and worst of all, their having been led into captivity in Babylon, meant to them a certain sickness of heart with regard to this (hopeless) realm, such culminating in the pitiful prospects of their monarchial line in Jeremiah 22:30.
For the Jew could not understand the glory which was to come (Heb 11:39): he could not understand the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon himself, and even less upon the Gentiles (Peter’s vision of the unclean foods ); he could not understand how a ‘deliverer’ could be King and at the same time be crucified (which is of course the very reason Christ is King); and God had not appointed such understanding for him at the time of Isaiah: it was yet to come, else the OT would have revealed all, and the NT were redundant.1
1 This is not to say that (certain, and in fact many) Jews were not born again before the advent of the Cross, but simply that their friendship with God involved very little knowledge of the kind we have received in the pages of the NT.
The goal
Now is it possible to give Jesus Christ too much glory? Can we overdo it? God forbid! Rather: “Lord, where can we glorify you more?”
So Peter:
"Lord, [do] not [wash] my feet only, but also my hands and my head" John 13:9.
With all this in mind then, and our goal firmly in place, let us ‘superimpose’ Jesus Christ over the top of this OT prophecy – let us delineate it by Him, and not by what it ‘says’, and in so doing agree with Paul:
"that in all things [(in every possible activity and thought, in every object and every thing that has breath)] He [(His person, His work at Golgotha)] might have the pre-eminence [(the one and only focus)]" Col 1:18.
The Rendering
"For, behold,”
“See now”, “See in the Spirit”, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches" (Rev 2:29).
“I create”
( … whenever and always, across the ages, without regard to time, in the realm where a thousand years is as a day, causally and not temporally: the Lamb being not only slain at Calvary, but "from the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8)).
“new heavens and a new earth:”
(a new way of living, a new domain of success, a new way of achieving, a new-styled domain, a new ‘universe’ in which you look for things "not made with hands" (2 Co 4:18, 5:1); a way of eternal victory in which you are not merely periodic winners in battles against flesh and blood, but where you enter in to the battle of all battles (Eph 6:12), and are irresistibly "more than conquerors" because of Him who loves you (Rom 8:37); where the ‘Jerusalem’ which you are is eternal, being built in heaven (Gal 4:26, Heb 12:22, Rev 21:9,10) where man cannot harm or sully),
with the following results/purpose/characteristics/benefits:
“and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
(in which “old things are passed away” (2 Co 5:17), in which you forget “those things which are behind” (Phil 3:13), in which the terrible condemnation of the past is finished, in which you have been “made [to] sit ... in heavenly places” (Eph 2:6), in which your sins are declared as eternally “past” (Rom 3:25), in which nothing shall uproot you and dispossess you of your ‘land’ anymore, where no-one "shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect" (Rom 8:33), where no-one and no thing shall "separate [you] from the love of God" (Rom 8:39)).
Going forward
God bless as you “behold” your ‘New Heavens and New Earth’, Jesus Christ.
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son" Heb 1:1,2.
"that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Cor 5:21.
"that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" Col 1:18.
_____________________________
The next two verses: Is 65:18,19:
"But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
Recapping
We have pointed out the goal: to glorify Jesus’ work at Calvary, and that this can be our only goal.
For as Paul has said:
"that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" Phil 3:10.
We have therefore said that this New Heavens and New Earth are that very new domain into which we have come in Christ, for it is only such domain which speaks to Calvary.
We have also spoken of the very limited understanding of the Jew with regard to the glory, authority, power, and knowledge, that was to come in Christ Jesus, such limitation compounded by prophecy’s being handed to him in "dark speeches".
In line with this we have pointed out that, the Jews being those who exhaustively represented God’s people, all prophecy was of necessity couched in the affections of the Jew, that which made him rejoice: wife, land, battle victories, produce, children, king.
And so in the NT we read that the ‘nerve centre’ of the Jew, the temple and its ceremonies, was a pattern of what was to come (Heb 8:5), but that "the body [(substance)] is of Christ" (Col 2:17). So too the Jew himself, and Israel. For if the centre is merely a pattern, so too that which surrounds it.
We now continue expounding the substance – Christ Jesus, the Word – in the letter of the word.
The rendering
"But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create:"
The principal constraint in all of scripture with regard to interpretation, is what is known as the “Law of first/primary mention”. It can be applied explicitly (e.g. we may take the “Whosoever” of 1 John 3:9’s "Whosoever is born of God ... cannot sin" as firstly/primarily referring to Christ (for Christ is the only begotten of God and Head/descriptor of the Body), and from there impute such attribute to the Body), or where the explicit is somewhat removed (as in the case of dark (prophetic) speech), implicitly in that we may infer it to be underlying the text.
Implicitly here, we understand this rejoicing which lasts "forever", as a rejoicing over that which only He who receives the pre-eminence in all things can achieve. For can anything exceed our Saviour’s work? Can anything invoke a longer forever than the forever of our rejoicing in Christ, the forever result of Calvary?
"for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy."
So the New Testament:
"ye are come unto ... the heavenly Jerusalem ... to an innumerable company of angels" Heb 12:22,
and again:
"But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all" Gal 4:26.
And thus the injunction:
"Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice" Phil 4:4.
It is in our redemption and freedom, that we rejoice; it is in our ‘brideship’, that we exult; it is in our Lord and Master, that we glory. And such is, in accord with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’, that which Isaiah proclaims here.
For our rejoicing in Christ is by the Holy Spirit, and therefore it is "joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pe 1:8), in the light of which all other joy is no joy at all, but fleeting pleasure of the soul.
"And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying."
We have cited Gal 4’s declaration of the position of the Jerusalem in which we now reside: "above".
And so again:
"[He] hath made us sit ... in heavenly places" Eph 2:6.
And thus the ‘place’ where we are adjured to store up our treasures.
Accordingly we rejoice always in the Lord despite the tribulation of the world, for Christ has said:
"be of good cheer; I have over come the world" John 16:33.
To be sure, in our physical domain, we do weep and anguish in natural trials, and they sometimes seem to overwhelm us. But we are quick to answer such with:
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" Rom 8:18,
and affirm that, although our realisation of such glory is yet only "in part" (1 Co 13:9), being seen as it were "through a glass, darkly" (1 Cor 13:12), it is nevertheless there to be seen, and there to be known. For it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
Epilogue
In our being "Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (2 Co 4:9), whence cometh this strength?
We are given the answer:
"the joy of the Lord is your strength" Ne 8:10.
We may weep in the natural from time to time, but behind the veil, in the ‘inner chamber’ of our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’, where we commune in intimacy with our Husband Christ Jesus, it is indeed "joy unspeakable and full of glory".
"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil" Heb 6:19.
"And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost" Acts 13:52.
______________________
The next verse: Is 65:20:
“There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.”
Recapping
We have shown, by virtue of the centrality of the Cross of Christ in all things, that our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’, and the Jerusalem of joy therein, are that OT Jewish type which speaks of the glory of Christ and His Church.
We have also pointed out the importance to the Jew of his prosperity in all areas, and add that, as with the rest of the world, this was to be most keenly expressed in the success of his progeny.
So Rachel’s plea to Jacob:
“Give me children, or else I die” Gen 30:1.
And thus the despair-eminent in the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
Prologue
It was therefore inevitable that what was prophesied of the new domain, would make representation of such vital aspect, of that which would carry the family name forward into future generations.
And because of such representation, we are therefore in this twentieth verse of Isaiah 65 for the first time given logical indication of the impossibility of a literal interpretation of such new domain: we are told there shall be births, moreover sinners and death too.
For Christ has told us that:
“in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” Mt 22:30.
Indeed, there is no use making everything new, if the story remains old. Rather it is signified here instead the relative considerations of God concerning spiritual states: His favouring of the righteous in Christ; His despising of the wicked.
And so the Psalmist:
“A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous” Ps 37:16,17.
The rendering
“There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old;”
This “infant” with regard to the ‘Law of first/primary mention’:
“And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne” Rev 12:5.
Thus is signified our irreversible victory – our overcoming of the evil one cannot be undone. For our Victor is caught up to heaven, where he sits on the throne of God (Col 3:1).
And so:
“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” Mt 28:18,
and accordingly:
“we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” Rom 8:37.
___
This ‘infant’ in the Church:
“But wisdom is justified of her children” Mt 11:19,
where we understand this (begetting of) ‘children’ to be the (continual) begetting of Christ in our lives. For we know of no other justifier than Christ.
And so Paul:
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” Gal 4:19.
And thus the implication in 1 John’s “little children”: they were to progress on to “young men”, and then to “fathers”, such being in accord with Paul’s affirmation:
“we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation” Heb 6:9
: the perseverance of the saints.
And so:
“for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” 2 Ti 1:12,
and culminating in:
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” Jude 24.
And we note the other implication here in this prophecy of Isaiah: not only is ‘longevity’ of (spiritual) life promised, but that we will accordingly be (optimally) able to be considered both “an old man” (1 John 2’s “fathers” ), and at the same time, “the child”.
For Isaiah has said here:
"the child shall die a hundred years old”
: even at one hundred, the man who trusts in Christ is of necessity still a ‘child’.
For Jesus has said:
“Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” Luke 18:17,
in which it is implied that the primary identifier of the born-again believer is a child-like trust toward God. For although it is eternally true that once the kingdom is received, it is received eternally, it is also true that such an eternal receipt entails the perpetual receiving of it thereafter. And so we are prevented in the so doing, from self-considered wisdom.
“but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.”
Thus, as we have said, God’s disdain for the sinner, and by virtue of the Body’s connection with the Head, our agreement with such. And we are reminded most potently here of the words of the Psalmist, and the Preacher, which words we naturally and without reservation apply in the now to our daily lives for our sustenance amidst trial and tribulation, and which we most certainly do not reserve for some future epoch, or some new physical domain:
The ‘Law of first/primary mention’ considered implicitly:
Christ the consummate sufferer of such accursed “sinner”:
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet” Ps 22:16.
The plight of such sinner:
“The wicked shall be turned into hell” Ps 9:17.
“The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just” Pr 3:33.
“let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave” Ps 31:17.
“I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found” Ps 37:35,36.
“A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked” Ps 91:7,8.
“For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He pondereth all his goings. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray” Pr 5:21-23.
And so Paul’s rendering of a certain one’s accursedness:
“Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works” 2 Ti 4:14,
such consummated in accord with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ in the “son of perdition” (John 17:12), who could not live with himself once he had betrayed Christ.
The inclusion of such sinners in Isaiah’s picture is not to indicate a cohabiting of them of this new domain with the righteous, but merely by way of stark contrast, to convey the perfectness of our sanctuary in Christ.
For Peter tells us that these New Heavens and New Earth are they wherein “dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pe 3:13), meaning not to suggest an intermittent dwelling of such (which would be to reduce the new domain to the current), but a righteousness which is uninterrupted and all-pervading: an only dwelling.
Commensurately, Isaiah presents to us the determination of the Groom-King: none without proper attire would enter the wedding (Mt 22:11-13).
Epilogue
We are told that the first commandment with promise was to honour one’s father and mother, and that the promise is long life.
There are many who have honoured both father and mother, but who have gone to an early grave for their love for Jesus Christ. Martyrs.
But we do not consider the promise voided by such. Rather, we have our minds set on things above, where neither rust nor moth can destroy, neither man nor army can touch, whither we look with Abraham “for a city which hath [(true/everlasting/spiritual)] foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb 11:10). Thus we continually behold our true ‘long life’: Jesus Christ.
And is this any wonder? For in our rendering of ‘long life’, in our letting scripture interpret scripture, the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ would have us find an example of such unsurpassed in longevity: that which is eternal.
Behold then:
“And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” John 17:3.
“For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil” 1 Pe 3:10,12.
_________________________________
The next three verses: Is 65:21,22,23:
“And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them."
Recapping
We have in our last section, appropriated the progeny of the Jew as a type which refers to our overcoming in Christ, and in accordance with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’, the “man child”, Christ Himself.
And we have pointed out the incongruity of births, death, and sinners, with the idea of a newly-created domain: we have shown that such was to express in “dark speeches” the relative considerations of the Lord with regard to spiritual states: to the righteous, ‘long’ (eternal) life; to the sinner, disdain and perdition.
For we are told in Rev 21 that nothing unclean shall enter into the ‘New Jerusalem’. For this new Jerusalem, being that to which we have come (Heb 12:22), and indeed that which we now are (Gal 4:26, Rev 21:9,10), cannot consist of any who are not washed in the blood of Christ: that which resides within its gates is of necessity, born again.
Prologue
In this next portion of Isaiah’s picture of the New Heavens and New Earth (verses 21,22,23), we evidence a continuation of said incongruity: the building of houses, the eating of food, and again, the bearing of children. For these belonging to this (the old) domain, may of necessity play no part in the new. It is thus once again driven home to us that such is given in "dark speeches", and in the Spirit.
The rendering
“And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.”
Is the God and Father of Jesus Christ primarily concerned with buildings? With food? With things of the temporal realm?
No rather:
"I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” John 14:2,3.
Moreover, is our reward to be constituted of those things of like nature to the here and now: things physical?
No rather, and concerning ungodly men:
“supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself ... For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” 1 Ti 6:5,7.
And again, and indicating our non-physical state in the resurrection:
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his [(physical)] body [(which physical body will no longer be)]” 2 Cor 5:6,8,10.
Accordingly then:
“lay up for yourselves in heaven [(which things of necessity will be realised in heaven)], where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt” Mt 6:20.
And again concerning spiritual matters:
"For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again" Luke 6:38
: we shall reap what we sow.
Just then as what is sowed is only spiritual, that which is reaped can only be spiritual also. Thus Paul’s confirmation of the spiritual nature of these “plant[ed] vineyards” of Isaiah:
“So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” 1 Co 3:7;
and again:
“For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” Gal 6:8.
And this ‘sowing and reaping’, extant in both testaments, enforces to us yet further the link of the pictorial language of the NT parable, to the Jewish OT type, and affirming our interpretative constraint: the metaphorical language, the “dark speeches”, of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit speaks through the mouth of the Jewish prophet Isaiah in these verses 21, 22, and 23, to inform us of our sanctuary in Christ, and irrevocable reward: we are and shall be protected in our ‘dwelling place’ in Him (so the Psalmist: “Thou art my hiding place” (Ps 32:7)), where we sit in heavenly places - where our ‘treasures’ are stored - where our minds are set.
And He speaks to the fact that our ‘building’ (our establishing of things in Christ) is that which provides to us our unspeakable joy in the Lord, our only real contentment, as we behold those who have come to Christ through us, growing up “unto the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ” (Eph 4:13), and as we behold the pulling down of spiritual strongholds.
And so Paul declares to certain of his ‘fruit’:
"Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men" 2 Cor 3:2,
and elsewhere concerning the constraints of such:
"But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another" Gal 6:4.
And again concerning the mind we should have in Christ Jesus:
"What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge" 1 Co 9:18,
which is to say:
“my reward is far greater than anything of the substance of this world; let me not quench it here”.
Thus:
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” 2 Cor 4:17,
which reward he affirms a few verses later will be not in the physical, but when we are eternally absent from the body (2 Cor 5:6,8,10).
“They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”
Again, we shall reap what we sow, for God sees our work in Him often performed in secret: He is no man’s debtor, His bride never slighted.
And we are reminded here of Jesus’ words:
"I am the vine, ye are the branches" John 15:5
: so the ‘vineyard’, and so the ‘tree’. For our days are as He who is our very, ‘Tree of life’.
“They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them."
We have earlier quoted Rev 12:5, in which the ‘woman’ (the Church) brought forth the ‘man child’ (Christ) who was caught up to God (His work in and through us is irreversible).
And so we see here again the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ in operation. For as we have said, the greatest reward to any Jew, indeed any human, as regards the natural realm, is his progeny. How much more then for us who are the real ‘woman’? for our progeny is Christ Jesus, God’s Son, and which is why we declare with Isaiah elsewhere:
“For unto us a child is born" Is 9:6.
It is He who is the ‘seed’ (Gal 3:16), and we the ‘seed’ with (consummately: in) Him; it is He who is brought forth of us to conquer, and we his ‘mother’ (Mt 12:49) with Him; it is He who is brought forth for joy, and we who are made to joy; it is He who will never seek for aggression or trouble, and we with Him.
For the “fruit” of our planting, our ‘vineyard’ of which we partake is:
“love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” Gal 5:22,23,
and we know that:
“against such there is no law” Gal 5:23.
Is it any wonder then that the Dragon who stood before the ‘woman’ in attempt to snatch the ‘man child’ away, was so wrath with her when he perceived his failure, that he went off "to make war with the remnant of her seed, which ... have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev 12:17)?
For we have indeed been made “more than conquerors” in life through Him that loved us. And it is the Dragon who is chief of the conquered.
Epilogue
Revelation declares to us:
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth ... [(for)] their works do follow them" Rev 14:13.
It is therein manifested that our reward is in accord with our ‘work’ in Christ, and that such will ‘follow’ us to an eternal realm, where it will be of necessity in accord with the substance of such eternal realm, and the substance of such work, and not according to the flesh or the physical.
Thus when we read:
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” 1 Cor 2:9,
we understand this to be speaking only of the natural eye, and the natural ear, and the natural (unregenerate) heart; for immediately following is:
“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit”,
such informing us that what is prepared for us is of necessity the same as that of which we now in common (Eph 2:6: “together”) partake: He whom the Spirit is only concerned to reveal: Christ Jesus: our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’.
For in our being told that we sit together in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), we are also told in the same verse ‘where’ such heavenly places are: “in Christ Jesus”.
They are in Him, and nowhere else.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” 1 Cor 15:58.
"In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you" John 14:2.
"Set your affection on things above [(spiritual things, things of the Holy Spirit)], not on things on the earth [(not on things of the nature of the earth or the physical realm)]” Col 3:2.
_____________________
The next verse: Is 65:24:
“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”
Recapping
We have pointed out thus far the NT fulfilment of Isaiah’s ‘New Heavens and New Earth’:
1. The making of all things new in Christ, where we forget what is behind. (Is 65:17.)
2. Our joy unspeakable in Christ. (Is 65:18,19.)
3. Our overcoming and being brought to the fullness of stature and maturity in Christ, while at the same time maintaining a child-like trust in Him. (Also the reciprocal failure of the wicked.) (Is 65:20.)
4. Our security, dwelling place, work, fruits, and reward, in Christ. (Is 65:21,22,23.)
The rendering
But it is here in verse 24 that we come to perhaps the most NT-styled part of the picture. It is here that, if there had been some doubt thus far as to the ‘type-ical’ nature of this passage of Isaiah, that we all join together in one chorus of affirmation. For it is here that we can personally identify, personally testify, to the fulfilment of such, in our own, real, daily lives.
Need we therefore resort to scripture? Does not everyone of us have ‘umpteen’ stories to tell of our Saviour’s meeting of needs, His going before, His warding off of dangers, His provision of desires, “before [we] call” and “while [we] are yet speaking”? Surely we are that very living testimony of Christ!
But we will cite scripture also:
Advance provision of an ass for our Saviour to ride upon into Jerusalem (Mt 21:2).
Advance provision of an upper room for Him to sup with the twelve (Luke 22:10-13).
Provision of a young messenger conveying advance notice to a Roman captain of conspiracy against Paul (Acts 23:12-27).
The comforting of Paul by the Lord:
“Be not afraid, .. no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people [(established in advance)] in this city” Acts 18:9,10.
The provision of Peter in answer to Cornelius’ prayer:
“behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard .. Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged ... by the seaside: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee” Acts 10:30-32.
The provision of Ananias to Paul:
“inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight” Acts 9:11,12.
___
And the OT also (for the work of the Cross was indeed “from the foundation of the world”):
Provision of Moses to Israel while Israel cried from Egypt (Ex 3:9,10).
Provision of the promised land before Israel called (Ex 3:8).
Victory over Jericho while Israel shouted (Jos 6:20).
Provision of 7000 men (told to Elijah) who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Ki 19:18).
___
And in accord with John’s statement concerning the uncountable works of Christ (John 21:25), we also could fill the world’s books with the account of God’s blessings in our daily lives.
But we have yet neglected the one most important fulfilment of this beautiful verse of Isaiah, this beautiful aspect of our ‘New Heavens and New Earth’ – that which is in accord with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’, and from which all emanates, all derives:
“while we were yet [(before we had called)] sinners, Christ died for us” Rom 5:8.
Hallelujah.
Epilogue
There is no use promoting to us attributes of a future New Heavens and New Earth, that which we are (only) to look forward to as reward, if we are already in possession of such attributes right now. In such a case, such a promotion were redundant.
Rather, we are to know and understand, that all is fulfilled in Christ Jesus. And that this is what He meant when He declared that He had come to fulfil (“bring into consummation”) the law (life in the absence of Christ2), with (what Paul tells us is) the seed that was promised.
“Ask, and it shall be given unto you ... For every one that asketh receiveth” Mt 7:7,8.
2 This is not to contradict our work "Understanding Christ's fulfilment of the law" where we have said that the law fulfilled comprises the body of writings known as "the law and the prophets" and which we refer to as "The Old Testament"; it is just that we are rather here focussing on the experiential side of things.
_____________________
The last verse: Is 65:25:
“The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”
Recapping
And so we come to the last verse in the series – that which ‘caps off’ the whole.
Thus far Isaiah has informed us in essentially ‘ascending’ fashion: he begins with the mechanism: things made new, then steps to the strength to sustain: the joy in such newness, and then on to the resultant benefits for those in Christ (and necessary reciprocal for those who reside not in such new ‘domain’).
Lastly here is prophesied the intra-body aspect: how those within such new domain would relate to one another.
The rendering
We have mentioned earlier the incongruity of things like house-building, death, and sinners, with such a permanent thing as a ‘New Heavens and New Earth’. We pointed out therefore, that such incongruity is irresistible indication of the symbolic nature of such description.
And here we have yet further instance of the same: for are we to think that He who declared:
“How much then is a man better than a sheep?” Mt 12:12,
and
“how much more are ye better than the fowls?” Luke 12:24,
is yet concerned with creatures such as lions and wolves and oxen, moreover with their welfare?
Rather, these ‘lions’ are no more those of the jungle, than the Lion of Judah whom we worship; these ‘wolves’ no more the four-footed kind, than those grievous who Paul warned the Ephesians would “enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29).
Instead, such description is given to indicate the complete reversal in Christ of that which is natural: those who would, by virtue of cultural difference, social status, personality, evil intent, or other, naturally offend or retaliate, naturally scar and tear, naturally seek their own, would in Christ lay down their arms, and submit to their Master who said:
“Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Mt 18:4,
and again:
“the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” Mt 20:28.
And so Paul:
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” Eph 4:1-3;
and again:
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who ... took upon Him the form of a servant ... and became obedient unto ... the death of the cross” Phil 2:5-8.
And so in very specific example concerning the litigation of brother against brother:
“why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” 1 Cor 6:7.
For Isaiah has said:
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain”.
God’s holy ‘mountain’ was Zion. And it is this same mountain to which Hebrews refers when it says:
“But ye are come unto mount Zion” Heb 12:22,
relating the new ‘postal address’ of those in Christ.
It is in this mountain where the ‘lion’ eats straw like the ‘bullock’, and where the ‘wolf’ lies down with the ‘lamb’. For it is in this mountain, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
And what of the serpent, that dragon of old – Lucifer?
Well we are told at Gen 3:14 that his food shall be “dust”. For it is where he has been trodden on under foot of the ‘woman’ (Gen 3:15, John 12:31, Rom 16:20) that it is most convenient for him to eat.
And where the menu is most appropriate.
Epilogue
Many may point to the seeming lack of fulfilment in the Body of such tranquillity. For there are, of a truth, many wranglings, many disputations, and much hurt in the Church.
But such is actually not in the Body of Christ, not resident in Zion, but stands at the foot of ‘Sinai’ ready for the “consuming fire” of a Holy God.
Such is not that which lives in Christ, but merely that hanging on with final breath to the human being in whom Christ lives: it is the old man – he who is progressively mortified in accord with the authority of the Cross of Christ, in accord with the words of Paul:
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” Col 3:5.
But even unto that portion of old man remaining at time of departure from this world, is not ascribed citizenship in Zion, for “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth” (Rev 21:27). Rather, such is simply that which will be purged away at the judgement seat of Christ, with him who remains standing uncondemned before his Lord who purchased him.
So:
“If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” 1 Cor 3:14,15.
We therefore see that, that which remains, that left standing before the Lord when once the Fire has done its work, will be that ‘wolf’ which lay down with the ‘lamb’, and that ‘lion’ which grazed in the field his Master provided, rather than make a meal of others.
“A new commandment I give unto you; That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” John 13:34.
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” Luke 9:23.
_____
Finale
In his second epistle, Peter declares:
“we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” 2 Pe 3:13.
In line with the ‘Law of first/primary mention’ (what we might better at this point term the ‘Law of consummate mention’), he tells us elsewhere that this “promise” has been received of the Church (Acts 2:39), which receipt is also affirmed by Paul (Gal 3:19).
For it is written:
"all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen” 2 Cor 1:20
: all promises are consummated in the Person of Jesus Christ.
In accord with what has been outlined in this work, and in accord with Christ’s words that He had come to fulfil (“fill up”) the prophets (Mt 5:17), we understand this “new heavens and a new earth” of both Isaiah and Peter, to be fulfilled in Christ right now, and the same also to which we look forward to seeing in full, no more “through a glass, darkly”, but when the veil of the physical is finally removed (Heb 12:26-29), and “we ... see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
“we look [(with spiritual eyes, right now)] not at the things which are seen [(things which of their very nature we see with physical eyes)], but at the things which are not seen [(spiritual things, things of Christ, things of the Holy Spirit of God)]” 2 Cor 4:18.
“If ye then be risen with Christ [(if you are risen to the same place as Christ is risen to, if you are seated in Him in Heavenly places)], seek those things which are above [(seek those things belonging to Christ, those things around you in that heavenly place where you are)], where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God [(and where you sit also, for you are in Him)]” Col 3:1.
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved [(if this physical realm were made to disappear completely, which is what will occur)], we have a building of God, a house not made with hands [(we have a ‘house’ which we have built in the Spirit while on earth, that very treasure we have stored away in heaven)], eternal in the heavens [(already in existence in the heavens, and forever and always to continue there)]” 2 Cor 5:1.
“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness” 2 Pe 3:11.
“Whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” Heb 12:26-29.3
3 Hebrews 12:26-29 primarily refers to the displacing of the old testament (physical) types (such as the tabernacle in the camp of Israel and its implements of worship) with the direct, one-to-one relationship with God which the born again believer experiences. However inasmuch as the fleshly tabernacle in which we reside (along with the physical realm of which such tabernacle is part), is just as ultimately redundant with regard to the things of the Spirit as the tabernacle in the camp of Israel, the disannullment of the latter as a result of the Cross will (in the end) be (coextensively) ‘echoed’ in the dissolution of the former as per 2 Cor 5:1 and 2 Pe 3:10,11. That is, although Heb 12:26-29 does not speak directly to the dissolution of all things physical, it nevertheless does so by implication.
Amen.