#DailyDevotion Put Your Faith In The Promise Of A New Creation
Isa. 65:17-25 17 “I am going to create new heavens and a new earth. Then you will not remember the first things or think of them again. 18But rejoice and be glad forever about what I’m going to create, for I’m going to make Jerusalem a delight and her people a joy. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in My people.
Well, the first time God had had enough of humanity and all its sinfulness, he flooded the earth saving only eight souls. When the waters retreated, there was a new world of sorts. But sin was still in man and in the world. We have eventually returned back to what we were before the flood. The LORD here promises us a new heavens and a new earth. Now, through the ark of the Church, all those souls who put their faith in Jesus will be delivered from God’s judgment and they will inherit this new earth. Unlike the people after the flood, we will no longer have sin dwelling in us. We are going to be resurrected or transformed at Christ’s return. Our new bodies will be like Christ’s resurrected body, holy, blameless and pure. So we won’t mess things up again as we did after the flood.
Now this will be a wonderful place. The LORD says we will not remember the first things of think of them again. This not saying God is going to give amnesia. It is just that what we will experience in the world to come will be so awesome that this former world will never come to mind as our minds will be so overwhelmed by the goodness of the new earth. Think of a place where there is no more sin, no more death, no more disease, and no more sorrow. Think of place where we do not have to struggle to make ends meet but everything comes easily to us. Such is the place our LORD Jesus Christ has gone to prepare for us when he returns.
Now the LORD speaks of the New Jerusalem and his people. New Jerusalem is the LORD’s bride (see Rev. 21 and 22). It is the Church of Jesus Christ, all those who believed in God’s promise in the Old Testament and those who believe in the fulfillment of that promise in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We are the LORD’s delight and joy. We are that in whom the LORD rejoices and delights in.
In Rev. 21:3 a voice says, “Look! God’s home is among the people, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, and there will be no more grief or crying or pain, because the first things have passed away.” So God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit will dwell among us. Whatever tear we may weep at the moment of entering his kingdom, he will wipe away. God will be manifest to us. Now he lives and dwells in our hearts, then we shall see him as he is and we shall be like him. In Rev. 22 it is written, “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship Him 4and see Him, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5There will be no more night, and they will not need any light of a lamp or of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they will be kings forever.”
Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the promise of a new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells. Give us faith in Christ and preserve us in this faith so we may inherit this new creation when your Son Jesus makes himself manifest. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.