OUR PLACE IN GOD'S STORY

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NOTES

At the wedding ceremony, when a man and woman hold hands, stare into each other’s eyes, and publicly vow to a life-long, loving union, something divine is happening that offers a glimpse into the cosmic future.

Introduction

Marriage is practiced in virtually every human society—ancient and modern all across the world. Now, how marriage plays out in the details varies, but most cultures have men and women pair off to form a special lifelong relationship. This relationship creates unique privileges and duties between the man and woman as they become one, begin to do life together, and have children. So what explains the universality of marriage?

Some might say evolution. That human genes developed the impulse toward marriage as a survival mechanism—to help further our species. Others say marriage is merely constructed by the elite to oppress the weak and disadvantaged and retain power. Still others claims it’s a worn out tradition that might have been useful before all the advancements of the past 200 years, but technology and science make marriage irrelevant. Sometimes those explanations can be intriguing or even illuminating in ways, but ultimately they are not persuasive.

Marriage does more than merely produce more humans. Decently healthy marriages help the man and woman in the marriage actually thrive. A good marriage provides immediate benefits rather than merely helping the survival of the children produced by the marriage. Plus, good marriages benefit people across society’s strata—rich and poor, young and old, hand-workers and head-workers. Lastly, marriage—while it’s declining in some advanced societies—is still a tendency for many in the modern world. Science and technology can’t give us what a good marriage gives us. Nor can cohabiting—which is like relational junk food, a poor imitation of what marriage actually is. Cohabiting seeks the benefits of marriage without the responsibilities that create those benefits. Marriage is not a worn out tradition.

To try to explain marriage at merely a human level doesn’t work. Those explanations fail, in my opinion, because they simply neglect God, the creator and designer of marriage. I explored that profound fact and its relevance in my last post. I addressed if there will be marriage in heaven, examining Jesus’s statements in Matthew, and then we looked at the origins of marriage in Genesis. Jesus said marriage is temporary in God’s grand scheme and Genesis hinted at why. Now, side note, this series in general contrasts heaven-aimed Christianity and new-creation Christianity and how those perspectives affect our understanding of Christ, his Word, and our lives. Regarding marriage, heaven-aimed Christianity tends to downplay creating a healthy one and fails to offer our newfound spiritual resources for doing so. But new-creation Christianity helps us properly understand marriage and do it well. This post will turn our attention from the beginning to the end to help us properly understand marriage in light of God’s new-creation purpose—which leads me to this question and my first point.

1) God Is in Every Wedding Ceremony | His Blessing, His Work

Does God still take marriage seriously? He created marriage. God performed the first wedding ceremony in Genesis two. He made it one of the key institutions of human society. God designed marriage to be a primary way humanity fulfills its collective purpose and to be a primary way to experience God’s blessing and happiness on earth. Then came the fall. Adam and Eve sinned and rejected God. So God cursed it all. God cursed us all. We live in a fallen world. So does marriage still have significance in God’s eyes? According to Jesus, absolutely.

He said so himself in Matthew 19:3–8. Religious leaders felt threatened by Jesus and wanted to trap him in a trick question on the thorny issue of divorce. It was a tough topic in Jewish circles at that time just as it is a tough topic in Christian circles today. Let me read the whole passage for you:
“Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?” “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” “Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked. Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.” (Matthew 19:3–8; NLT)

From a simple reading, it’s pretty clear God does not like divorce. It’s breaks his heart. There are circumstances when he permits divorce. But a healthy, thriving, lifelong union is always God’s intent when people marry. The statement I want you to notice, and it’s easy to miss if you run through the text quickly, is this, “let no one split apart what God has joined together.” Jesus isn’t merely referring to the first marriage between Adam and Eve. He’s referring to all subsequent marriages in human history. What does that mean? That God is in every wedding ceremony. While the ceremony may not feel magical, he is uniting the man and the woman into one.

Christian, Atheist, Hindu, Muslim, Spiritist, Animist, whatever the beliefs, whoever the people, whenever the time—God is in the ceremony. When a man and woman come together in a witnessed rite or ritual to unite for life, God is there. In the stating of vows, God is there. That act reflects his desire for people. He’s interested. He’s active. He’s listening. He’s working. He’s blessing. Even when he is not honored in the ceremony, he’s at work through the ceremony. Yes, there are occasions when God probably doesn’t sanction a marriage, but in the doing of it and the stating of vows, God hears and honors those vows and wants that marriage to be healthy and to last.

Living in a cursed world and bearing the weight of the curse doesn’t mean God has trivialized or cast aside marriage. It’s very important in his eyes. He’s in every wedding ceremony. As a redeeming God who sent Jesus, his power and presence can help restore broken marriages and make marriages one of the happiest relationships in a person’s life. Now, God loves marriage so much because, in part, it signifies his own marriage, which is the subject of the next point.

2) God Himself Is a Groom | The Cosmic Significance of Marriage

Yes, you heard me correctly, God himself will be married. He will have a wedding celebration of his own. He is actively engaged in every wedding ceremony because it points to the ceremony he will have one day. In fact, the Bible teaches that the very institution of marriage, that the day God joined together Adam and Eve, God himself was creating an signal of the cosmic wedding he had planned all along. So every human wedding ceremony points to a cosmic ceremony down the road. That’s the point of the apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus.

After writing on the deep mysteries of God’s work through Christ, Paul then addressed how to practically live in light of those truths. He turned to marriage in chapter five. After telling wives to respect their husbands and husbands to love their wives, he quoted from Genesis to support one of his points. Listen to what he says in Ephesians 5:31–32:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31–32; ESV)

After quoting from Genesis 2:24, Paul explains how that quote refers to Christ and the church. In other words, Christ in his work to purchase and redeem people, in his work of drawing people to himself to give them eternal life, he is acting as a groom. The redeemed are his bride. Jesus is saving people that he might be married to them. From the very beginning, God planned to pledge himself to people and enjoy a relationship with them that is so happy, so thrilling, so intimate, so joyous, so fulfilling that only the institution of marriage can foreshadow that plan.

Christ acted like a loving husband when he gave his life that his wife might live. That image accurately portrays what happened on the cross. People were made for God, but they rejected him—like a wife who spends all her husbands money, commits adultery, and runs away. All of us stand guilty. But he chased after us, he paid the penalty on the cross that our rebellion deserves, and extends to us the offer of forgiveness that we might return to him. We belong to him and our place is with him. And His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead made that restoration possible. The Bible teaches that God made everything to glorify himself. That even includes human marriage in a fallen world. Human marriages point to his own marriage.

Christians may not feel like or look like they possess that special status but they do. That is their inheritance after they die and when, eventually, history as we know it ends and moves into its next stage. While people still have breath, they can turn to Christ to receive His forgiveness, to live with his presence, and to walk in the power of his spirit. In fact, Paul calls the Holy Spirit, who is poured into our hearts when we turn to Christ, a down payment. The spirit is like an engagement ring that points to what is come? And so what is to come? Nothing less than a ceremony hosted by Jesus himself, which leads me to the third passage of Scripture and the third point.

3) History’s Greatest Wedding Party | God: Master, Host, Chef, Servant, Groom

Jesus himself will have a wedding ceremony one day. A massive celebration is coming. God invented parties. God is a happy God who invites us into his happiness. He invites us to celebrate and enjoy who he is and what he has done. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, when he began to disclose and reveal who he was and why he came through miracles, one of the first, if not the first, miracles he performed was changing water into wine at a wedding party. You can read the story in John chapter two. No doubt he did so to tell people a celebration is coming. He did so to call people into that celebration through faith in Him.

While that celebration is eternal, it will kick-start with a wedding ceremony. And that ceremony is Jesus’s own ceremony with all who have been redeemed by him. History as we now know it will not always be the same. People who follow Jesus will at some point in the future, in the blink of an eye, disappear to be with Jesus. When that happens, all whom God has saved throughout all of human history, will take part in what the Bible calls “The Wedding Feast of the Lamb.” Jesus is called the lamb to describe how he sacrificially gave his life on the cross to redeem people. I just want you to listen to how John describes “The Wedding Feast of the Lamb.” The apostle John, who knew Jesus and followed Jesus, had ministered for roughly 60 years before Rome exiled him to an island called Patmos. One day, on Patmos, he was praying, and God spoke to him and gave him visions to record for God’s people about the glorified Jesus and his future plans. Here’s one of the final visions John received.

Revelation 19:6–10: “Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder: “Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers and sisters who testify about their faith in Jesus. Worship only God. For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.”

That wedding celebration will be the greatest in human history. It will be the most populated, the most lavish, the most joyful party that has ever taken place. Christ himself is the host, the chef, the servant, and the groom. We, his people, will be the collective bride. All who go will have a nameplate on the table etched by God himself with a seat that represents our eternal union with God. What a remarkable picture! It’s all about Christ and His work on the cross and victory over sin, death, and Satan.

God is in every wedding ceremony not only to bless those who are getting married, but because the ceremony points to his own that will happen one day. And that ceremony will ignite a perfect, eternal relationship, which is the subject of the next and final point.

4) The Only Never Ending Marriage | The Union of Christ and His People

The only marriage that will truly last forever is the union between Christ and those who have been redeemed by him. One of the most common questions about heaven is whether people will be married in heaven. In my last post, I demonstrated why they won’t. While marriage is extremely important, it is temporary. Ultimately, all human marriages will end. People aren’t married in hell and people aren’t married in heaven. God designed marriage to be a great and good thing for people, to do good to us, and, as we have seen in the previous points, to point us to the ultimate relationship for which he made us—union with him. Even the best of marriages, even the best of any kind of relationship on earth that we are gifted to have, none can even come close to a relationship with God.

All of us inherit a corrupt nature that distorts who God made us to be and severs our connection with him, but he did not sit idly by with hands folded in heaven. He sent his son, to rescue us from eternal ruin and give us eternal glory with a renewed nature, perfected body, and restored connection with him. To help us imagine how much he loves us and how much he wants to be with us, he created marriage so that we can catch a taste of what a relationship with him is like. When we confess our wrongs and need for Christ, when we put our trust in him and follow his ways, we not only move from a helpless orphan to a favored child, we also become like a spotless, adored bride. The community of the saved are collectively married to God and have an eternal, perfect, joyful relationship with him awaiting them. We just examined the ceremony that will kick-start eternity, now let’s read a bit from Revelation 21–22 to hear what everlasting bliss with God is like.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (21:1–4) Second, “Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.” (22:1–5). Third and last, “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life” (22:12–14). That future is God’s promise to you who follow Christ. No one and nothing can take that away from Christ’s people. That is the ultimate promise of new-creation Christianity. A never-ending marriage with God not in the context of heaven, but on a new earth.

Conclusion

I titled this post “God’s New-Creation Purpose for Marriage” to emphasize that God designed marriage to have significance beyond the immediate good it can do for people and beyond this stage of human history. God had an end goal in my that involved his own marriage.

First, we looked at Jesus’ words in Matthew 19 that teach God’s involvement in every wedding ceremony. His involvement means that he celebrates marriage. Marriage is not simply an after thought in his plan. It is not a ruined or tainted practice from our ancient past. God wants us to understand and use marriage based on his good designs intended for our blessing. And, ultimately, God created marriage for his own glory. New-creation Christianity teaches that God loves wedding ceremonies because it points to his own wedding ceremony in the future between Christ and the saved, which we looked at second.

From the very first marriage, God was looking forward to the day when Jesus would save a desperate and destitute humanity. God was looking forward to the day when Jesus, acting as the groom, would purchase his bride with his own sacrificial blood that he might clean her and honor her and be with her forever. Individuals today can become a part of his collective bride through faith and receive the hope of eternal bliss. That hope we looked at in points three and four.

In the third, we looked at John’s vision in Revelation 19 that portrays “The Wedding Feast of the Lamb.” There, all the saved with take part in a wedding ceremony celebrating Christ and his achievements for us. God himself will have a wedding celebration. It is a banquet where we are the guests of honor. Christ is the host, master, groom, and servant. It will be the greatest party in history that kick-starts our eternity with Christ.

Then we looked at images of eternity in Revelation 21–22, which was the subject our fourth and final point. Our union with God will be eternal bliss. That marriage will be the only never-ending marriage. The best, the most delightful and fulfilling, the most joyful and invigorating of human marriages can hardly compare to what to all relationships with be like between people who are saved and between individuals and their creator and redeemer, Jesus Christ.

The essence of new-creation Christianity is the relationship between God and his people. Heaven-aimed Christianity gets that emphasis correct. But the way it envisions that relationship taking place in the future, which is in a non-earthly, heaven, is incorrect. The context, the arena, the location that marital relationship is expressed will not forever be in heaven. For now, it is. But it will eventually be on a new earth. By understanding that fact, we can begin to live on earth now with heaven’s presence. God is with us now, leading us, molding us, encouraging us, strengthening us, blessing us. So we can live now on earth, in part, as we will one day when all things will be made new. I’m Aaron Massey. Thanks for listening.

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NOTES

Imagine a man who lives until he is 90. He was married to his first wife for 40 years until she passed. Then he married again for 20 years until she passed. Then he dies. All three go to heaven. Now which woman will he be married to? Neither.

Introduction

So, will people be married in heaven? In short, no. People will not be married in heaven. Now, I say that not because I have some private and special insight into the mysteries of God. It’s not like I’ve taken a stroll along the heavenly streets and noticed that nobody is holding hands or has a wedding ring on. I say people won’t be married in heaven because that is what God’s Word says. God addressed the topic of marriage clearly and thoroughly. So I want to take time in this first piece on marriage to summarize two biblical passages that illuminate God’s plan. And you might be a little surprised by what you hear. Because, in fact, God gave human marriage a temporary purpose. In just a minute, we’ll explore what that means and why He did so .

First, though, I want to distinguish heaven from the new creation. Heaven is the place where God lives. God’s presence saturates heaven—although it’s not limited to heaven. People in heaven are constantly aware of God and enjoy God. Every sensory experience—see, touch, taste, hear, smell—points to him. When God created the earth, he kick-started a plan to make earth like heaven. To bring heaven to earth. To make heaven and earth one. That plan is still in motion with Jesus as the centerpiece.

The Bible says the earth will eventually be a new creation. One day Jesus will wrap up human history and take it into it’s final, forever chapter. A conclusion that has no end. Life as we now know it will not always be the same. The resurrected Lord will raise up His people. He will give them new bodies. He will lift the curse that blankets the whole earth. Christ and all the resurrected will live on a curse-less, pain-less, death-less new earth in eternal union and bliss. That is the new creation. Not every person will take part in the new creation. Only those who follow Christ by faith will do so. Jesus gifts that divine, priceless inheritance to those who want him and what he has to offer.

I emphasize that distinction between heaven and the new creation because that’s the focus of this series. In the first 19 posts, each of which are quite shorter than this one, I contrasted what I call heaven-aimed Christianity with new-creation Christianity.

Many Christians and non-Christians misunderstand Jesus, the Bible, church, and Christianity because they think Jesus wants to take people to heaven to live with him there forever. Wrong. Yes, people who die in the faith will go to heaven immediately, but they won’t stay there indefinitely. Eventually, they will inhabit a perfect earth with Christ and the redeemed. I once thought and lived like a heaven-aimed Christian and it nearly ruined me. That’s why I’m passionate about making the distinction. When I discovered new-creation Christianity, it reinvigorated my faith. It clarified my understanding of why God created the earth, why God sent Jesus, and why God created you and me. It clarified for me what’s wrong with the world and the redemption Jesus offers. New creation Christianity clarifies our place in God’s story. It also clarifies why God instituted marriage, which is the subject of this post—to which we now turn.

Did Jesus Address Marriage in Heaven? | Yes—Very Clearly!

Now, did Jesus address marriage in heaven? Yes. Did Jesus say people will be married in heaven? No. Jesus said people who are in heaven and will one day have new bodies on a new earth will not be married. That means if a man and woman are single when they die, they will not be married in heaven. They will never experience human marriage. That means if two Christians get a divorce and each die single, they will not be divorced in heaven nor will they be married.

In heaven, human marriage will be a memory. It will be a practice and concept from the past. Like a person in 1915 selling his horse to buy a Ford Model T. The horse is no longer needed and the person has moved on to something better. Marriage will one day have served its purpose and God’s people will move on to something better. Though, our memory of marriage will remind us of God’s wisdom and goodness, and we will celebrate God for it, even though humans will no longer need it.

The gospel of Matthew recounts the conversation Jesus had with his debaters in 22:23–33. Jesus’ opponents didn’t believe in life after death. They posed a thought experiment to trap him because they obviously thought he did believe in life after death. There were seven brothers. One married a woman, but that brother died with no children. By Jewish law, another brother was responsible to marry her, have children, and continue the name and lineage of the dead brother. But then, the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh brothers die. All seven die. All seven legally and morally married the same woman. None had children. Then, the poor woman dies. The opponents ask Jesus, “At the resurrection, whose wife will she be?”

Jesus began with a blunt attack. He said, “You’re wrong,” “You’re led astray,” “You’re aimless,” You’re mistaken,” “You’re deceived.” They asked him a question with fake sincerity. They assumed that once a person dies, he or she no longer exists. Jesus says, “Not so—death is not the end.” Jesus first insulted these religious experts by telling them they don’t know God’s Word and don’t understand the power of God. Then he addressed their specific question by saying, “For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30).

What does it mean to be like the angels in heaven? Angels don’t produce offspring. Angels aren’t designed for reproduction. They’re designed to be in fellowship with God and each other. They’re designed to serve and enjoy God and each other. Angels don’t pair off to form a unique, ongoing bond. That kind of exclusive relationship doesn’t exist among the angels. Heaven was not created for marriage-like relationships. So Jesus says, at the resurrection (a future point in history when the dead rise), people will be like angels. Marriage will be a memory, a thing in the past. In other words, the institution of human marriage is temporary. It is limited to this stage of human history. God’s design for marriage will eventually fulfill its purpose and will no longer be needed . . . Which naturally leads to the next question.

What Was God’s Purpose for Human Marriage? | Back to the Beginning

What was God’s original purpose and goals for marriage? The answer is given at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapters one and two: the creation of earth and life on earth. It’s important to keep in mind these chapters focus more why God created it all versus how God created it all.

In Genesis chapter one, we read why God created humanity in general, which is important to know before we can understand why God marriage in particular. First, we read he created men and women in his image: male and female (Genesis 1:26–27). To be in God’s image means they both equally represent God’s authority and presence. Both equally reflect God’s character. Both are designed to equally relate with God, to communicate with God, to be with God, to enjoy God, to obey God. That’s what it means to be in God’s image. To be in God’s image is our primary identity and purpose. We can fulfill that purpose without getting married. So each person has full dignity and worth without being married.

Immediately after his creation, God issued commands to the human race who would collectively fulfill a larger purpose beyond the individual level. Those commands reveal how the human race functions corporately. Genesis 1:28, “Then God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.’” God blesses them by giving them the ability and command to produce life and fill the earth. We also notice God designed humans to co-own the earth with God, to co-rule it as representatives of God, and to spread his presence as reflections of God. Like mirrors and ambassadors. So how will humanity produce life and fill the earth? That’s where marriage comes in.

Genesis 2 addresses the origin and meaning of marriage. God created a garden, the Garden of Eden, as his special location on the earth. That garden was his throne room so-to-speak. He placed Adam in the garden to organize and enhance its features, to protect it from unwelcome creatures, and to expand its borders. But the man couldn’t do it alone, so in Genesis 2:18, we learn, “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”A few verses later, God created Eve, and the author writes of marriage in Genesis 2:24, “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” God designed men and women to come together, to pair off as a union between one man and one woman in the lifelong bonds of marriage, and to fulfill his mandates to them, which we he gave in Genesis 1 and 2.

God is abundant in life. He is life creating, life giving, life sustaining. Since we are in his image, he made it so that we can produce life, like him, on earth. That’s not to say God is biologically sexual or that he is male or female. But, within the bonds of marriage, we possess the means to reflect his life-giving nature in that specific way within this world where he created us. When the text said, “I will create a helper for the man,” it means that men and women were created for each other and need each other to fulfill God’s greater purpose for the human race. Before God, individual men and women are equal in dignity, equal in status, and equal in importance. All humans at their base-level humanity have an equal function in their relationship to God, in their relationship with each other, and in their responsibility to oversee this planet.

However, within the human race, men and women function differently according to the Bible. God made men and women to correspond to each other. That God instituted marriage indicates that God’s purpose for humanity requires a task bigger than what individuals, without marriage, can do. A man or woman can’t fulfill it alone. They need each other. But there must be balance. God didn’t design men and women to be fully dependent on each other nor did he design them to be fully independent of each other. He made them to be complementary counterparts of each other as partners, as co-laborers, who are made for God, for each other, and for the earth.

Now get this: the project of marriage, of partnering together to raise children, start a family, and work on the earth was not meant to be an unending project. Once the earth was populated at the amount God intended, once humanity had organized, protected, enhanced, and expanded the Garden of Eden, once humanity established civilization and had spread the presence of God all over the world, the next stage of history would have set in . . . God would have given them immortal bodies and eternal life. At some point in that process, as civilization progressed, they would have received clothes and been granted access to the tree knowledge of good and evil as they all live among each other and learn how to lovingly and justly relate to each other. Forever, they would have been in communion with each other and him. Marriage, then, would no longer have be needed. It would have fulfilled its purpose.

The whole goal of the project was aimed at the unification of heaven and earth. As humans partnered with each other and with God, the fulfillment of the creation project would have culminated with God’s presence filling and enveloping the whole earth. God and the human race would have been one to enjoy each other forever. But the very first humans, Adam and Eve, created their own purpose, designed their own goals, and chose their own methods. They allowed the serpent into the garden and listened to its voice rather than trusting and obeying God. So God withdrew his presence. He cursed the whole creation project. But that didn’t mean he wanted the earth to be forever cursed, as we now experience it. That didn’t mean withheld all his goodness from the project and that we are completely abandoned. It meant that evil corrupted it even though it would continue on. But there was more at work in God’s purpose and goals for creation and for human marriage, which later came to light in Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

The Bible teaches that what Jesus did 2,000 years ago actually reveals God’s deeper purpose for human marriage. That’ll be in the next post. But to summarize and end this one, Jesus said people in heaven are like angels who neither marry nor are given in marriage. That point indicates that a human marriage is not necessarily an eternal relationship. It is temporary in God’s plan. Yet, that doesn’t mean we belittle or demean marriage. Because, as we saw in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, marriage is vitally important in God’s plan. We explored why God created marriage and the possible reason why Jesus said it was temporary. However . . . God’s eternal plan lies hidden in every human marriage which Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection brought to light. More on that in the next post. I’m Aaron Massey. See you next time.

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NOTES

Everyone will not automatically inherit the eternal bliss of the new earth. The gift of Christ is for those who want it, take it, and keep it.

The end of the Bible gives us a peak into eternity. When the apostle John was praying on the Island of Patmos, the resurrected Jesus gave him several visions to share with the church to strengthen Christians and to keep them focused. These visions are in the book we call “Revelation,” which is the last book in our Bible and the latest book written in the biblical canon—being recorded around AD 90. One of the last visions divides humanity into two groups of people with two separate ends. Here’s Revelation 21:5–8:

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.’”

Before addressing how this relates to heaven-aimed versus new-creation Christianity, I want point three key aspects of this passage. First, John sees the glorified Jesus who calls himself the beginning and the end. Jesus will complete what he began, and the end will be exactly as he intends. His power and plan is limited by nothing other than his will and character. Second, you and I find ourselves in this passage. In fact, all humans do. We’re living in a grand story headed in a specific direction with Jesus as the writer. Some people end in the lake of fire and some drink the waters of eternal life. Third, the waters of eternal life are for those who are thirsty. Jesus invites people to freely take from him the water life. Everyone is born with a thirst only Jesus can quench—and he can quench it fully and eternally. Not everyone gets God, not everyone inherits the new earth. But the gift of God is accessible through a relationship with Jesus. It’s for those who want it, take it, and keep it.

In this passage, those who do are called conquerers. And that brings me to the topic of heaven-aimed Christianity. In one sense, some heaven-aimed Christians have the right posture by viewing this world as a place to be conquered. The world is full of hostility and temptations that must be endured and overcome in Jesus’ strength. But heaven-aimed Christianity gets it wrong by its tendency to try to fully separate and disengage from those Jesus calls faithless, immoral, murderers, salacious, and liars. There’s a sense of separation that may need to happen from time to time, but Jesus ultimately calls us to be in the world and not of the world. So the impulse of new-creation Christianity gets it right. Jesus wants his followers to engage with those who don’t follow him and to live out their new life, their new identity in Him, among them. That’s new-creation Christianity—Christians living out their transformed lives in a world longing for transformation. I’m Aaron Massey. Thanks for listening.

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NOTES

The Bible’s final vision of the Christian’s eternity offers a picture of a new earth that is essentially better in every way, even at the molecular level, from the earth as we now know it.

In the two prior videos, I spotlighted the key features of what eternal life on God’s new earth will be like. The apostle Peter, in his second letter, emphasized that the new earth will be a place where righteousness dwells. People in the new earth will no longer hate, or lie, or steal, or murder, or lust, or envy. People will have all their needs fully satisfied and their bodies and minds and souls will be restored. People will be fully and physically healthy. They will also be fully healthy at the spiritual level. The apostle John, at the beginning of his final vision, said the new earth will be a place where God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, dwells with his people. They who inherit the new earth will see Jesus face to face. He will wipe away their tears. There will be no more crying, or hurting, or pain any more. All those former things will pass away and death will be no more. But what will the earth be like? Well, in the same vision, John offers us a clue. Listen to what he says in Revelation chapter twenty-two verses one through five.

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Heaven-aimed Christianity neglects this passage because it downplays the fact that there will be a new earth in God’s agenda. A new earth is central to the culmination of God’s plan. In my own journey, and from what I’ve experienced in others, heaven-aimed Christianity prevents people from living their full God-given potential because it dismisses the importance of earth. It neglects that God designed us to live a certain way on the earth. This happens, in part, because the earth is truly cursed. Right now, life on earth is very difficult. It’s a burden. It’s a pain. It hurts. Often, it’s agonizing. So people envision a non-earthly heaven as their home because of the difficulty of imagining an earth without the curse. However, an earth without the curse is exactly what the Bible offers to our imagination when we conceive of the end of all things. John gave us a river, a throne, a city, a tree producing fruit. There’ll be light but but no sun. He said, “no longer will there be anything accursed.” The earth will be life-giving and life-sustaining in a way that everyone longs for.

That fact is what new-creation Christianity is all about. The new earth will abound with what is good. No scarcity. For now, we, who stand to inherit that priceless gift from Christ, are given the power to operate out of the same abundance. God is abundant in life and he pours on us life in abundance that spills out of us through generosity, kindness, and joy. Thank you for listening. I’m Aaron Massey.

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NOTES

The end of the Bible offers a spectacular vision of eternity. And it might surprise you to learn that the Christian’s eternal hope is focused not on heaven but on earth.

The apostle John was likely a teenager when he followed Jesus during his earthly ministry. Then, probably more than fifty years after the resurrection of Jesus, the old apostle was exiled by Rome to a small island called Patmos where he received his vision which we call Revelation. It’s the last book in the Bible. The book reveals many mysteries, but it primarily reveals Jesus in his glory and his plans. The end of Revelation contains a final vision. This vision gives us a glimpse into the eternal state—when this epoch of history closes and all the plans and goals of Jesus Christ are finalized. Here’s how John begins this final vision in Revelation 21:1–4:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

In this set of videos, we’re distinguishing heaven-aimed Christianity from new-creation Christianity. When I first became a Christian, I thought heaven was our home. I thought going to heaven is our final goal in life and that God intended to keep us there forever. While holding that idea, however, I had to neglect the simple truth offered in the passage I just read. That there will be a new heaven and new earth. Now some Bible teachers, when speaking of “heaven,” are actually referring to the new earth. But using the term heaven is confusing for many people and actually inaccurate according to the Bible. Jesus-followers who die go to heaven immediately, but at the end of all things, they eventually dwell on a new earth. Just like John saw. What John saw and recorded for us in Revelation chapters twenty-one and twenty-two should be the images that fill our minds when we think of the new earth.

In a separate video, I shared how Peter emphasizes the new earth will be a place where righteousness dwells. No more evil. No more corruption. We will be perfect, feel perfect, and relate perfectly—in love, joy, and peace. Now notice the emphasis John gives: that the new earth is a place where God dwells with his people. Our union and fellowship with God will be perfect. And all the pain that human evil and the earth’s corruption caused, will fade away. The hands of Christ will wipe away our tears. Pain will be a distant memory and there will be no more hurting, crying, pain, or death. All those things fill our lives on earth. But John refers to those things as the former things. They will all pass away for those who follow Jesus. Notice how it’s the fullness of the Lord’s presence that removes them all. Now, as for us today, as for us right now. John wants us to know that the Lord’s presence also helps us endure all those present evils which one day will all be behind us. Thank you for listening. I’m Aaron Massey.

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NOTES

Peter said the Lord will return to burn up the heavens above us and the earth around us, and that we await a new heavens and a new earth—where all is right!

Within years before Rome crucified Peter, he wrote a short letter we call Second Peter, to paint a picture of what the life of faith really looks like, chapter one, to warn against false teachers who live godless lives, chapter two, and to affirm the great hope we have in Christ, chapter three. Thirty to thirty-five years had passed since Jesus died and resurrected. During these decades, great anticipation filled this generation of Christians who just knew Christ would return at any minute. But he didn’t. The surrounding society along with false teachers mocked these Christians for their hope that Christ would return. When our hope is yet fulfilled, it’s easy to doubt and let distraction take over. Peter said “No, stay focused.”

Listen to what he wrote: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:9–13).

Christ will return! He will burn away all that’s evil and harmful and false and he will establish all that’s true, good, and beautiful. Peter’s last statement is what I want to focus on now. Peter said we wait for a new heavens and a new earth. This passage is one of two in the New Testament that use that term, “new earth.” And Peter emphasized one characteristic about that new earth that makes is so appealing. Righteousness dwells in the new earth. Righteousness inhabits the new earth. Righteousness saturates the new earth. Righteousness saturates fills the new earth. People will be well and do well.
Those who inherit the new earth will find themselves surrounded by perfect people. No more robberies, rapes, or rampages. No more lust or greed, jealousy or envy. Hearts and minds will be one-hundred-percent pure. Relationships will be one-hundred-percent pleasant. The person of Christ will be one-hundred-percent present. God’s glory will proliferate one-hundred-percent of all we see and feel and hear. It will be paradise in the truest sense of the term. We think we know what paradise should be like, but our self-centered, human-contrived ideas of paradise inevitably fail us. But God made us and he made us to enjoy paradise with him forever. That’s why Peter emphasized that the new earth will be a place of righteousness.

Faith starts with a turn toward Christ. It begins with a longing to have our sins forgiven so that we aren’t swept away in God’s removal of all that’s evil or hostile toward his designs. But faith ends with our eyes on Christ and the hope of paradise. A new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells. That’s new-creation Christianity. Thanks for listening. I’m Aaron Massey.