Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

— Revelation 21:1

For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

— Isaiah 65:17

20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by His working through which He is able to even subject all things to Himself.

— Philippians 3:20-21

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a corruptible body, it is raised an incorruptible body;

44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

— 1 Corinthians 42, 44

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

Revelation and the entire Bible move toward history’s grand conclusion, when God will introduce His new creation. God’s plan has always been for His people to be at home with Him in a world unmarred by sin. Long ago, God said through the prophet Isaiah, “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”‘ Isaiah’s description clearly depicts the new heavens and new earth, not a mystical paradise. John saw the solid, physical world of eternity. The old ways of sin, evil, and death will have no place in the new heaven and new earth.

God’s powerful rebirth of the physical creation parallels the new, glorified bodies of His people when they rise at the first resurrection, Jesus will transform our bodies to be like His glorious body- still our own bodies, but completely renewed and fit for a glorious eternity. The New Testament compares the connection between believers’ resurrected bodies and their current bodies to a plant and the seed from which it grows. An unbroken connection remains between the plant and the seed, yet such a great transformation has occurred! The green and productive plant flourishes unlike any seed.