Jesus Plans to Fix this World
Romans 8:20-22 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the
creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and
decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time. (NLT)
Many evangelical Christians hold the belief that the world is completely ruined by sin so God is going
to take all the Christians out in the rapture and then destroy everything. There’s only one problem
with this view - the Bible does not teach that God is planning to destroy the world; it teaches that
He is planning to fix it. One day, the earth is going to be delivered from death, decay, rust, pain, the
common cold, AIDS, cancer, drought, storms, etc. This means that we are not leaving earth to go
to Heaven; we will be living on a fixed earth, a re-born earth, the New Earth. We are going to be
spending eternity in a real place; we are going to have real food, real relationships, real jobs, real
cities, and there will be real beauty right here on the New Earth! Revelation 21 speaks of the New
Jerusalem coming down. We often think about living in Heaven for all of eternity but that is actually
not true. We will be spending eternity here on the New Earth. Heaven is where God is right now but
in the future God is going to bring Heaven here to earth and the two will be merged into one. This
old earth will be re-born and we will spend all of eternity on the New Earth. Jesus will get rid of a
bunch of stuff in preparation for when the Father comes. Things like funeral homes, air pollution,
weapons, tainted water, hospitals, jails, temples and idols devoted to other gods, etc. will all be
destroyed by fire. God’s plan from the beginning of time has not been to destroy the earth but to
re-assert His authority over the earth. He’s going to fix this earth and created a beautiful place for us
to dwell for all eternity.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Read Revelation 21. What are some things that impact you about God when you read these
scriptures?
2. Why does it matter that you are going to spend all of eternity on the New Earth? What does
this tell you about the character of God and how He views His creation?
3. Spend some time thanking the Lord for all the beauty that He has created in our world. Ask
Him to grow in you an anticipation for the New Earth.
