BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW

BEHOLD: I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW

And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful (Rev. 21:5).

If you want a glimpse of eternity then this verse and chapter provides one. It is a vista of unending, delightful change. What Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is declaring here is that making all things new will be his modus operandi in the unwritten ages yet to come.

The scope is vast. A whole universe awaits renewal but God begins with making “a new heaven and a new earth”, one with no more sea. His purpose: to bring to earth the New Jerusalem so that He can dwell with those human beings who love Him for ever.

And, in making all things new “…God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and, and there shall be no more death. Neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

You see, making things anew is essentially who God is. It is part and parcel of his character as an ever creating Creator. His ongoing purpose is to make things not only new but very much better. Not only has He already sent prophets and then his Son, Jesus, to save us from sin and death and to ultimately save the world (John 4:42), but He has several times changed the times and seasons to create new ages.

For example, He ended the Pentecostal dispensation of the Acts period, then brought in the dispensation of the grace of God which we still live under today. The supernatural powers that operated in Acts have been withdrawn, even as the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 13:8) said they would. Healing meetings today are notable for the fact that very few, if any, get truly healed.

Today, instead of such miracles, God is largely dealing with mankind in grace, and only in grace. This indeed was “something new” when the Lord revealed it as the “dispensation of the grace of God”. He did so to the “prisoner for you Gentiles”, the Apostle Paul when held in a Roman prison.

Back in Rev. 1:5 in saying “Behold”, the Lord is calling us to see that making things new is essentially who He is. And what He does. As a Creator He is forever creating new things. Indeed, it is his delight to do so.

But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that 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. (Isa. 65:18-19).

Sadly, instead of rejoicing in the new things God does, many Christians instead hold fast to what He once did, even if that has long since passed away. A high value is set on tradition in many churches. Indeed, even a newly started assembly acquires its own set of practices. Soon they become set in concrete and no new truth from God is allowed in. But God Himself moves on.

Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isa. 43:19.)

Not only does God do new things, He doubles down on them. The “new heavens and a new earth” the Lord Christ promises to create in Isa. 65:17 will be brought into being at the inauguration of his kingdom at his imminent but yet to happen APPEARING (Titus 2:13, 2 Tim 4:1).

These “new heavens and a new earth” are not the same as the “new heaven and a new earth” that the Apostle John saw in vision and that is recorded in Rev. 21:1. They come into being at God’s next big shake up of the world that begins with the Lord’s APPEARING in a blaze of glory from heaven and the bringing in of his kingdom (Titus 2:13, 2 Timothy 4:1).

It is a mistake to muddle these two events together, given that they are separated, arguably, by thousands of years and in God’s plan of the ages perform very different functions. Fact is, mankind must first experience the Lord ruling and reigning from heaven for the best part of a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8) before being counted fit to live in the personal; presence of the Lord, his parousia.

It is hugely important to note the Lord Jesus Christ does not come to rule and reign as such at his parousia, his second coming, if you will. Rather, He comes to live, dwell with, love and be loved by his people. You see, the ruling and reigning and putting down of his enemies will have taken place before these blessed events unfold.

All up, it seems God does “a new thing” in every different age and dispensation. For example, in Acts 13:41 we read:

Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

The disbelievers here are the Jewish leaders who not only mocked Christ on the cross but also beat up on the apostles for proclaiming his resurrection. They would “perish” because they refused to believe a) that Jesus was/is their Messiah and their God b) that God raised Him from the dead c) because they hated that God was now saving Gentiles.

But they are not the only ones to refuse to believe the latest report from God. Most Christians do the same, failing to distinguish the now ceased miraculous happenings of the Book of Acts from the message of salvation by pure grace found in the letter to the Ephesians.

It is this latter message recorded in the prison epistles of the Apostle Paul that really is God’s message to us right now. It is summed up in Eph. 2:8-10:

For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Thus, today God is again working a work which many don’t believe. Quite apart from organised religion, from religious rituals and other self-effort, He is saving men and women from sin by sheer grace, not counting their trespasses against them, but counting them holy and unreprovable before Him, even when they know they are not perfect, because He is creating them as such in grace (Col.1:22), Why? Because He, as God, calls those things which are not as though they are (Rom. 4:17).

Truly, He makes all things new and I, for one, am so grateful He does.