21:1
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth”. In 20:11 we read that “the earth and the heavens fled from His presence”, so a new heaven and earth is needed! Now we can easily understand why a new earth is needed, for there is so much wrong with the present one! It is harder to understand why a new heaven is needed. The answer is probably that we are talking about a complete transformation of earth and the relationship between heaven and earth, reflecting the new relationship between God and man. We are talking about a radical and permanent change. Later verses will speak about pavements of gold and pearl gates. We should take this as symbolic. However, we must not go too far in separating spiritual and material. Our bodies and the physical world matter (no pun intended!). Christ was raised with a resurrection body, but it was also a very real body. One of the unique features of Christian doctrine compared to many other religions is the importance of the material world. Our resurrection will not just be spiritual, but physical as well. Now there will be an eternal spiritual transformation as well, and that is absolutely crucial, but the physical remains as well. In fact one of the key features of these last two chapters is the importance of the earth. We do not just “go to heaven”, it is more a matter of heaven and earth being in perfect harmony.
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