“In his great mercy God has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3)
Today I’m editing the chapter in my Bible study on “Consummation, the Final Chapter.” John Stott challenges us to remember why we hope:
“The Christian hope focuses not only on our individual future (the resurrection of the body) but also on our cosmic future (the renewal of the universe). This promise is all the more relevant today in view of global warming and the threat of an environmental disaster. On the whole, however, we Christians tend to think and talk too much of an ethereal heaven and too little about the new heaven and the new earth. Yet the whole of Scripture is shot through with this wider and more material expectation. Scripture begins with the original creation of the universe and ends in its last chapters with the creation of a new universe. And in between, the perspective is overshadowed by this Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” John Stott, Through the Bible, through the Year
For reflection: As you go through your day, pay attention to the world. Think of some things that will be completely different when the new heavens and new earth are our permanent home. How does knowing these hopes really will come true impact the way you live?
