God Made All Things New

Scripture Reading:

Revelation 21:5 “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.”

It is the nature of mankind to desire new things. If we have been fortunate enough to do so I’m sure that we can remember the first new car we ever owned. A great many people in today’s world want to own and live in new houses. Judy and I were no exception, when we moved here we determined that for the first time in our lives we would own a new home. Consequently rather than seriously shopping for a house we shopped for a builder. Others strive for new clothes, and not just for special occasions as we once did many years ago, new gadgets and toys to make life easier or provide us pleasure.

While our scripture reading pertains specifically to heaven and the abode of the saints for eternity, when God created the kingdom of Christ, the church of the living God, he made all things new.

A New Covenant

When Moses led the chosen people of God out of Egyptian bondage God determined to make a covenant with them and to give them laws to govern their conduct and existence. God told Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai:

“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:” Exodus 19:5

Moses reminds them of this covenant and their commitment to keep that covenant when he prepares to depart from this life.

Deuteronomy 5:2-3 “The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. ³The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.”

But that covenant was given only to the children of Israel. It did not apply to the nations around them; they remained under the same laws of God as did the patriarchs of old. Then in the prophesy of Jeremiah God tells us that he is going to make a new covenant with Israel.

Jeremiah 31:31-32 “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³²Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:”

Jeremiah was writing to a rebellious and unfaithful nation. Judah had broken God’s covenant and had repudiated their relationship with him. Jeremiah’s primary message is one of the punishment that God will bring upon them. But as is common among the writings of the prophets here the he also brings them a message of hope; the knowledge that God will make a new covenant with them. That covenant would not be just with Judah or only with the descendants of Israel. God had promised Abraham:

Genesis 12:3 “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

“ALL FAMILIES OF THE EARTH” are those to be blessed through the seed of Abraham. That promise was fulfilled by the coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the new covenant, the new testament, the new will of God for his people sealed by the death of his “ONLY BEGOTTEN SON”. Paul writes to the Galatian Christians:

Galatians 3:26-29 “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

What many people today do not understand was that the covenant God made with Israel was to last only until Christ came:

Galatians 3:19 “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”

The law given through Moses was to endure only until the seed should come; the seed in the promise that was made to Eve and Satan in Genesis 3:15 and was to come through a mediator. That mediator is Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 9:14-15 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ¹⁵And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

The old covenant made with Israel was replaced by the death of Christ; nailed to the cross of Calvary; again as the Holy Spirit testifies:

Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”

The old covenant was given by prophets, beginning with the prophet Moses:

Hebrews 1:1-2 “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, ²Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”

Just as in today’s law when a new will is made it was necessary to take away the old in order to establish the new:

Hebrews 10:9-10 “Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first; that he may establish the second. ¹⁰By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

The old covenant needed to be removed because it was faulty:

Hebrews 8:7 “for if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.”

And the Holy Spirit tells us that the second is perfect:

James 1:27 “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

A New Doctrine

Under a new covenant, of necessity, there would be new doctrine; a new body of teaching as the old would no longer be sufficient. In Athens the Apostle Paul preached this new doctrine:

Acts 17:19 “And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?”

Paul was preaching to them the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The promise made by God to Abraham that through his seed all families of the world would be blessed. This was a new doctrine, a doctrine that included faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God because Jesus said:

John 8:24 “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”

Paul preached that:

“Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: ⁴⁷And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Luke 24:47

Included in that new doctrine was something that had never been required under any previous covenant with God, baptism:

Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”

But this new doctrine didn’t stop there. Jesus also commanded his disciples that they were to be:

“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20

His apostles and disciples were to teach “ALL THINGS” that Jesus had taught them during his three years he spent teaching here on earth. He would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter in order that first of all they would remember all the things that they had been taught and secondly that what they taught and recorded for the teaching of others would be perfectly accurate, literally God breathed.

John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

And all of this we have recorded in the New Testament, translated in to common language that we all might understand the new doctrine of Jesus Christ.

A New Creature

When we obey the commandments of God, wash away the past sins from our souls we become a new creature.

II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

We are reborn just as Jesus taught Nicodemus:

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

How is man born again? He is born again by baptism and a change of heart, a change of mind, a new creature now serving the living God according to his commandments:

John 3:5-6 “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Just being a good moral person, just having a good conscience before God, nothing else will save us but obedience to God’s commandments. As the Apostle Peter speaking of Noah being saved by water writes:

I Peter 3:21 “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”

We are changed and those changes will be obvious to all those who know us. If our lives are not such as would be found in a new creature then perhaps we need to examine ourselves to see if we really are “IN CHRIST.”

A New Name

Those who have become new creatures in Christ have been given a new name. They would be given a name ordained or appointed by God. Hear the words of the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 62:2 “And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.”

If we are new creatures, those around us will see the righteousness in our lives and we will be correctly identified by the new name that God gave. Just after the first Gentiles obeyed the preaching of Peter we find that Barnabas had gone looking for Saul.

“And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” Acts 11:26

We honor the name of Christ, the Son of God by wearing that name.

I Peter 4:16 “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”

Conversely if we refuse to wear the name of Christ, wear the name of any other such as Luther, John the Baptist, or a name related to any man-made religion we deny Christ and refuse to honor him.

We Inherit New Jerusalem

When we are faithful to our new name we will inherit a place in the New Jerusalem.

Revelation 3:12 “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”

In fact the word new is used to describe much of the new home where the children of God will exist for eternity. We will be given new bodies:

I Corinthians 15:50-54 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

As we know water is one of the requirements to sustain life and we will be provided with water from a new source:

Revelation 22:1 “AND HE SHEWED ME A PURE RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE, CLEAR AS CRYSTAL, PROCEEDING OUT OF THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB.”

New food will sustain our new bodies:

Revelation 22:2 “IN THE MIDST OF THE STREET OF IT, AND ON EITHER SIDE OF THE RIVER was there THE TREE OF LIFE, WHICH BARE TWELVE manner of FRUITS, and YIELDED HER FRUIT EVERY MONTH; AND THE LEAVES OF THE TREE were FOR THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS.”

We will serve God in a new way, providing new service:

Revelation 22:3 “AND THERE SHALL BE NO MORE CURSE: BUT THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB SHALL BE IN IT; AND HIS SERVANTS SHALL SERVE HIM.”

Thus God has made all things new in the new kingdom of Christ. We have a new covenant, a new body of law, a new body of doctrine, we become new creatures and look forward to a new life in a new heaven for eternity.

So what about you my friend are you a new creature? Have you been baptized into Christ? As we noted we must have faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God; John 8:24, we must repent of our past sins, Luke 13:3; we must confess our belief in Christ, Romans 10:9-10 and be baptized for the remission of our sins, Acts 2:38, be born again in order to enter the kingdom of Christ. If we have done all that but have fallen by the wayside we need to come to God in prayer and repentance as Simon was commanded in Acts 8:22

William L. Schwegler, Sunset church of Christ, Shreveport, Louisiana; Sunday Evening, May 3, 2009