New Heavens And A New Earth
NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH
2 PETER 3:8-13
In God’s patience and mercy, he is giving people the opportunity to turn back to him.
It does seem strange that Jesus has not come back earlier, but then, that’s because we don’t see time as God sees it. Just as he sees each moment with a greater intensity than we ever could, so he also lets the years roll by with no sense of long delay. He has his reasons—generous reasons—for he wants as many as possible to hear the gospel and have the opportunity of trusting in Christ (3:9). See also 1 Timothy 2:4: what is your part in making Christ known?
But the end will come and when it does, it will take many people by complete surprise. In place of the deceit and hypocrisy of this world, everything will be seen in the true light of God’s judgment, for the end also means the reckoning.
It’s not enough to know that those who teach error will be proved horribly wrong when Christ returns. The thought of meeting him and answering to him should have an effect on how we are living for him here and now. If we’re living for him, trying to please him, and putting him first in everything we do, the thought of the end should not frighten us. Rather, it should be our ambition to be “found” like that whenever it might happen.
For the end is not the end of everything. It also marks the beginning. If God burns up our old home, he has promised to provide a new one for us to live in (3:13), a world untouched by sin or suffering. That sort of prospect should also make us all the more keen to be ready for it when it comes.