Bible Study

Rest and Renewal in New Creation

This article depends on these earlier articles

“Understanding the Bible’s Literary Patterns”

“Rest and Renewal in Creation”

“Rest and Renewal in Redemption”

Read them first and return here by using your browser’s back-arrow.

Overview

In this article, we will look at rest and renewal in the future new creation and discuss how hope helps shape our lives now. We will look especially at passages about Sabbath and sanctuary from the Letter to the Hebrews and from the Revelation to John. Then we will discuss how the Holy Spirit comes into our lives to give us foretastes of the new creation. I suggest that it is the Holy Spirit who enables Christians to experience Sabbath rest and sanctuary renewal.

Introduction to the Letter to the Hebrews

The Letter to the Hebrews is a New Testament writing directed toward Jewish Christians who, in one of those rare moments in history when it was more advantageous to have a Jewish identity, were being tempted to hide their Christian identity under their Jewish identity. These Christians also were in danger of failing to heed the word of God.

Here is a display of the structure of the Letter to the Hebrews that depends heavily on the commentary of Gareth Cockerill. To view or purchase Cockerill’s book on Amazon.com, click the title: Hebrews. Credit Cockerill for influencing me. Do not hold him accountable for my variations from his writings

This display serves as a quick summary of the message of Hebrews.

A1. Heed the Word of God Spoken through the Son (1:1--2:4)

B1. Don’t Fail to Enter God’s Rest through Unbelief (2:5--4:13)

a1. Jesus suffered to lead God’s children into rest (2:5-18)

b1. Our Pioneer is faithful over God’s household as a Son (3:1-6)

b2.Don’t follow the example of God’s faithless household in the wilderness (3:7--4:11)

a2. We are accountable because God has spoken to us       through his Son (4:12-13)

C1. Jesus, Our New High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek, Has Entered a Heavenly Sanctuary and Has Offered the Perfect Sacrifice So That We May Enter after Him: In Order to Enter, We Must Receive the Truth, Not Fall Away from the Truth, and We Must Live in the Power of the Truth (4:14—10:31).

B2. Hold Firmly to Your Faith until You Enter the New Promised Land (10:32--12:13)

a. Take your place among the people of God (10:32-39)

b. Follow the example of the faithful before you (11:1-40)

c. Endure suffering as Christians (12:1-13)

1. Focus on the Perfecter of faith (12:1-3)

2. Embrace the discipline of legitimate children (12:4-13)

A2.  Hear the Word Spoken From Heaven by A Holy God (12:14-29)

a. Pursue the holy life (12:14-17)

b. Enjoy the privileges of the holy life (12:18-24)

c. Fear the peril of losing the holy life for only the pure will endure into the new Promised Land (12:25-29) 

C2. Final Application and Farewell

a. Christian living as true worship with pleasing sacrifices (praise and doing good) (13:1-17)

b. Prayer requests, benediction, news, and farewell (13:18-25)

Summary: We are responsible for holding fast to the faith through which we have received our salvation and for living consistently with that faith. We cannot have rest and renewal if we depart from their faith foundation.

Introduction to the Revelation to John

The Revelation to John is likewise directed toward Christians who are tempted to downplay the distinctiveness of their faith in order to get by more easily in the world. Rather than being tempted to hide under Judaism, they are tempted to go along with various cults that were practically necessary for making a living in the trades: civic cults, emperor cults, trade guild cults, goddess cults, fertility cults, and so forth. The temptation was to say that cultish activities were meaningless formalities, but they were in fact undermining their Christian witness.

Here is my summary of the structure of Revelation. My display is heavily dependent on views reported by Greg Beale in his commentary, views he credits to M. G. Kline and Barbara Snyder. To view or purchase Beale's commentary on Amazon.com, click the title: The Book of Revelation. Please be aware that his excellent commentary makes use of the Greek text and is not written on a beginner's level.

Note the repeated use of the number seven in the following display: 

A1. Prologue: The Revelation of Jesus Christ (1:1-8)

          B1. Jesus Addresses Seven Churches on Earth (1:9—3:22)

C1. The Seven Seals and Salvation by the Lamb-Shepherd (4:1--8:1)

D1. The Seven Trumpets and the Eternal Reign of God (8:2—11:19)
E. The Seven Visions, the Great War, and the Final Exodus (12:1--14:20; 15:2-4)
D2. The Seven Bowls and the Wrath of God (15:1, 15:5—16:21)

C2. The Seven Angel Voices, the Destruction of Evil, and the Millennial Reign on Earth (17:1—20:15)

          B2. The Church in the New Heaven and New Earth (21:1—22:5)

A2. Epilogue: The Warning and Invitation of Jesus Christ (22:6-21)

Excluding the prologue and epilogue, there are seven sections. In six of the seven sections, the number seven is prominent. In the seventh section, the number twelve (twelve tribes, twelve apostles), comes into greater prominence. It should be noted that the seven visions (E) and the seven voices (C2) are not numbered in the text, and their use to arrive at the number seven is debatable. The seven visions I counted are: 12:1; 13:1, 13:11; 14:1, 14:6, 14:14; 15:2 (15:1 being counted as the overlapping introduction to the next section). The seven instances of angelic voices I counted are 17:1; 18:2; 18:4; 18:21; 19:1, 19:4-6, 19:17.  The decisive evidence for me is that these two unclear series of sevens fit together very neatly with the four clear ones to add to something greater.

The heart of this display (E) involves the great battle between, on the one hand, Satan and his agents, and, on the other, Jesus, the faithful angels, and the faithful church. The final winners are without real question Jesus and his supporters, and the rewards for the faithful (B2) are great. But, from the worldly perspective, things will not seem so clear in the midst of history. The point of the book is to give church members the vision of the future that enables them to remain faithful in hard daily choices.

Rest in Hebrews

God had planned to give Israel rest in the Promised Land if they would simply worship and obey him. But, as they had rebelled in the wilderness, so they rebelled in the Promised Land.

Psalm 95:7b-9 warned the Israelites against this path:  “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work” (ESV).

In spite of the warning, they would not heed God’s word.

The writer of the Letter reminds his readers/hearers of Psalm 95 and tells them that God also has planned a rest for them that they are in jeopardy of losing. The rest God has planned for them is not in the literal Promised Land of Israel, but in the future Promised Land, a new heaven and new earth, a new creation.

Hebrews 3:12-14 says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end”  (ESV).

And again in Chapter 4:8-13: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (ESV).

Rest, the meaning of Sabbath, comes from heeding the living word of God and thereby living in the center of God’s will. For the writer, heeding the word means understanding, trusting, and holding to what Jesus has done for us, giving full and bold testimony to his accomplishments, living out his holy, redeeming love in our daily relationships, regularly gathering with the faithful for mutual upbuilding and mission, and steadfastly hoping (far more than wishfully thinking, but acting on a solid conviction) to enter the fullness of the blessings he has won for us.

Rest in Revelation

The book of Revelation does not use the word Sabbath, but it concentrates much on the number seven. Seven represents wholeness, fulfillment, reaching the purpose. I believe that the use of seven in the Revelation echoes the meaning of the seventh day of creation and the founding of the Sabbath. It points to the fulfilling rest for which we are destined.

In a key passage near the structural center of the book, the evil second beast is represented by 666 (continually stopping short of the Sabbath 7, continually sticking with the material creation as the source of meaning and value), and the reign of evil is represented by 3½ or some other symbol of half of the totality.

Of the seven sections in the main body of the book, the seventh section represents the great eternal Sabbath for God’s people. Sabbath and seven represent the wholeness for which God intends us, and in the end everything will be Sabbath. Here there will be no more mourning, crying, pain, or strife; all will be fulfillment. The sorely tested Christians to whom Hebrews and Revelation were written needed to know that there was rest in their futures.

Sanctuary in Hebrews

In Hebrews and Revelation, the sanctuary imagery is even clearer than the Sabbath imagery.

The Letter to the Hebrews makes clear that the earthly tabernacle sanctuary of Israel, with its repeated sacrifices, is but a temporary foreshadowing of the real and eternal heavenly sanctuary to which Jesus has given us access. Hebrews, Chapters 9-10, goes into great detail on this matter. Here are some selections from these chapters. You can read the whole passages from your own Bible if you prefer:

9:1-7 offers a description of the old tabernacle: “Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people” (ESV).

9:23-26 introduces the contrasting real heavenly sanctuary that Jesus makes available: “Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (ESV).

10:12-14 shows that what Jesus does replaces the temple sacrifices once and for all: “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (ESV).

10:19-25 shows that we are to enter the true sanctuary with bold faith: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (ESV).

The point I want you to hold from this is that Christ has opened the way for us to have eternal access to God. Our eternal dwelling place is designed to be a perfect sanctuary that needs no human institution.

Hebrews speaks of the new reality as the result of a shaking out of all that is impure and temporary in both heaven and earth. The result is a new heaven and new earth combined. The writer says that the faithful have not come to Mount Sinai with its sacrificial institutions, but to the heavenly Mount Zion, the city of God built not by the human hands of Moses/Joshua or David/Solomon and their  officers, but built by God himself.

We read in 12:18-19, 22-24, 26-29 “For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them….[in other words, Mt. Sinai]. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant….At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (ESV).

What cannot be shaken is the new heaven and new earth, the new creation.

You may also wish to refer to 2 Peter 3:5-13 for more on the new heaven and new earth.

Revelation and Sanctuary

The Revelation to John is even clearer:

21:1-8, 22-26; 22:1-5 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death….And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (ESV).

Notice something: the first two chapters of the Bible describe creation of heaven and earth and of Eden while the last two chapters of the Bible describe a new creation involving a new heaven and new earth and a new Eden  (not to mention a New Jerusalem) that is better even than the first.

Application

You may be asking, Is this new heavena nd new earth stuff just pie-in-the-sky-in-the-sweet-by-and-by? What does it have to do with now?

First of all, by knowing the ending, we have a solid basis for hope that directs our present actions. We are able to lean toward the future. For  instance, since we know that a great and diverse multitude of people “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (ESV)  will be present in the new creation as perfected children of God, reigning with Jesus, we need to live with that awareness day by day, knowing that every person we meet has the potential to join us in that new heaven and new earth.

We need to work to see that every person is treated with the respect and dignity fitting to their potential as children of God even if they are not presently realizing even a fraction of their potential.

We need to practice extending our people contacts to cover the diversity of people who will be in heaven and those who might be in heaven  if they see the reality of divine love in our lives.

Call it “practicing for heaven,” if you will.

Can you imagine the cultural richness of praise and worship in heaven? It ought to make us ashamed of clinging to our own favorite cultural style of music as though that is the only way one can really worship. There is nothing wrong with our having preferences, but we ought to learn to enjoy the richness of variety.

For another example, we know that peacemakers are blessed, for it is they who are showing that they are children of God, loving enemies as God does. Indeed, all of the Beatitudes and the whole Sermon on the Mount show us in practical terms how to live as people anticipating something better.

The Sermon on the Mount shows that we do not have to grab at sex and money; lust and greed do not have to rule our lives; we have better satisfactions ahead, and our present satisfactions need to be enjoyed only in harmony with the higher values of steadfast covenant love that will at last prevail. We can delay and transform our present gratifications in order to represent better the self-giving love of Jesus.

While even the most vile sinner is a potential citizen of the eternal kingdom, the Bible is clear that only those who are found in Christ and who have entered the process of his transforming work in their lives can hope to realize that potential. We do not have to judge who fits that description. That is Jesus’ job, and no one could do it more lovingly or righteously. It is utterly silly and blasphemous for us to think that we could do the judging job either more lovingly or more righteously than the One who gave his life to bring holiness and love together. What we need to be doing is to be putting sin behind us, and we can persevere in that task because of the hope we have. We can live more and more like Jesus because we know how the game turns out.

The firstfruits of the new creation

But there is yet more. Paul writes about it in his Letter to the Romans:  8:16-25 “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons (children and heirs) of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons (children and heirs), the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (ESV).

The point is that, as we wait for the future, God has given us the firstfruits of that future. In Jewish tradition, as the first grain ripened, before it was time to harvest the whole field, the faithful people of God would collect from their fields the firstfruits of the future harvest and dedicate them to God as a sign that a tithe of the harvest would follow. The firstfruits were a down-payment and guarantee of what would follow. God has given us the firstfruits of the new creation, the Holy Spirit, God present in us, as a down-payment and guarantee of what will follow.

Here are some things that the Holy Spirit does:

Are you tired in your religious endeavors? We all get that way at times, even if we are doing our best to let the Holy Spirit lead and empower us.

But the Holy Spirit will help us in many ways to find the rest we need. The Holy Spirit will remind us that it does not all depend on us. We have a body of Christ, a church. Each member of that church is differently gifted by the Spirit. When we all focus on using our individual gifts, the whole body works better. We all grow in our faith and in our ability to minister on behalf of Jesus. I believe that, as we let the spiritual gifts flow in the body of Christ, we are to learn to respect the gifts in one another, and to submit mutually to the Spirit’s working in one another. 

That does not mean that there are not leaders with official authority. What it does mean is that these officials use their authority to coordinate the development and flow of gifts among the members.

The Holy Spirit does not just bring us Sabbath rest, but also sanctuary renewal. The Spirit gives us our present experience of entering the sanctuary. Indeed, the sanctuary enters us. God comes to live in our lives through the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

If we are to live with the Sabbath and sanctuary principles that are available to us as Christians then two things must happen. We must spend time alone with God, studying his word and praying, and listening for his Spirit’s speaking. And we must spend time gathering with other believers where the Spirit’s presence in others can minister to us.

Those gatherings with fellow believers must include study, worship, fellowship, mission, and prayer. The gatherings may include daily devotionals with our family at home and include weekly or monthly small groups, but must also include larger gatherings of public proclamation and celebration.

While we are not obligated to observe a literal twenty-four hour Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday or even a 16-hour Sabbath covering our waking hours on Sunday, we must schedule our lives so that there is dedicated time for the Spirit to work in our lives.

It is in such times that the Spirit equips us to experience and represent the new creation in this present world. Through our faith in Jesus, we are called to be a royal priesthood and a holy people. Only the Holy Spirit can enable us to fulfill that role.

I believe that this is what is in mind when we get to the end of the Letter to the Hebrews and the writer offers a benediction: 13:20-21 “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (ESV).

“May…God… equip you…that you may do his will!”

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