If we see the end of time as God portrays it in Scripture, it shapes the way we think and the way we live now. We have looked at some of that. Last time we looked at the creation itself and how that is going to be changed. Today, I want to shift direction and look at ourselves and how we are facing the end times. What is God’s plan? He plans for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells and in which we will also dwell.
In Romans 8:19, it says, “For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” In this picture we see that the creation is going to be changed and redeemed at the same time as the sons of God are redeemed. In that sense, there is a connection between our final redemption and the final redemption of the planet and creation.
In Romans 8:25, it says, “But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we eagerly wait for it.” He is saying here that we have a great hope. That hope is not yet seen, that is what hope is all about. You don’t have hope if you already see it and have it. So, we have hope and that hope rests in what the Lord is going to do with us in the future. If we are invested in thinking that we are going to live this life forever, which is a ridiculous thing to believe, but if we believe that and that idea that we are going to just live forever, then that shapes how we live. Eventually though, we figure the truth out that we do not live in this life forever and we know we need something new in the future.
In 1 Corinthians 15 we are told what life is like for the believer in the future. Many passages of Scripture deal with this, but none probably as well as 1 Corinthians 15:51-57. It talks about our new redemptive body. Our new creation in eternity. What will we look like? What will we be like when we go to be with Him? That is important for the understanding of the end times. 1 Corinthians 15:51 says, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” Mystery in the New Testament is basically a secret that needed to be revealed. We would never know this unless God revealed it to us, and He is revealing some new information to us at this point in 1 Corinthians.
Here is what He is revealing to us: 1 Corinthians 15:52, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.” There is going to come a point in time in which the Lord is going to change us. He is talking about believers here in 1 Corinthians. God is going to raise us in incorruptibility. Us being those who are born in sin. Those whose bodies were feeble. Those who died and have been battling with sin their entire lives. Our bodies have had the effects of sin and will all be changed . . .
