Today we’re wrapping up this seven episode series where we’ve taken a 50,000 foot view of the grand saga that the Bible tells. As you’ve noted this saga is all about creation, fall, and redemption. So, as we come to the end of this very quick study it is fitting to note that the book of Revelation not only relates the final events of redemptive history but actually goes beyond them – to take a glimpse at what our life will be like after the plan of redemption is complete. The book of Revelation doesn’t just reveal the end of history of the earth and the heavens that we have today but it shows us that these heavens and earth will be immediately followed by a new heavens and earth.

VK: That’s such an amazing thought. We are such creatures of the here and now that it can be hard to take a step back and realize that a time is coming when the heaven and earth we see all around us now will be replaced. Revelation, Chapter 21, verse 1 says very straightforwardly, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.” And this declaration, while astounding, isn’t really news. More than 800 years earlier the prophet Isaiah in Chapter 65, verse 17 had recorded God as saying, “For behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” So, as hard as it is for us to conceive, we live in physical creation that has a limited life expectancy. But we do not have a limited life expectancy. God has promised that anyone who has placed their trust in Jesus will live forever in a new heaven and a new earth.

RD: Yes. The visible universe that we see all about us that seems so permanent at this point in history is actually not permanent. But our lives, which sometimes seem so transient, will actually be eternal. For anyone who places their trust in Jesus it will be an eternity of bliss and joy. That’s why it’s so important for everyone to think very soberly about their eternal destiny because the book of Revelation not only mentions the potential of an eternity in bliss but also a destiny that is bound up in “the lake of fire.” The choice of where we wind up is up to us. And the fact that there are two potential destinies for every person who is alive today, or whoever has lived or will live, is one of the reasons it’s so important to properly understand the first scripture we heard today. Revelation 4:8 is one of two places in the Bible where God is described as being “holy, holy, holy.”

VK: The other place is Isaiah, chapter 6, verse 3 where the six-winged Seraphim are described as saying “ “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

RD: Exactly. As RC Sproul pointed out in his classic book The Holiness of God, there is only one attribute of God that is ever emphasized by tri-fold repetition – God’s holiness. The Bible describes God as possessing many different attributes. God is loving. God is just. God is immutable. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. The Bible makes a lot of declarations about God and His attributes. But there is only one of God’s attributes that is distinguished by using a triple repetition in the declaration of the attribute: holiness.

This is episode 285.

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