Rev.21:5 – And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new”.

2 Cor.5:17 – Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Paul believed that creation was groaning with anticipation for the culmination of all things. He described this moment as the unveiling or manifestation of the sons of God. John said that we, the sons and daughters of God, do not yet appear as we will be when Christ returns and we are put on in full display as His greatest prize. Comparing today’s verses gives us a glimpse of what is happening, we are new creations in Christ living in a state of renewal in this life. He changes us into the image of Christ from glory to glory. When He returns we will see everything in creation also made new. This fallen world is passing away and the sons and daughters of God are the guarantee that that is happening. Here is how the TDNT word book describes this.

“Humanity is creation’s goal, yet also the starting point of evil. The human creature is a living being, and its natural life involves the tension of a being in God’s image that is accompanied by subjection to sinful impulses. As God’s (natural) creatures, people have no claim on God. They belong to this creation, with psychḗ, not pneúma, as their life’s principle. With the gospel there is a new creation. This is creation by the Word and Spirit to new life in the Spirit. The entry of the Spirit through Christ’s word and work means that the new aeon (age) breaks into the course of this aeon (age) in a creative work of God which unites divided humanity into one new humanity. The goal is the totally new creation, the new heaven and earth, in which death will be abolished, Christ will be fully manifested as the pneumatic man (man of the Spirit), and the glorious liberty of God’s children will be fulfilled with the redemption of the body”.

As the end of the age approaches the tension increases. The forces of darkness are throwing everything they have to stop the inevitable, the revealing of Christ’s work of redemption at the presentation of the Bride of Christ. Just as the Lord says in this passage, “Behold, I am making all things new”, the new heavens and the new earth are about to appear. In the meantime that work of renewal is seen on full display in God’s children.