The new creation

God is not delaying the return of Christ!

The focal element of 2 Peter 3 is a defence of the Christian belief for the future. The author counters the derision of those who deny the return of Christ—“Where is the promise of His coming?” (verse 4)—calmly and with compassion: God has a different measure of time than man. He is not delaying the return of Christ, but is actually “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (verse 9). The delay is thus a sign of God’s patience, which gives us an opportunity to repent. The patience of God has its source in His love: He wants to live with as many as possible of the human beings He has ever created in a new creation, and do so forever. Our Bible text states that righteousness will dwell in this creation

The new creation

The new creation is neither a renewal nor a transformation of the old creation, but rather something completely new. God is ultimately the Creator of a new world, a new reality, for which we may have some images (Revelation 21:1–22: 5), but which ultimately remains beyond human conception today.

Righteousness as a distinguishing feature of the new creation

This much is certain, however: in the future kingdom of God, evil in all its manifestations will be disempowered once and for all. Evil and unrighteousness, which have caused mankind to suffer, have their source in the fall into sin. They do not come from God, but will be forever eliminated by Him. In the new creation, God will truly be all in all (1 Corinthians 15: 28), every tear will be wiped away, and we will see God as He is with clear eyes. Death will no longer exist. There will be no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain (Revelation 21: 4). The new creation will thus far surpass the previous creation. Divine righteousness will prevail there. An order that completely corresponds to the will of God will come into being.

Already at the beginning of the old creation (Genesis 1: 26–27), God had envisioned and desired that the inhabitants of this new world will then live in equality with one another and for one another in the perfect image of God. The words of Apostle Paul will then finally have become reality (Galatians 3: 26–28).

Righteousness among us today

Let us remember that our future in the new creation must already begin to dawn in the present. In other words, it is to become visible already today.

Let us see to it that the righteousness of God can be revealed in us each day anew in the form of mercy (Luke 6: 36) already now. We can do this by not begrudging our fellow human beings the love of God, and even allowing them to feel it today, irrespective of their gender, ethnic or national background, education, or social status.

Jesus already lived and taught us how to do this. Here we are reminded, for example, of the parables of the labourers in the vineyard (Matthew 20: 1–16), the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11–31), or the day of judgement (Matthew 25: 31–46). God promises those who strive to exhibit His mercy in their actions that He will make them righteous in the new creation (Matthew 25: 37–40, 46) in order to live together with them forever.

Context

The third chapter of 2 Peter reinforces hope in the return of Christ, which was already considered doubtful by many Christians at that time, and makes it clear that this event could occur at any time.

See also Divine Service Guide Special Edition 2/2015, “Salvation in the new creation”, pp. 10–13.