New Heaven, New Earth

Randy Alcorn's book Heaven has been really challenging me to look forward to Heaven, and ultimately the New Heaven and New Earth. Here's a section of the book that led me to worship God with great joy.

"[...] the future Heaven will be in the human realm, on Earth. Then the dwelling place of God will also be the dwelling place of humanity, in a resurrected universe: "'I saw a new heaven and a new earth....I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God....And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God'" (Revelation 21:1-3). Heaven, God's dwelling place, will one day be on the New Earth. 

Notice that the New Jerusalem, which was in Heaven, will come down out of Heaven from God. Where does it go? To the New Earth. From that time on, 'the dwelling of God' will be with redeemed mankind on Earth. [...]

That God would come down to the New Earth to live with us fits perfectly with his original plan. God could have taken Adam and Eve up to Heaven to visit with him in his world. Instead, he came down to walk with them in their world (Genesis 3:8). Jesus says of anyone who would be his disciple, 'My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him' (John 14:23). This is a picture of God's ultimate plan--not to take us up to live in a realm made for him, but to come down and live with us in the realm he made for us." [...] The Incarnation is about God inhabiting space and time as a human being [(John 1:14)]--the new heavens and New Earth are about God making space and time his eternal home. As Jesus is God incarnate, so the New Earth will be Heaven incarnate. Think of what Revelation 21:3 tells us--God will relocate his people and come down from Heaven to the New Earth to live with them: 'God Himself will be with them.' Rather than our going up to live in God's home forever, God will come down to live in our home forever. Simply put, through the present Heaven is 'up there,' the future, eternal Heaven will be 'down here.' If we fail to see that distinction, we fail to understand God's plan and are unable to envision what our eternal lives will look like. 

[...] Their [Heaven and Earth's] present incompatibility is due to a temporary aberration--Earth is under sin and the Curse. Once that aberration is corrected, Heaven and Earth will be fully compatible again (Ephesians 1:10). [...] the reality of Heaven on Earth--God dwelling with mankind in the world he made for us--will in fact be realized. It is God's dream. It is God's plan. He--not we--will accomplish it."

That's my favorite part of the book so far. For some reason, it only recently hit me that God's plan has always been to come down to dwell with man. This is so amazing and humbling to me! He didn't just come to seek and save us from the penalty of our sin, but He genuinely wants to dwell with us forever as our God and we as His people. I still can't articulate why this feels like new news to me, but I'm still chewing on it.