I N THE DISTANT PAST, GOD DISINHERITED THE NATIONS OF EARTH AS HIS coruling family, the original Edenic design, choosing instead to create a new family from Abraham (Deut 32:8–9). The disinherited nations were put under the authority of lesser elohim , divine sons of God . When they became corrupt, they were sentenced to mortality (Psa 82:6–8). The Old Testament is basically a record of the long war between Yahweh and the gods, and between Yahweh’s children and the nations, to re-establish the original Edenic design.
The victory at Armageddon of the returning incarnate Yahweh over the Beast (antichrist) who directed the nations against Yahweh’s holy city is the event that topples the elohim from their thrones. It is the day of Yahweh, the time when all that is wicked is judged and when those who believe and overcome replace the disloyal sons of God. The kingdom is ready for full, earthly realization under a reconstituted divine council whose members include glorified believers. The full mass of believing humanity will experience a new Edenic world in a resurrected, celestial state.
What was ruined by the fall is restored—and made irreversible—by the incarnation of Yahweh, his atoning death, and his resurrection. But all that is relatively easy to talk about when compared to passages that deal with what comes last and remains forever.
How do you describe the indescribable? Paul grasped the problem clearly. I still like the King James Version of his sentiments for their rhythmic, almost lyrical quality:
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Cor 2:9 KJV ).
How true. But in this last chapter, I want to try and sketch what the biblical writers were thinking when they wrote about the celestial bodies of resurrected believers and the eternal state of the new Eden.
We’ve devoted a good deal of attention to outlining the New Testament’s use of sonship, family, and adoption terminology for believers (e.g., Gal 3:7–9, 23–28; John 1:11–12; 1 John 3:1–3; 2 Pet 1:2–4; Gal 4:4–6; Rom 8:15–23; Eph 1:4–5). 1 The logic of this language should be quite evident by now. In ages past the divine sons of God watched as Yahweh created the world (Job 38:7–8). Yahweh then announced to his council his intention to create humans who would be his imagers, a status his divine sons also shared (Gen 1:26–27). We were designed to be embodied reflections of God . That point of biblical theology was at the core of Paul’s most extended discussion of what we will be in the new Eden, a place we cannot go to until we die in Christ and are raised with him. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 :
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what sort of body do they come?” 36 Foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body which it will become, but you sow the bare seed, whether perhaps of wheat or of some of the rest. 38 But God gives to it a body just as he wishes, and to each one of the seeds its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same, but there is one flesh of human beings, and another flesh of animals, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish, 40 and heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly bodies is of another kind. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory.
42 Thus also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruptibility. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body . 45 Thus also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, made of earth; the second man is from heaven. 48 As the one who is made of earth, so also are those who are made of earth, and as the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the one who is made of earth, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
50 But I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruptibility. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For it is necessary for this perishable body to put on incorruptibility, and this mortal body to put on immortality (1 Cor 15:35–53).
This passage generates a number of questions. The most fundamental is no doubt what Paul means by asserting that there is some sort of “heavenly body” (v. 40) that is “spiritual” ( pneumatikos ; v. 44) and immortal (vv. 52–53). Whatever he meant by that language has importance for every believer, since they “will also bear the image of the heavenly [second] man” (vv. 45–49).
There has actually been a good deal of scholarly attention paid to Paul’s thoughts in 1 Corinthians 15 . 2 In the ancient Hellenistic Graeco-Roman world of Paul, there was a belief that the afterlife dead had bodies that were not flesh and blood, but which were composed of “a finer, purer substance.” 3 Many people during this time referred to this substance as aether , and believed that stars were also composed of it. This explains in part the propensity in extrabiblical writers to assert that the afterlife dead became stars or like stars. Since stars were thought to be divine members of the realm of the gods, the idea makes sense in its own context. Paul’s thinking, however, transcends this equation. 4
Paul was not dependent on Graeco-Roman paganism for thoughts about celestial immortality. The Old Testament contains kernels of the idea, and many Jewish literary works of the Second Temple period address the topic. Daniel 12:2–3 ties resurrection life to the heavens (and stars) without speculating on the nature of resurrection existence:
2 And many from those sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to everlasting life and some to disgrace and everlasting contempt. 3 But the ones having insight will shine like the brightness of the expanse, and the ones providing justice for the many will be like the stars forever and ever.
The New Testament contains similar thinking. Matthew 13:43 says, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” The point of the celestial analogy is apparently that a believer’s body will be like that of Jesus, since Jesus’ appearance at the transfiguration is described in similar terms: “His face shone like the sun, and his clothing became bright as the light” (Matt 17:2). Second Temple Jewish sources describe the same idea with respect to the resurrected righteous. 5
Ultimately, this sort of celestial language is trying to telegraph a simple but indescribably profound idea. In the eternal afterlife with God, believers will have the same sort of body that Jesus had after the resurrection. We will identify with the risen Jesus bodily as we identify with the Spirit currently: “He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Cor 6:17 ESV ). 6
In our more modern language, we might say that the body Christ had after the resurrection was his earthly body, healed and transformed into a material form unbound by the limitations of human terrestrial existence. It was a “glorious body” (Phil 3:21), both of earth and not of earth. This resurrection transformation is the final, unimaginably literal expression of being conformed to the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18). As one scholar summarizes:
To be conformed to Christ’s Glory body is evidently parallel to becoming “the same image” as a divine being (2 Cor 3:18). Thus this luminous corporeality of God known from the Hebrew Bible has been granted to Paul’s converts through their participation in Christ. They are assimilated to the super body of the divine Christ. They share in the reality of Christ’s divine body, which guarantees their participation in Christ’s attributes of incorruptibility and immortality. 7
The book of Revelation frequently describes believers as those who “overcome” the assault of evil described in the book by retaining their faith in Christ, the Lamb of God who is the beginning and the end. On six occasions the term is used in conjunction with the reward of eternal life. The imagery invoked is unmistakable, as it is drawn from Old Testament descriptions of sacred space—first Eden, then the ark and the tabernacle, then the heavenly abode inhabited by the new, resurrected high priest, Jesus himself. To live in the new Eden means to occupy sacred space reserved for God and his family-council.
In Revelation 2:7, 11 Jesus says of those who conquer, “I will grant [to them] to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.… [They] will not be hurt by the second death” ( ESV ). The reference to the tree of life is clearly Edenic. Revelation 2:11 is less transparent, but also echoes Eden. The first death refers to physical death, brought by Adam’s sin and expulsion from Eden. Since all humans, believers and unbelievers, are resurrected before judgment, the second death is the final judgment (Rev 21:8). Those who continue to live with God do so in a new Edenic world.
Revelation 2:17 tells us that those who conquer receive “hidden manna” and “a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, that no one knows except the one who receives it .” Manna, of course, was a food supernaturally provided during the wilderness wanderings (Exod 16 ). It was bread from heaven, an analogy to Jesus as the source of eternal life (John 6:31–58). It was “hidden” in the sense that it was reserved only for those who had believed to the end. 8 A pot of manna was placed “before the Lord” in the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies (Exod 16:33; Heb 9:4). According to Second Temple Jewish writings, manna was considered the food of angels and of the sons of God. 9
The meaning of the white stone isn’t completely certain. Based on parallels found in Second Temple period Jewish literature, the white stone was a symbol of legal acquittal or a token of membership among the righteous. The meaning is therefore very similar to conquering believers receiving white robes referenced in Revelation 3:5, which says: “The one who conquers in this way will be dressed in white clothing, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, and I will declare his name before my Father and before his angels.” As we saw in chapter 36 , Jesus in fact introduces us to the council. A white stone and a white robe were signs of membership in God’s family. 10
Revelation 3:12 draws on the temple. Jesus says, “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.” The language is familiar from passages like 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19, but still startling. Yahweh’s temple was sacred space—and we are part of that temple. As we learned from the Old Testament, the temple was the abode of the Name, Yahweh’s presence—and now we bear that Name.
Revelation 21:7 is the most explicit link between divine sonship and conquering evil and the nations: “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son” ( ESV ). A “heritage” is of course an inheritance. Israel was Yahweh’s inheritance, his portion (Deut 32:9). We are part of that (Gal 3:26–29) and also govern it as sons and daughters of his royal, divine household council. The inheritance of the believer is dominion with Christ and God.
The Eden imagery at the end of the book of Revelation is obvious, as that can be the only context for the tree of life:
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.…
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.…
19 And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book (Rev 22:1–3, 14, 19 ESV ).
Notice that the tree of life is specifically now for “the healing of the nations,” a clear reference to the reclaiming of the nations turned over to lesser gods at Babel (Deut 32:8–9). The effect is also described: “No longer will there be anything accursed.” The curses upon earth and humanity brought on by the fall are reversed. The other two tree-of-life references naturally link the eternal life of the believer to being present in Eden—the place where God, the source of all life, dwells.
The Old Testament alludes to the reversal of the curse and the coming global kingdom in striking ways that echo the Edenic conditions:
•All those formerly sick or disabled will be restored to full health (Isa 29:18–19; 30:26; Mic 4:6–7).
•All will enjoy a supernatural abundance of milk, honey, fruit, and produce (Isa 4:2; 7:21–22; 25:6–9; 30:23–24; Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13–15).
•There will be peace throughout all creation (Hos 2:18; Isa 11:1–10; cf. Ezek 34:25–28); and all Israel (Isa 10:20; 52:6; Ezek 39:22).
•All nations (Isa 19:19–25; cf. Ezek 38:23) will know that Yahweh is God.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Revelation 21:1. John writes:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more ( ESV ).
In the ancient world the sea was a thing of dread. It was unpredictable and untamable. It was a place upon which humans couldn’t live. Consequently, the sea was often used as a metaphor for chaos, destruction, and death. The power and chaotic unruliness of the sea was symbolized in both the Old Testament and a wide range of ancient Near Eastern literatures with a dragon or sea monster, variously known as Leviathan and Rahab (e.g., Pss 74:14; 89:10). 11
Sea imagery conveys these ideas from the very beginning of the Bible. The waters of the primeval deep (Gen 1:2) must be calmed and restrained by God. The defeat of the gods of Egypt happens when the sea obeys its Maker (Exod 14 ). Jesus walks on the sea and instantly brings it into submission. To the ancient mind these incidents symbolized power over chaos and everything that might bring harm and death to humanity. Absence of chaos meant that everything was in perfect, divine order and calm.
This is why Revelation ends as it does, with God’s return to permanently dwell with his family on a new earth. When Eden comes, there is no more sea . All that was originally intended in God’s vision of a global Eden has come to pass. The final Eden has no death. The choices of God’s free-will imagers that obstructed God’s plan have been dealt with. All the imagers, human and divine, who dwell in the new Eden have chosen correctly—they have believed that Yahweh is the God of gods and that his way is best. Their will has aligned with his will. The “already, but not yet” has been realized. The “not yet” has given way to now and forever.