Living into the End

I am becoming more and more convinced that the best way to handle the questions we often put to our faith--What ought I to do?  Who ought I to be?  Why?  What is God's will?  What is sin?--is to ask one simple question--a question I call the "eschatological question":


When God is through with us--through with his purposes for us and for the world--what will we look like?  What will the creation look like?


Obviously it is a simple question to ask, but a difficult one to discern the answer to.  Though, perhaps not so difficult as we might first assume:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

New Creation--both of us, and of the creation at large.  The expulsion of all evil; the embrace of all good.  The dwelling of God and the dwelling of men reunited.  This is the end toward which everything is moving.

The end of evil and wickedness; the eternal establishment of that which is of God.  God dwelling with us once again.  That's the answer.  Anything that draws us closer to that vision is of God; anything that pulls us away from it is not.  Of course which things do and don't still requires discernment (that's why were are given the Spirit of God), but this is the end toward which we are moving nevertheless.

As we wrestle with how to live out our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ, may we always keep the eschatological vision of the New Testament at the forefront of our prayers, our minds, and our lives.

May we live into it!