I must admit: one of my favorite movies is Live Free or Die Hard with Bruce Willis and Justin Long. It’s a combination of action and nerd. It’s perfect. In the movie a terrorist group begins executing a fire sale. Long’s character (a hacker who was being picked up as a suspect for the fire sale) explains to Willis (the cop picking him up to be questioned by the FBI) that a fire sale in the hacker world is a full fledged attack on the infrastructure of a country. “Everything must go,” he proclaims.
Everything must go… Yes! But not just the infrastructure of a singular country. No, that’s not enough. Everything must go… Everything. But I don’t mean via computer hacking. No. That would be too small. Incapable of doing what needs to be done. God is the only One who can pull off a fire sale of heavenly proportions. And that is what He has set out to do since chapter three of the book of Genesis. Ever since sin came in and corrupted His creation He has been on a quest, an adventure, of getting rid of the plague and bringing about something completely different.
A Fire Sale of Heavenly Proportions
Eden. It was good. It was bliss. It was how things ought to be now. But our ancestors screwed that one up – royally. All for a flippin’ piece of fruit! I hope it tasted good!
But let not our hearts be troubled. God has a mission. He has a grand plan to defeat His enemy on the grand chess game of existence. And He is not just concerned with winning that chess game and rescuing you and me. No, that is only part of His motivation. He is setting out to defeat the enemy and He is going to do this through a fire sale of heavenly proportions.
Everything that reminds Him of the sin-plagued existence we live in now has got to go.
God is not just about the redemption of your soul, but the restoration of all things. In fact, your redemption is the necessary beginning of Him restoring you. Each one of us have been plagued and altered from what we were meant to be. [shareable]God is not just about the redemption of your soul, but the restoration of all things.[/shareable]
Shall we be surprised then that the Good Book ends with a victory that is not simply about good overcoming evil or man being with God, but it is a picture of complete restoration. The end of everything is the beginning of that which mirrors the beginning. Only now the picture is even better. [shareable]The end of everything is the beginning of that which mirrors the beginning. Only now the picture is even better. [/shareable]
Simply read Revelation 21. It’s got this written all over it!
v.1 …a new heaven and a new earth…
v.3 …“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God…
v.4 …will wipe away every tear from their eyes…death shall be no more…no mourning…no crying…no pain…
v.5 …“Behold, I am making all things new.”…
v.6 …It is done!…To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment…
And so it goes.
What began as redemption will culminate as restoration. Mankind began with no need of redemption, however, now that we all do, God has set out to take care of that so that He can make all things new. That includes you, but it is not limited to you. [shareable]What began as redemption will culminate as restoration.[/shareable]
Death Before Restoration – Destruction With Resurrection
In order to get to restoration, to where all things are new, He must bring to death that which is old.
v.1 …the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more…
What is this? It’s a fire sale of heavenly proportions. Everything must go. That’s what God is practically saying. With resurrection comes destruction – a completely doing away with that which preceded and that which does not jive with resurrection.
A Couple Implications
This is so beautiful and I hope you see it…
1. What God does with all that exists is exactly what He also does in you – not just to you, but in you.
2 Corinthians 5:17 declares, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Don’t you see? A fire sale of heavenly proportions happens in you who are in Christ. Everything that you used to be, everything that is old and passing away is stripped away and done away with. The new has come. This is not just a future hope to long for, but a present reality to live in. [shareable]This is not just a future hope to long for, but a present reality to live in. [/shareable]
2. God’s ultimate mission of the restoration of all things shall be the ultimate mission of those in Him.
Jesus calls you, “the salt of the earth…the light of the world…” (Matthew 5:13-14). Every new creation, every Christian is, at the most fundamental level of his/her identity, an instrument of restoration. In a world that is dying and passing away, we are the ones who are to be restoring the broken things. We are life givers to an otherwise dying world (salt). We are also ones who point the world to hope, to the answer of their deepest questions, the solution to their deepest longings (light). We give life to a dying world and we point them to the One who can give them a life that is beyond this world.
In the End
…all will be as it should be…
…God will make all things new including, but not limited to you…
…those in Christ will see the full revelation of the declaration that they are new creatures…
…we’ll be in a place that is better than heaven, we’ll be in the new heavens and new earth…
…we’ll dwell with God because of His desire to dwell with us…
Everything must go.
And that’s great news because the best truly is yet to come.
A fire sale of heavenly proportions is coming.
