The new heaven and new earth also involves God’s work of restoration in the old creation to produce the restored nations to be the people on the new earth around the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24, 26). At His coming back, the Lord will judge the living. Some of the living ones will then become the people on the new earth during the millennium. At the end of the millennium, some of these people will rebel, and God will judge them (Rev. 20:8-9). The remnant of these living ones will be transferred into the new earth and will be the nations, the people of God, around the New Jerusalem. These nations will be restored and even redeemed, but they will not be regenerated. Therefore, in the new heaven and new earth, God will have both the new creation and the restored part of the old creation.
The new heaven and new earth will have the New Jerusalem as its center (see chart in Message Two Hundred Forty). After the coming forth of the new heaven and new earth, the holy city, New Jerusalem, will descend to the new earth (Rev. 21:1-2). This indicates that the dwelling place of God and His redeemed will not be in heaven but on the new earth. Furthermore, as we have seen, the restored nations, whose rebellious nature will have been completely purged, will become the nations on the new earth around the New Jerusalem. In the new universe, the new heaven and new earth, God’s focus will be on the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the center.
At the consummation of God’s work in the first heaven and first earth, there will be God’s new creation with Himself in this new creation as its life and its everything. This new creation will actually be the New Jerusalem, which is a mingling of the processed Triune God with His chosen, redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people. In eternity future there will also be the restored old creation. The new heaven and new earth will not be another heaven and another earth. Rather, the new heaven and new earth will be the old heaven and old earth restored but not regenerated. The new heaven and new earth and all the nations will be the restored old creation. In the center of this restored old creation will be the new creation, the New Jerusalem.
“According to His promise we are expecting new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). The Greek word rendered “dwells” may also be translated “makes its home.” Because the Epistle of 2 Peter is on the government of God, it tells us that there will be a new universe where righteousness will dwell. This indicates that everything will be altogether under God’s government. Nothing will be wrong; nothing will be unjust or unrighteous. Thus, there will be no need of any further governmental judgment of God.
Righteousness is the main factor based upon which God’s governmental judgment is meted out to all creatures in His creation. Hence, in the books of 1 and 2 Peter, which are concerned with God’s government, this matter is stressed repeatedly (1 Pet. 2:23, 24; 3:12, 14; 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:1; 2:5, 7-8, 21; 3:13). The main thing we see in John’s writings is God’s love expressed in His life; in Paul’s writings, God’s grace distributed in His dispensing; and in Peter’s writings, God’s righteousness maintained in His government. God’s life, dispensing, and government are the basic structures of the ministry of these three apostles. Life is of love, dispensing is by grace, and government is based upon righteousness. This righteousness will dwell in the new heaven and new earth, and it will saturate God’s new universe prevailingly to maintain it absolutely under God’s righteous order, so that there will be no need ever of any further judgment.
Hebrews 1:8; Psalm 145:13; and Daniel 4:3b indicate that the new heaven and new earth will exist for eternity. The new heaven and new earth as the new realm for God’s eternal administration will exist for eternity as God Himself is eternal. It will last unto all the generations of the age of the ages without ending to serve the divine purpose for God to carry out His eternal administration for His eternal manifestation and expression in the fullest.
The new heaven and new earth will have years, months, days, and nights ruled by the sun and the moon (Rev. 22:2; cf. Gen. 1:16-18). The word “month” in Revelation 22:2 indicates that in the new heaven and new earth the moon will still be there to divide the twelve months. The sun will also be there to separate day and night into periods of twelve hours each. In the new heaven and new earth there will still be the distinction between day and night, but in the New Jerusalem there will be no such distinction (Rev. 21:25; 22:5), for the light in the holy city will be the Triune God Himself (Rev. 21:23).