Heaven (25 page)

Consider this prophetic statement: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he
will reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15). It doesn't say that Christ will destroy this world's kingdom. It doesn't
even say he'll replace this world's kingdom. No, the kingdom of this world will actually
become
the Kingdom of Christ. God won't obliterate earthly kingdoms but will
transform them into his own.
And it's that new earthly king­dom (joined then to God's heavenly Kingdom) over which "he will reign for ever and ever."

This is a revolutionary viewpoint, standing in stark contrast to the prevalent myth that God's Kingdom will demolish and replace
the kingdoms of Earth rather than cleanse, redeem, and resurrect them into his eternal Kingdom. This brings us back again
to that remarkable statement about the New Jerusalem: "The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will
bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut.... The glory and honor of the nations will be brought
into it" (Revelation 21:24-26).

Bruce Milne says of this text, "Nothing of ultimate worth from the long his­tory of the nations will be omitted from the heavenly
community. Everything which authentically reflects the God of truth, all that is of abiding worth from within the national
stories and the cultural inheritance of the world's peoples, will find its place in the New Jerusalem."
¹⁶⁵

As the magi, kings of foreign nations, once came to the old Jerusalem seek­ing to worship the Messiah King, on the New Earth
countless magi will journey to the New Jerusalem. Hearts filled with worship, they will humbly offer King Jesus the tribute
of their cultural treasures. He will be pleased to receive them. The King will delight to entrust the rule of the nations
to those who served him faithfully when Earth lived under sin's shadow, before its triumphant and eter­nal deliverance.

CHAPTER 21

WILL WE ACTUALLY RULE WITH CHRIST?

In the messianic kingdom, the martyrs will reclaim the world as the possession which was denied to them by their persecutors.
In the creation in which they endured servitude, they will eventually reign.

Irenaeus

G
od created Adam and Eve to be king and queen over the earth. Their job was to rule the earth, to the glory of God.

They failed.

Jesus Christ is the second Adam, and the church is his bride, the second Eve. Christ is king, the church is his queen. Christ
will exercise dominion over all nations of the earth: "He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the
earth. . . . All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him" (Psalm 72:8,11). As the new head of the human
race, Christ—with his beloved people as his bride and co-rulers—will at last accomplish what was entrusted to Adam and Eve.
God's saints will fulfill on the New Earth the role God first as­signed to Adam and Eve on the old Earth. "They will reign
for ever and ever" (Revelation 22:5).

Richard Mouw writes, "Over and over again the Scriptures make this plain: the political power which has been so corrupted
and twisted in the hands and hearts of sinful rulers must be returned to its rightful source."
¹⁶⁶

The Kingdom that God will bring to Earth will crush the last of Earth's kingdoms. Daniel prophesied, "The rock that struck
the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. . . . In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set
up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring
them to an end, but it will itself endure forever" (Daniel 2:35, 44).

Human kingdoms will rise and fall until Christ sets up a kingdom that for­ever replaces them, where mankind rules in righteousness.
"He was given au­thority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed" (Daniel 7:14).

Because Christ will be the King of kings, this will be the Kingdom of kingdoms—the greatest kingdom in human history. Yes,
human history,
for our history will not end at Christ's return or upon our relocation to the New Earth. It will continue forever, to the
glory of God.

"Rejoice greatly.... See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salva­tion, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt,
the foal of a donkey. . . . He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River
to the ends of the earth" (Zechariah 9:9-10). Matthew 21:5 makes it clear that Zechariah's prophecy concerns the Messiah.
Just as the first part of the prophecy was literally fulfilled when Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, we should expect that
the second part will be literally fulfilled when Jesus brings peace to the nations and rules them all. Jesus will return to
Earth as "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19:11-16). We're promised that "the Lord will be king over the whole
earth" (Zechariah 14:9).

Bible-believing Jews in the first century were not foolish to think that the Messiah would be King of the earth. They were
wrong about the Messiah's identity when they rejected Christ, and they were wrong to overlook his need to come as a suffering
servant to redeem the world; but they were
right
to believe that the Messiah would forever rule the earth. He will!

Prior to Christ's return, his Kingdom will be intermingled with the world's cultures (Matthew 13:24-30). But his followers
will be growing in character and proving their readiness to rule. Through adversity and opportunity as well as in their artistic
and cultural accomplishments, they will be groomed for their leadership roles in Christ's eternal Kingdom. Their society-transforming
cre­ative skills will be put on prominent display in the new universe, where they will "shine like the sun in the kingdom
of their Father" (Matthew 13:43).

WHY ARE WE SURPRISED THAT WE'LL RULE THE EARTH?

Because I teach on thesubject of redeemed humanity ruling the earth, I've had many opportunities to observe people's responses.
Often they're surprised to learn that we will reign in eternity over lands, cities, and nations. Many are skeptical—it's a
foreign concept that seems fanciful. Nothing demonstrates how far we've distanced ourselves from our biblical calling like
our lack of knowledge about our destiny to rule the earth. Why are we so surprised, when it is spoken of throughout the Old
Testament and repeatedly reaffirmed in the New Testament?

Because crowns are the primary symbol of ruling, every mention of crowns as rewards is a reference to our ruling with Christ.
In his parables, Jesus speaks of our ruling over cities (Luke 19:17). Paul addresses the subject of Christians ruling as if
it were Theology 101: "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? . . . Do you not know that we will judge angels?"
(1 Corinthians 6:2-3). The form of the verb in this question implies that we won't simply judge them a single time but will
continually rule them.

If Paul speaks of this future reality as if it were something every child should know, why is it so foreign to Christians
today? Elsewhere he says, "If we endure, we will also reign with him" (2 Timothy 2:12). God's decree that his servants will
"reign for ever and ever" on the New Earth (Revelation 22:5) is a direct ful­fillment of the commission he gave to Adam and
Eve: "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the
air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Genesis 1:28). This mandate is confirmed by David: "You put
us in charge of everything you made, giving us authority over all things" (Psalm 8:6, NLT).

When we consider that mankind's reign on the earth is introduced in the first chapters of the Bible, mentioned throughout
the Old Testament, discussed by Jesus in the Gospels, by Paul in the Epistles, and repeated by John in the Bi­ble's final
chapters, it is remarkable that we would fail to see it. Remembering again that a "crown" speaks of ruling authority, consider
the following examples from one small portion of Scripture, Revelation 2-5:

Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. (2:10)

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations. (2:26)

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. (3:11)

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on
his throne. (3:21)

The twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne. . . .

They lay their crowns before the throne. (4:10)

[You] have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and
priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth. (5:9-10, NKJV)

Who does God say will reign? People of every tribe and language and people and nation. Where will they reign? On Earth, not
in some intangible heavenly realm. Where on Earth? Likely with people of their own tribe, language, and nation—cultural distinctives
that we're told still exist on the New Earth (Reve­lation 21:24,26; 22:2).

Wayne Grudem states that "when the author of Hebrews says that we do 'not yet' see everything in subjection to man (Hebrews
2:8), he implies that all things will eventually be subject to us, under the kingship of the man Christ Jesus. . . . This
will fulfill God's original plan to have everything in the world subject to the human beings that he had made. In this sense,
then, we will 'in­herit the earth' (Matthew 5:5) and reign over it as God originally intended."
¹⁶⁷

OUR INHERITANCE: OWNING AND RULING THE LAND

When an earthly father dies, he bequeaths his estate to his offspring. His chil­dren are heirs. To what? To their father's
property. If he owned land, they be­come landowners. If he was a king, they are heirs to his entire kingdom. When an earthly
king dies, his firstborn takes his place. Sometimes the new king is surrounded by siblings who are his co-heirs and therefore
co-rulers. As heirs, the king's children rule on their father's behalf, even if he still lives. They share in his glory. They
go to battle to defend his kingdom, which is also
their
king­dom. In battle, they share in his sufferings.

It's the same in our relationship with God. "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now
if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his suffer­ings in order
that we may also share in his glory" (Romans 8:16-17).

Of course, the King of the universe, God, never dies. But he has delegated sovereignty to his firstborn son, Jesus. Christ,
in turn, gladly shares his domin­ion with the redeemed—his siblings—who are co-heirs of the Father's throne. They will rule
with Christ over the Kingdom.

The right to exercise power comes from ownership. A king owns his king­dom, which consists of land. The extent of his rule
is the extent of what he owns. Because God owns the entire universe, the Kingdom that falls into the lap of his heirs, his
children, encompasses the entire universe. (That it all came under the Curse for Adam's sin demonstrates its tie to humanity.)

Christ, the firstborn, is the primary ruler, but we are called "co-heirs with Christ." God entrusts us to rule one prime piece
of territory—Earth, which he created specifically for us.

God has not arbitrarily assigned us to rule the earth. It's our land, our king dom, granted to us by our Father. It's a kingdom
once lost by us to a usurping pseudo-king, Satan, but which was won back for us by the mighty valor of Christ, who shed his
blood to purchase our freedom—and with it our inheri­tance, the earth.

This is the drama of redemption. If we fail to understand our status as God's children and heirs and rulers of the earth,
we will fail to comprehend God's re­demptive work. But if we do understand our role in God's plan, we'll realize that he would
not deliver us from Earth to live forever in a disembodied realm. In fact, the inheritance that God grants us is the very
same Earth over which epic battles have been fought since Satan's first attack in Eden. Our inheritance is not only physical
but also eternal: "The days of the blameless are known to the Lord, and their inheritance will endure forever" (Psalm 37:18).

Currently, on this earth under the Curse, we serve Christ and "share in his sufferings." Why? Because the earth is under siege.
It's being claimed by a false king, Satan, and his false princes, the fallen angels. It's being claimed by human kings, rebels
who set themselves up against God and violate his standards by de­claring their independence from him. Those who are co-heirs
with Christ en­gage in spiritual warfare to reclaim the hearts of mankind for God's glory. "For our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the au­thorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12). After the final battle is won by Christ, we will rule the earth with
him as co-heirs of his Kingdom.

SHOULD WE WANT TO RULE?

The government of the New Earth won't be a democracy. It won't be majority rule, and it won't be driven by opinion polls.
Instead, every citizen of Heaven will have an appointed role, one that fulfills him or her and contributes to the whole. No
one will "fall through the cracks" in God's Kingdom. No one will feel worthless or insignificant.

When I write and speak on this subject, people often respond, "But I don't
want
to rule. That's not my idea of Heaven."

Well, it's
God's
idea of Heaven.

We are part of God's family. Ruling the universe is the family business. To want no part of it is to want no part of our Father.
It may sound spiritual to say we don't care to rule, but because God's the one who wants us to rule, the spiri­tual response
is to be interested in his plans and purposes.

Whom will we rule? Other people. Angels. If God wishes, he may create new beings for us to rule. Who will rule over us? Other
people.

There will be a social hierarchy of government, but there's no indication of a relational hierarchy. In other words, the apostle
Paul will be in a position of greater leadership than most of us, but that doesn't mean he'll be inaccessible. There will
be no pride, envy, boasting, or anything sin-related. Our differences will be a manifestation of God's creativity. As we're
different in race, nationality, gender, personality gifting, and passions, so we'll be different in positions of service.

All of us will have some re­sponsibility in which we serve God. Scripture teaches that our service for him now on Earth will
be evaluated to help determine how we'll serve him on the New Earth. The humble servant will be put in charge of much, whereas
the one who lords it over others in the present world will have power taken away: "For everyone who ex­alts himself will be
humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). If we serve faithfully on the present Earth, God will give
us permanent management positions on the New Earth. "Who­ever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much"
(Luke 16:10). The Owner has his eye on us—if we prove faithful, he'll be pleased to entrust more to us.

The future heaven is centered more on activity and expansion, serving Christ and reigning with H i m . . . . The emphasis
in the present heaven is on the absence of earth's negatives, while in the future heaven it is the presence of earth's positives,
magnified many times through the power and glory of resurrected bodies on a resurrected earth, free at last from sin and shame
and all that would hinder both joy and achievement.