Yet once more will I shake the heavens and the earth until only that which cannot be shaken remains.
Isaiah 65:17
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
2 Pet 3:12 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements(stoicheon) will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles(stoicheon) of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
2 Cor 5:16Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
Rev 21:5 And the one who sat on the throne said, “Behold I am making all things new!”
All that is of this world, its foundations(arches), its elementary principles(stoicheon), its principalities and powers- are being destroyed by transformation. “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements(stoicheon) will melt with intense heat!”
Not a literal fire but a fire of transformation, from flesh to spirit, death to life, sleep of night to dawn of Day, from chaos to harmony.
Without form and void, the word enters, “Let there be light!” Creation begins.
As Paul says, “Although we once knew Christ according to the flesh, we know Him so no longer”?
Why?
Because now we know Him in the Spirit, in the “renewed mind”.
The renewed mind has had destroyed(or is having destroyed) in it- the “elementary principles”. Receive the word emplanted which s able to save(deliver/heal/restore) your soul. If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creation- it operates by new principles. The principles of love, light and life. “Be not like the gentiles, darkened in their understanding”.
If any one is in Christ, they are a “new creature”. A “creature of newness”. Operating by trust in stead of control. Receiving by giving rather than taking. Filled by pouring out rather than by consuming. Fulfilled by sharing rather than hording.
The elementary principles are being destroyed by newness- see here, “Behold” the “one who sits on the throne”- that one who has all power in heaven and earth says- “I am making all things new”
Notice this. Behold
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Verse 22 shows the fundamental reality. All that died in Adam is being made new. Death transformed into life. Verse 23 refers to the ages(an administration executed throught eh completion of times Eph 1)
Verse 24 the method He is abolishing all rule power and authority. All principality. All the “foundations of the earth”. All the “elements”(elementary principles/stoicheon). He is abolishing it BY TRANSFORMATION. He is not creating emptiness, or leaving a vacuum. He has destroyed them by reconciling all things by the blood of His cross(Col 1:15-20)
Verse 25 For He must reign ntil every adversary is subjected. How does He reign? IN LIFE. How do we reign? IN LIFE! Newness of life. Death in us transformed into life in Him. Blessed is the person who perserveres under trial for afterwards they will receive the Crown of Life(jas).
11All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.(the ultimate principle of correction, the principle of the lake of fire, the means of the new creation).
We are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness…
Destruction of adversaries through discipline and trial, yielding the “renewed mind”, destroying towers and strongholds, rending veils, releasing from “futility” into the glorious liberty of the sons of God- that perfect law of liberty- love. Death “swallowed up” by immortality.
Verse 26 and 27, the last enemy is death- abolished by subjection to the King of Life, the King of Love. The last elementary principle of this cosmos. The last foundation. The last veil. The last law. The last vestige of the “old” man who needed to be “ruled to be righteous.”
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God…
For freedom Christ has set you free
Verse 28 The one who has gathered all into one, and all those who have been gathered, poured into the Creator, immersed in the water of life, and the Creator poured also into all of them- that God becomes ALL IN ALL.
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”(John 17)
We the gathered are one in Christ, but as carnal babes still leaning on the foundations(arches) and elementary principles(stoicheon) of this corrupt cosmos- still needing to be ruled to be righteousness. But as we grow, through discipline and trial(if we are not illegitimate) we are “renewed” in the spirit of our minds. We walk by life. We walk in love. We are new creatures. We are a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelss righteousness- the fore runners of the age to come, the first-fruits of the ALL IN ALL.
For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.(For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it… In the beginning the earth was without form and void)
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things(that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.) To Him be glory to the ages. Amen. Rom 11:36
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Perserverance “holds us in the fire”. The fire is transforming us into His image. Consuming wood, hay, stubble. “This is the patience of the saints”…We who endure are being renewd in the image of Christ, many sons unto glory, perfected through suffering.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”
This is how we are becoming the first-fruits of His creatures, in Christ, the first fruit of the dead, He who came through the fire and it could not catch on His garment because He was pure gold to begin with. He suffered and “if we suffer with Him we will also reign with Him”…reign in LIFE.
Those who do not endure will suffer loss. Those who endure suffering will receive the crown of life, and the overcomers rewards- priesthood, understanding, power with God, stewardship in the kingdom of God.
Beloved we know not yet what we will be but we know that when He appears we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.
This is because for those who have “endured to the end” the fire will have finished its work. Transformation.
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written,
“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the fire, we bear the precious testimony, "Jesus Christ is Lord of All, and MY LORD, who I trust WITHIN THIS FIRE, whatever it may be, regardless of whether I am delivered or if it consumes my mortal body- I EXULT IN THE HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD, and my hope enters within the veil. it matters not for I have already died, and my life is hid with Christ in God.
There will be fire as well for the wicked in the ages to come- Jesus said so. Whatever it will be, it will transform them, even as it is transforming ALL THINGS.
Behold I make all things new!