Home At Last

I am writing this from a lodge at youth camp. We have had a wonderful week, but we will all be ready to get home tomorrow. Home is where life is, or should be, most pleasant. We are with the people we love most, surrounded by familiar things, following our preferred routines. Home is where you don’t have to perform or be on guard, where you can rest and feel safe. Home is where you “fit.” There is no place like home.

Peter today describes heaven as the ultimate home that God made us for: “a new heavens and new earth (3:13).” God will not abandon the creation he declared “very good” in the beginning. Our present world is marred by sin, death, and evil, but Christ is coming to make all things new. Peter describes that event as a vast, purifying fire: “the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn (3:13).” It sounds terrifying, but the people of Jesus will have nothing to fear. After the corruptions of this present world melt away, we will finally be home. Imagine living on this very earth, filled with all the good things God made for us to enjoy, but without a trace of sin’s curse to spoil any of it! This is the home God is preparing us for.

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else.” In this world, we think we want a thousand different things, from career success to athletic glory to romantic love to riches to the approval of our peers. But none of these ultimately satisfy us, because God has “placed eternity in our hearts (Eccl 3:11).” When we step onto the new earth, we will learn that what we wanted all along was to be home with the God who made us and redeemed us.

What does all this mean for us today? “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness (3:11).” Peter is still preaching that same, practical call to grow in godliness. Christ did not save us to leave us as we are. He wants to so transform our lives that we share God’s “glory and excellence,” and become “partakers of the divine nature (1:3–4).” We forget our high calling as we pass through our present world, corrupted by sinful desires (1:4). That’s why we need to keep this vision of Christ’s return burning bright in our hearts. If we expect to be at home in a world where “God’s righteousness dwells (3:13),” we ought to start living like it now, aligning our lives with the righteous rule of Jesus Christ.

After all, if we have no appetite for godliness now, why should we expect to feel at home in the new heavens and new earth? If we spend our lives resisting and avoiding Jesus’ righteous rule. If I treat the call to know and grow more like God to be boring and burdensome, then I will absolutely hate heaven. I won’t enjoy hell either, of course. But I will want no part of a world where the Lord Jesus Christ is the center attraction.

So how about you? Does your present lifestyle indicate that you are preparing for a home where righteousness dwells? Will your choices today give the impression that you are “waiting for and hastening” the coming of Jesus (3:12)? Will you feel more at home on the new earth, or in the world that Christ will melt away? Heaven is the true home that you were made for: you don’t want to miss it!

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church