- by Carrie Shaw
- on June 17, 2025
A New Heaven And A New Earth – What Comes After the End?
Inarguably, it’s the end of the story that holds the greatest weight.
While the beginning provides context and setting, and the middle gives shape and drama, it’s the ending that brings meaning and resolution. It’s the ending that makes sense of everything – that allows all the intersecting threads of risk, joy, sorrow, and homecoming to find their place within the narrative and, ultimately, in its conclusion.
Humanity’s story – an ongoing tale of love and war, triumph and tragedy – has not yet reached its final chapter. Yet, surprisingly, its ending has already been written.
Scientists and philosophers have contributed much to the conversation about our origins and the remarkable journey of human history. But they remain largely silent on where we’re headed, or how our story ends. When it comes to the questions that matter most, we are left in the dark.
What are we here for?
What is the purpose of life?
Where will we end up?
Life’s Most Profound Questions
It’s to the Bible alone that we can turn for answers to life’s most profound questions. It has much to say not just about how we supposedly got here and why, but also how humanity’s story will reach its epic conclusion.
The Bible is the living, Spirit-breathed Word of God – the written revelation of what God has been doing in the past, what He is doing right now, and what He has purposed for the future of humanity.
The Word of God is like a vast tapestry, its central theme interwoven with many subplots and side stories that run like golden threads through an intricate design. Each thread adds depth to the telling of God’s story, confirming again and again how God views the world, the people in it, and how deeply He values each one of us.
Far from being just black text on white pages, this book unveils the purpose, intentionality, and creative action of the Eternal One. It was breathed out by God and captured by faithful scribes who heard the voice of God, recording His story for all to read.
What we discover is that the master storyteller has not been absent or detached from His narrative. He has been fully present. In fact, His close and intimate dwelling with humanity was the point of the story all along. What began in a garden – where God once walked with us – will find its conclusion in a new creation: a restored and regenerated earth where God dwells with His people once more.
The end of the story will actually be our new beginning. It doesn’t conclude with us going to be with God, but with God coming to dwell with us.
The end of the story has a conclusion – a beautiful resolution – where all the loose threads are tied together. And we’ll sit back with a sigh of satisfaction at a tale well told and an ending more glorious than we could ever have imagined.
The Purpose Of God
Much of Scripture is devoted to expressing the heart of the Creator – His deep desire for the earth and for us, its inhabitants, created as His image-bearers. From the very beginning, we see that God made humanity in His likeness, giving us the responsibility to care for and govern the world He made. Earth was always intended to be more than just a temporary home – it was created to be the place where God’s glory would dwell.
It has always been the purpose of the Eternal to fill this good earth with His presence, as thoroughly and completely as the waters cover the sea.
Throughout the biblical story, this vision is reaffirmed again and again: that the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD; that His name will be blessed forever; and that one day, He will reign as King over all the earth.
This is not a vague hope or an abstract spiritual idea. It is a declared purpose. God Himself says He declares the end of the story from the beginning, that His purpose will stand, and that He will accomplish all He has intended.
Despite human failure and all the ways the story has wandered, God’s commitment to His creation has not wavered.
What He began in Eden, He will bring to completion. And remarkably, He has committed Himself to this plan – even at personal cost.
The Kingdom Of God
The glorious and absolute rule of a wise and faithful King is what the New Testament calls the kingdom of God. This is not merely a theological concept – it is the very heartbeat of the gospel message.
The gospel, at its core, is the good news that in Jesus – who is both Saviour and King – God is actively at work. He is saving, rescuing, atoning, justifying, ruling, and reconciling people to Himself. And He is doing it all for the glory of His name and the fulfilment of His eternal purpose.
For many, the word ‘gospel’ brings to mind the idea of personal salvation – being ‘saved’. While that is indeed part of the message, it is only one thread in a much greater tapestry. The full gospel is the grand story of God’s will for the earth and the role humanity plays in it. It’s not just about individuals being rescued from sin, but about the reign of God being established in every corner of creation.
Jesus himself spoke constantly of this kingdom. The term basileia (meaning kingdom) appears 162 times in the New Testament – 121 of those in the Synoptic Gospels alone. The phrases “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” occur over a hundred times in the teachings of Jesus. From the moment he began preaching, announcing that the kingdom had drawn near, to the final days after His resurrection when He continued to speak to His disciples about it, this was the centrepiece of His message.
The kingdom wasn’t just the introduction – it was the whole framework. Even in His final conversations, we’re told He spoke to them about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).
The message of the kingdom begins with a call to repentance, but it doesn’t stop there. It demands a reorientation of life – a kingdom-focused way of living. We are not only saved from something, but for something: to participate in the renewal of all things.
The kingdom of God is more than acts of justice or personal piety. It is the fulfilment of God’s promise from the beginning – to fill the earth with His glory, to rule justly in the hearts and lives of all people, and to reconcile all things to Himself. This promise is ultimately made possible through Jesus, who brings God’s eternal plan into human history.
The apostle Paul writes that we were chosen according to God’s purpose, that all things exist through Him and for Him, and that He is working all things together for the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:11–12, Romans 11:36). Paul reminds Timothy that the Lord is the King eternal, immortal, and wise (1 Timothy 1:17), and that He will bring us safely into His heavenly kingdom (2 Timothy 4:18).
Peter echoes this, calling us to serve in a way that brings glory through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 4:11), and the book of Revelation points again and again to Jesus as the One in whom all authority and dominion rests.
This is the kingdom of God. A real, active reign – here and now, and still to come in its fullness. A kingdom not built by human effort, but one that transforms every part of creation, as heaven and earth are made new. This is the glorious end of the story!
Heaven + Earth
God didn’t just create humanity with purpose, He also created the earth with purpose. He cares deeply about what happens to this place we call home and all that He intended it to be.
A critical and essential reality of the kingdom of God includes its physicality. ‘The kingdom’ is not just an individual, spiritual, Christian experience but a literal reality that will be fully expressed and outworked on the earth.
Interestingly, intrinsic in the idea of ‘kingdom’ are the following five things: King + Rule + Realm + Law + Land. You can read more about these different aspects in the articles. ‘The People Of The Kingdom’ and ‘The Kingdom | Now, But Not Yet‘. However, the particular focus in this article is the reality of ‘land’ or physicality. This reality, when compared against many different passages in the Bible informs our understanding of what, or more specifically, where, this physical reality is intended to be.
Contrary to what many people may think, going to heaven is not a Christian’s final ending or God’s promise. Resurrection and life – heaven’s own eternal life – on a regenerated and restored earth, is the hope for every person of the kingdom.
Earth is the place where God’s will is to be done (where His kingdom will be fully revealed) in the same way as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10), earth is the intended inheritance of those who have been faithful, (Psalm 37:11, Matthew 5:5), earth is the place where peace and safety will finally reign supreme (Isaiah 2:4, Ezekiel 34:25) and where righteousness will take up residence (2 Peter 3:13), and earth is where all creation will finally be set free from its bondage and brought into the glorious freedom that God always intended for it (Romans 8:21).
Earth is the place where the curse of Eden will finally and completely be overthrown and God will return and take up residence amongst His people. Our long exile will be over.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.” Revelation 21:3, BSB
“As N.T Wright and other New Testament scholars have shown, it’s important to understand that kingdom terminology refers not to some faraway paradise filled with disembodied souls, but rather to the will and reign of God, unleashed into the world through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.” (Rachel Held Evans).
N T Wright puts it this way: “Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonise earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”
The life of heaven – the “life and light of mankind” came to earth in the person of Jesus, shining brightly and giving hope in a damaged and disordered world. In Jesus, we can see the intention of God all along for His creation. In Jesus, all the fullness of God’s glory was displayed in human form and we can see the kind of life God has intended for us.
What God began in the resurrection of Jesus is what He intends to do for all of creation; to regenerate, to restore, and to fully dwell with His creation in all His glory.
The earth, renewed with heaven’s own life, is the epic end of the story, and the final pages close with this promise: “The angel showed me a river that was crystal clear, and its waters gave life. The river came from the throne where God and the Lamb were seated. Then it flowed down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river are trees that grow a different kind of fruit each month of the year. The fruit gives life, and the leaves are used as medicine to heal the nations.
God’s curse will no longer be on the people of that city. He and the Lamb will be seated there on their thrones, and its people will worship God and will see Him face to face. God’s name will be written on the foreheads of the people. Never again will night appear, and no one who lives there will ever need a lamp or the sun. The Lord God will be their light, and they will rule forever.” (Revelation 22:1-5, CEV)
“One day the veil will be lifted; earth and heaven will be one; Jesus will be personally present, and every knee will bow at his name; creation will be renewed; the dead will be raised; and God’s new world will at last be in place, full of new prospects and possibilities.” | N T Wright
