We are still in the season of the resurrection, and we would do well to continue to focus our hearts on the meaning of life from the dead.
The fact that Jesus was raised in the middle of human history, and not at the very end of it, means that God has not abandoned this world. He intends to overhaul it; His purpose is to make all things new.
The human race was given responsibility for a beautiful house, and because we fell into sin, we wrecked that house, and, more to the point, we wrecked ourselves. Instead of evicting us, which God had every right to do, He determined instead to remodel the house, and, while He was at it, to remodel the tenants of the house. His purpose, glorious beyond all calculation, was to step into the created order, which we had caused to become dislocated and deranged, and to fix it while we were all still living here. This seems crazy to us, like a car mechanic who decided to repair an engine while it was still running, but God’s wisdom is inexhaustible. This is what He, the font of all wisdom, determined to do.
But notice that this means that He is committed to this world. The resurrection of the dead does not mean that this world will be burnt to a cinder, and then God will create another one to replace it. No, God will restore this created order. This world is groaning, longing for the day of our resurrection. Just as the Lord’s body glorified was the same body that was crucified, so your body will one day be laid to rest in the ground and will be the same body that rises. In the same way, this world, these oceans, the starry host above us, will all be made over, glorified, and we will dwell here forever.
The intermediate state, the place where believers will go if they die before the general resurrection, will be Christ. It will be blessed. It will be glorious. But it is still just a way station. It is rest before the final consummation. And the final consummation will be here, and you will be here, and all your loved ones in Christ will be here, and we cannot begin to comprehend how glorious it will be. In this hope conduct all your labors in Christ because all of them contribute to that final end. They are therefore not in vain.