The New Creation
That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promises we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness 2 Peter 3:12,13
2 Peter is written principally to counter the false teachers that had risen up. They taught that because Jesus’ claim of a soon return had not happened, all He said about His return needed to be “re-interpreted.” Peter’s emphatic response is that these false-teachers are watering down truth. They might claim their new teaching is based on fact but Peter sees it takes away the sharpness of the gospel and opens a doorway for their fleshly behaviour.
In this section his argument takes a different twist. In parallel with Noah’s time, God will bring destruction to the ungodly but a cleansed earth for the godly.
‘That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat’ repeats much of what he wrote two verses earlier. Fire is a common biblical picture for judgement and cleansing (Malachi 3:3: 4:1). Fire exposes dross but purifies gold (1 Peter 1:7).
Peter is describing cataclysmic change. The ‘heavens,’ the spiritual sphere, is doused in God’s blazing fire. The word ‘destruction’ carries the thought, not of obliteration, but ‘the loosening or undoing of anything that has tied or bound it to set it free from what bound it.’ The envelope around our earth is being cleansed by fire. The ‘elements,’ the ordering of the universe as we’ve known it up until this time, ‘will melt in the heat.’
‘But in keeping with his promises we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.’ Peter draws on earlier promises God has made about the new creation. ‘Behold I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind’ (Isaiah 65:17 and partly repeated in Isaiah 66:22).
We eagerly look forward to ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ because that ‘new earth’ will be our new home, a ‘home of righteousness.’ All evil will have been obliterated. God’s people will be free to honour and serve their God without constraint. Peter has carefully chosen his word for ‘new’ in the phrase ‘a new heaven and a new earth.’ The word meant new in nature or quality and was distinguished from another word that meant new in time. This is a restoration and not a brand new (out of nothing) creation as occurred in Genesis 1. Even the old creation is eagerly looking forward to God’s people ruling God’s world in God’s way (Romans 8:20-23). This is our hope and what steels our heart to live godly and holy lives now.
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