Jesus made all things: “without Him was made nothing that has been made.” Every landscape is His artwork; every fixture in the heavens is called out by name. Even the rhythms of nature are His doing: “The Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of hosts is his name.” The heavens do indeed declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. But He has already surpassed creation by a new work, a superior achievement. By His meritorious life and sinless, substitutionary death, Jesus has made all things new for those who believe. Instead of death, we are given life; instead of judgement, grace; instead of hell, heaven; instead of decay, eternity. This work of re-creation first requires destruction: the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. And we too must have our sinful hearts cauterized and our corruptible bodies returned to dust before His work of re-creation can be fully realized. As glorious as the new heavens and the new earth will be, which He has been preparing since His ascension, how much more glorious will His fully sanctified and re-created people be? “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'”
“What is your beloved more than another?” —Song of Sol. 5:9